GLASGOW City Council should explain why it is allowing Dr Jordan Peterson to host a show at the Hydro later this year, the Scottish Greens have said.
The Canadian psychologist, author and right-wing media commentator has garnered much contention during his ventures into the public sphere, and will now host an evening at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro.
The conservative figurehead has been accused of "promoting extremists" like Tommy Robinson. During online debate around the Scottish Government's recent Hate Crime Bill proceedings and the GRR, Peterson was vocal in his criticism.
MSP Patrick Harvie, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens, sternly criticised the decision by the Scottish Event Campus to host Peterson’s event.
He told The National: "Jordan Peterson represents a reactionary and toxic politics that is based on pushing simple solutions and demonising minority groups.
"He has peddled division and promoted extremists like Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk.
"Glasgow City Council have refused events before that are not in line with their values, so, at the very least, they should explain why they feel Jordan Peterson is the kind of person they are willing to host."
Louise Andersen, an activist for the Scottish Greens in Glasgow, mirrored Patrick Harvie’s opinion of the event and the SEC’s response.
“The SEC have stated that they have 'no view on any content, beliefs or values of any performance or performer’, but that’s a fallacy. Someone at the SEC has made the decision to host a man famous for misogyny, transphobia, climate change denial, and other pseudo-scientific nonsense.”
She went on: “Jordan Peterson is simply a big baby who dances around his prejudice instead of just coming out and saying what he thinks. He can’t commit to a single thought without playing verbal dodgeball. He’s a joke in every sense of the word – a toxic flop and a simp for Farage without a real job.”
“The people of Glasgow will see through his shiny, polyester-blend façade for the rocket that he is and tell him to do one.”
Peterson rose to notoriety while working as a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, becoming a major factor of the Canadian transgender debate when he refused to address a student by their preferred gender pronouns.
The professor argued that separating biological sex and gender was political correctness and that Canadian Bill C-16 – which banned discrimination based on gender identity –would lead people of his opinion to be jailed. Experts suggested Peterson was misreading the bill, with it being designed to restrict hate crime rather than stifle freedom of speech.
Since then, Peterson – beloved among the alt-right community – has developed a popular online presence, appearing on major podcasts and international media.
Speaking on Tuesday at the Arc Conference, Peterson held a conversation with Nigel Farage in which he referred to single mothers and homosexual couples as "deviations from the norm", contrasting this with his view that "stable, committed, monogamous, heterosexual, child-centred monogamy is the kind of long-term commitment to community".
Peterson suggested this idea of the nuclear family is the "fundamental unit of civilised, organised society", and expanded on his celebration of Donald Trump’s electoral victory as a blow to the “Luciferian” elite.
Peterson has already cancelled six stops on his arena tour. He has not commented on the cancellations, though ticket websites show slow ticket sales for the large arenas that the professor was engaged to speak at.
This is not the first time the OVO Hydro has hosted a controversial figure. The evangelical preacher Franklin Graham, who labelled gay marriage "a sin", sued and received £97,000 in damages from the Hydro’s operators after his planned rally was scrapped at the arena in 2020. Graham returned to the venue in 2024.
An SEC spokesperson added: “The SEC welcomes many and varied performers, artists and speakers to its venues and believes that all have the right to freedom of expression. This includes Dr Jordan Peterson.
"By doing so, the SEC expresses no view on any content, beliefs or values of any performance or performer."
A council spokesperson said: “The council is a shareholder but does not operate the SEC.
“It is mindful of the decision of the Sheriff Court relating to previous bookings.”
