Legislating Pronouns?

Justin Trudeau has announced the "Great news" via twitter that a bill has passed the Canadian Senate that criminalizes discrimination on gender identity or expression.  Professor Jordan Peterson, a fierce critic of the bill, claims that it will infringe on free speech.  Last year, he very openly declared that he would not be coerced into using preferred gender pronouns.  Peterson stated:  I will never use words I hate, like the trendy and artificially constructed words "zhe" and "zher."  The University of Toronto responded with warning letters but, so far, no formal disciplinary action.

 

If Bill C-16 is signed into law, will it be considered discriminatory to refer to a biologically female student who identifies as a male as 'she' or 'her?'  If Caitlyn (formerly Bruce) Jenner were to vacation in Canada, would it be a crime to say, "He visited Montreal?"  Those are just the tip of the iceberg.  There are a vast array of non-traditional pronouns that date back to the 70s: E, Ey, Hu, Peh, Per, Thon, Ve, Xe, Yo, Ze (which comes with a trio of possessive variants: hir, mer, or zir) and Zhe.  Could failure to keep track of everyone's preferred pronoun result in prosecution?  In the case of Peterson, who has preemptively declared that he will not use them, he may now be in legal jeopardy if he persists.

 

You will use the words that the government has decreed or suffer the consequences.  Of course, what I'd like to see in the wake of this foolishness would be for wave after wave of non-traditional pronoun people confronting Muslims to see which side the government takes.  In the US, no Muslim baker has been driven out of business by an outraged media and malicious lawsuits.