Up to 150 far-left activists protested a speech by Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson at Queens University by barricading doors shut, smashing windows, with one protester caught carrying a potentially deadly weapon.
Dr. Peterson gave his lecture at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, on Tuesday this week to promote his new book and was met by a mob of around 150 far-left activists, some of who were students at the university.
The protesters proceeded to barricade the doors and one of the activists, a 38-year-old woman who does not attend the university, is said to have smashed a window and faces additional charges for carrying a concealed weapon, Global News reports.
According to local newspaper, The Kingston Whig-Standard, the 38-year-old was found in possession of a garrote, a weapon designed to strangle another person.
While the protest was going on, the university’s newspaper, the Journal, reported that a member of the crowd yelled, “lock ‘em in and burn it down,” which was met with approval from the mob of extremists.
Jonathan Shepherd, a former student who took part in the protest, told the university paper: “There is a lot of commitment out here for trans rights and for shutting down the conspiratorial hate speech of Jordan Peterson – I’m really happy to see that happening.”
Dr. Peterson took to Twitter to comment on the protests describing them as “like barbarians at the gate”.
The protest is not the first time Dr. Peterson has been confronted by far-left activists since announcing his opposition to the Canadian Federal government’s Bill C-16 which he accused of forcing individuals to use certain language such as pronouns for a seemingly infinite number of genders.
The Toronto University professor gained even further notoriety after an interview with Channel 4 presenter Cathy Newman in which Newman consistently attempted to interpret and reshape what Peterson was saying.
The interview was labelled a “trainwreck” by many including Breitbart News columnist James Delingpole who wrote: “If you loathe the cant, self-righteousness, and stupidity of the regressive left, then you’ll love this train wreck of an interview. It’s the most satisfying piece of poetic justice since the Comet came unstuck in that tunnel in Atlas Shrugged.”
The far-left attack on Peterson’s lecture follows a similar attack at Kings College London this week in which members of the extremist Antifa group stormed the stage during a talk with YouTube personality Carl Benjamin, also known as Sargon of Akkad.
The extremists were eventually pushed back by Benjamin’s supporters after they turned violent.