The announcement of a new book from Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson has prompted dozens of complaints from staff at his publisher. His forthcoming book Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life, a follow-up to his global bestseller 12 Rules for Life, has ignited a controversy about censorship – should publishers refuse to publish works that offend their staff? And what would be the blowback if they did?

According to a report by Vice News, Penguin Random House (PRH) Canada held a town-hall style meeting where staff members aired their grievances about Dr Peterson and his upcoming book. One employee said that "people were crying in the meeting about how Jordan Peterson has affected their lives", and one person said that their father had been "radicalised" by the professor. The employee is quoted as saying: "The company since June has been doing all these anti-racist and allyship things and them publishing Peterson's book completely goes against this. It just makes all of their previous efforts seem completely performative."

"This isn't an argument about Peterson, but rather the way publishing companies should react to opposition from their own staff"

The company's diversity and inclusion committee has also received a minimum of 70 responses from employees about the book, according to one employee, only two of which were in support. A third employee said: " is an icon of hate speech and transphobia and the fact that he's an icon of white supremacy, regardless of the content of his book, I'm not proud to work for a company that publishes him."