Tell the truth — or, at least, don’t lie.

That’s Rule Number 8 in Jordan Peterson’s 2018 bestseller, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, and it’s sound advice. Sadly, it’s also dangerous advice — because telling the truth can hurt feelings, can breed contempt, can put oneself in the crosshairs of those who’ve chosen instead to lie.

Such is the case with Peterson himself, who has launched a legal challenge against the College of Psychologists of Ontario, the governing body of his profession. It seems the CPO has threatened to pull Peterson’s license if he doesn’t bow down to the body, acknowledge that he “lacked professionalism” in certain of his public statements, and undergo a “coaching program” of remedial education in social media.

Think about that: The man who is perhaps Canada’s most famous social media personality is being told to undergo remedial education in social media. Or else.

One of the reasons they hate Jordan Peterson so much is that as YouTube’s pre-eminent father figure, he reaches out to and empowers that most neglected and most disposable category of the human race: lost young men.

What exactly did Peterson do to earn the enmity of this leftist star chamber? The Wall Street Journal reports:

Calling Elliot Page, the transgender actor, by his former name, “Ellen,” and the pronoun “her,” on Twitter. Calling an adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a “prik.” A sarcastic crack at antigrowth environmentalists for not caring that their energy policies lead to more deaths of poor Third World children.

Calling a former client “vindictive.” Objecting to a Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover of a plus-size model: “Sorry. Not Beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that.” In Canada even offenses begin with “sorry.”

Apparently, the CPO appointed an investigator back in March due to complaints about his comments on Twitter and on Joe Rogan’s podcast.“ On November 22, the CPO made its decision: "The comments at issue appear to undermine the public trust in the profession as a whole, and raise questions about your ability to carry out your responsibilities as a psychologist.”

Well.

As the Journal’s editorial page editors note, “Professional bodies are supposed to ensure that practitioners are competent, not enforce political orthodoxies or act as language police outside the office. But that’s the trend in Western medical associations and beyond.”

Indeed, they’re trying to silence and otherwise marginalize a man who’s probably helped more people on Planet Earth than any other living psychologist.

Not surprisingly, Peterson took to Twitter in his own defense: “About a dozen people from all over the world submitted complaints about my public statements on Twitter and [Joe] Rogan over a four year period (out of the 15 million who follow me on social media) claiming that I had "harmed” people (not them) with my views.“

He also took to The National Post: "I’m not complying,” he wrote Wednesday evening. “I’m not submitting to re-education. I am not admitting that my viewpoints — many of which have, by the way, been entirely justified by the facts that have emerged since the complaints were levied — were either wrong or unprofessional.”

One complainant, it should be noted, cited Peterson’s Twitter response to a Malthusian critic who was worried about planetary overpopulation. “You’re free to leave at any point,” he said.

To which we say: A man that eloquent must be saved.

We can’t help but wonder whether Trudeau had a hand in all this — whether he took a page from the administration down south and had his folks call the CPO folks. After all, he does have a nasty authoritarian streak when it comes to stifling dissent. (Apparently, it’s okay to smash a peaceful Freedom Convoy and cavort around in blackface so long as you don’t embarrass the ecofascists or “dead-name” a woman masquerading as a man.)

What a sorry excuse for a country Canada has become. They can’t silence the guy on social media, so these Marxists go after his professional credentialing and try to send him to a reeducation camp. We remember, not so long ago, when Canadians were a free people. We remember, not so long ago, when they didn’t have to believe that men can have babies.

Peterson’s countrymen would do well to buck up and remember one of his most trenchant observations: “Free speech is not just another value. It’s the foundation of Western civilization.” And indeed it is.

“If your life is not what it could be, try telling the truth,” writes Peterson at the end of Rule Number 8. “If you cling desperately to an ideology, or wallow in nihilism, try telling the truth. If you feel weak and rejected, and desperate, and confused, try telling the truth. In Paradise, everyone speaks the truth. That is what makes it Paradise.”

Here’s hoping that Jordan Peterson remains unbowed, and that he continues to espouse those timeless but often uncomfortable truths.