Article content

OTTAWA – Conservative media personality Jordan Peterson says he is considering legal action after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this week that Peterson was receiving funds from Russian state media company RT.

Trudeau made the comments under oath during his lengthy testimony on Wednesday at the public inquiry into foreign interference and offered no evidence of them.

Article content

Peterson told the National Post he has never accepted Russian money, “neither in the past nor today.”

It is a very serious accusation

Jordan Peterson

“It’s a very serious allegation,” Peterson said in an interview with the Post on Thursday. “You should have done your damn homework and if you’re going to blame, you should have at least done it right. I don’t think it’s reasonable for the country’s prime minister to basically call me a traitor, and I don’t find it amusing either.”

Peterson said he is considering a defamation lawsuit against the prime minister, but said those lawsuits are often a “losing game” even when he has a reasonable chance of winning them.

“I know what lawsuits look like, and they are tedious, and I have practically no interest in being burdened with such pain. But by the same token, how about you not defame me as prime minister, especially not in a stupid way,” Peterson said.

“I have spoken to my family about whether I have a moral obligation to pursue him for defamation. He is not like my neighbor, he is the Prime Minister,” he said.

The Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment on Friday.

Article content

Article content

In his statement, Trudeau appeared to be referring to a recent announcement by the U.S. government that it is pursuing money laundering charges against employees of the Russian state media network RT for attempting to influence the presidential election by paying unsuspecting right-wing figures.

Lawmakers in Canada voted to investigate the alleged Russian ploy, but Peterson never had anything to do with it.

“How I got dragged into this I don’t know because I wasn’t even peripherally involved, but I don’t think Trudeau is well-informed enough to understand what the hell is going on, period, certainly not. “the broader social media space,” Peterson said.

Peterson said it was particularly galling to be accused of taking Russian money because he raised the alarm about foreign interference in North American political discourse.

In fact, a week before Trudeau’s allegations, Peterson released a two-hour podcast examining “how bad actors and foreign powers are manipulating American thinking,” specifically highlighting Russia, China and Iran.

Article content

“I am not at all involved in this scandalous matter with Russia, not at all. “It’s even worse because I’ve read up extensively on the manipulation of foreign media,” Peterson said. “So it’s one thing to go after an enemy, say, for spewing idiotic slanders, but it’s really not very wise to do it to someone who’s actually working on solving the damn problem you’re commenting on. “

The prime minister also launched a surprise partisan attack on Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre on Wednesday during his testimony at the foreign interference inquiry. Trudeau claimed that several current and former Conservative parliamentarians were either implicated in or the target of foreign interference, while he criticized Poilievre for refusing to receive a top-level security clearance.

Poilievre responded Wednesday by accusing Trudeau of “lies” and calling on the prime minister to release the unpublished names of lawmakers who a vetting committee accused of knowingly or unknowingly acting on behalf of a foreign country.

National Post
[email protected]

Get more in-depth political coverage and analysis from the National Post in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, featuring Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin every Wednesday and Friday exclusively for subscribers. Register here.

On our website you will find the latest news, exclusive news, longreads and provocative comments. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and subscribe to our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

Article content