Staff at Jordan Peterson's publishers protest new book

A new book from controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson has prompted complaints from staff.

Peterson’s upcoming book Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life is a follow-up to his global bestseller 12 Rules for Life which Peterson released just before going to rehab in Russia for drug dependency.

Staff at Penguin Random House Canada (PRH Canada) decided to protest the book following many controversial views expressed through the year by Peterson concerning race, gender, and human rights.

He is no stranger to controversy of course, as in 2019, 12 Rules for Life was temporarily pulled from sale from one book chain in New Zealand after the Christchurch mosque attack, due to a perceived link between the author’s fanbase and Islamophobia.

More than 70 complaints were sent to PRH Canada’s diversity and inclusion committee, and in response, PRH Canada told the media they “provided a space for our employees to express their views and offer feedback”.

The publisher’s statement said: “Our employees have started an anonymous feedback channel, which we fully support. We are open to hearing our employees’ feedback and answering all of their questions. We remain committed to publishing a range of voices and viewpoints.”

Peterson’s Beyond Order is due out in March, and states it will offer “12 more lifesaving principles for resisting the exhausting toll that our desire to order the world inevitably takes”.

“In a time when the human will increasingly imposes itself over every sphere of life – from our social structures to our emotional states – Peterson warns that too much security is dangerous,” says the publisher. “What’s more, he offers strategies for overcoming the cultural, scientific, and psychological forces causing us to tend toward tyranny, and teaches us how to rely instead on our instinct to find meaning and purpose, even – and especially – when we find ourselves powerless.”