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Author: Matthew A. Sears, Associate Professor of Classics & Ancient History, University of New Brunswick

In the ultimate ironic — yet predictable — twist, free speech advocate Jordan Peterson is suing Laurier University and three faculty and staff members for comments made about him in a private meeting.

That meeting was held with first-year graduate teaching assistant Lindsay Shepherd to admonish her for showing her class a video clip of Peterson saying that he would not use gender-neutral pronouns.

Shepherd is also suing because of that meeting, which she taped and released to the media, because she alleges it left her unemployable in academia.

These related cases, whatever their outcome, are almost certain to foster a chill in the academy to the detriment of academic freedom and free speech.