23 Mar Dal’s psychological gulag turns out to be a social work gulag

In a March 15 post, I wrote that, in order to graduate and begin paying off his massive student debt, whistleblower Ryan Millet would have to comply with a series of humiliating requirements set down by the very university administration that brushed aside his warnings about the climate of misogynist abuse at the dental school.

Among the requirements of his “remediation program,” was a stipulation—as I put it— that he “undergo counselling by a psychologist chosen by Dalhousie, even though there is no evidence Millet suffers from any psychiatric illness or psychological disorder. This genteel Halifax version of the Soviet psychiatric gulag ought to disquiet all citizens of this province.”

A reader whom I do not know personally, but who I know to be a psychologist, and who shares my disgust at Dal’s treatment of Millet, offers the following correction:

Millet is not undergoing counselling with a psychologist chosen by Dalhousie, but with a social worker chosen by Dalhousie.

I cannot imagine any professional, particularly a psychologist with their stringent ethical codes, cooperating with Dalhousie’s repugnant agenda with regard to this honourable young man who has the ardent support of many clear thinking people and the gratitude of many feminists.

I believe my correspondent to be correct, which raises the question why the social work profession does not have ethical standards that would bar its practitioners from being co-opted to such an agenda.