‘It’s Going to Transform the Legal System’: Lawyer Discusses ‘Wokeness’ in Canadian Law Societies

A file photograph of a judge's gavel. Andrew Harnik/Pool/Getty Images

The Law Society of Alberta (LSA) has developed new measures of “competency” for lawyers that some, including Calgary-based lawyer Glenn Blackett, say could undermine the Canadian legal system.

Of particular concern, he says, are the “cultural competency” standards presented by the LSA.

Included are statements to the effect that Canada’s legal system is racist and lawyers should be actively “anti-racist,” thus pitting lawyers against the laws they are meant to uphold, Mr. Blackett said in an interview with The Epoch Times.

The LSA’s policies on discrimination also appear to violate the “innocent until proven guilty” rule, said Mr. Blackett, who is a civil rights lawyer affiliated with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. LSA policy says that if an articling student reports discrimination or harassment, the LSA’s “default position is that articling students’ experiences are believed.”

“The Law Society, for the purpose of discrimination complaints, has just done away with that innocence rule. But the innocence rule is a very important legal concept and an aspect of our legal system,” Mr. Blackett said.

Mr. Blackett is one of many lawyers expressing concern. He was one of 30 Alberta lawyers who signed a July 17 letter calling on the LSA to stop “politicizing” the organization. The letter likened its “cultural competency” initiatives to “cultural indoctrination” experienced by lawyers and others under the communist regime in China.

Also signing the letter were Ontario lawyers who have opposed similar “indoctrination” in the Law Society of Ontario.

‘Cultural Competency’

The idea of “cultural competency” for lawyers is spreading within the LSA and other law societies across the country.

In 2021, the LSA joined its B.C. counterpart in mandating indigenous cultural training for all members. It suspended about 30 lawyers who refused to comply. On Feb. 24 of this year, an unusually high number of lawyers turned up for an LSA meeting  to vote on a motion to stop the training. About 3,500 of Alberta’s 11,000 lawyers voted.

Although 75 percent of them voted in favour of the training. Mr. Blackett said the 864 lawyers who voted against it may be representative of a larger portion of the LSA membership.

The Law Society of Manitoba will mandate the same training starting Oct. 1, 2023.

The LSA is currently developing a Western Canada Competency Profile (WCCP), along with the law societies of B.C., Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, due to be released in 2024. The LSA could not say to what extent its own take on cultural competency will inform the western profile.

“The WCCP is still in development,” Elizabeth J. Osler, CEO and executive director of the Law Society of Alberta, told The Epoch Times via email. Regarding the July 17 letter decrying LSA’s “politicization,” she said only that the LSA will consider it and “reply in due course.”

Optional for Lawyers, Says LSA

Ms. Osler defended the LSA’s take on cultural competency, saying much of it remains optional for lawyers and they will not be disciplined for not meeting requirements.

But Mr. Blackett is worried that the competency standards entrench a certain ideology in the Law Society. And a new, mandatory continuing professional development tool the LSA released on July 4 may be used to “blacklist” lawyers who don’t share that ideological perspective.

Ms. Osler said the information gathered by the tool—including any self-reported information on competency in equity, diversity, and inclusion—will be shared with the Law Society’s education department. The LSA may choose to initiate a review of a lawyer’s professional development plan and lawyers are required to cooperate with the review.

She said the tool allows lawyers to select their preferred areas of continued professional development. “There is no requirement for Alberta lawyers to choose Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in their professional development plan,” she said.

However, the LSA’s competency profile strongly encourages a strong approach to EDI.

It says a competent lawyer is one who takes “active steps to support and advocate for members of enumerated groups.” He or she should “incorporate equity, diversity, and inclusion in practice” including taking “action to dismantle systemic inequalities and barriers.” He or she should “practise anti-discrimination and anti-racism.”

Its resources on cultural competence include Calgary Anti-Racism Education, or CARED, an anti-racism activist collective founded in 2009.

Mr. Blackett pointed out that this resource says equal treatment before the law is considered to “perpetuate discriminatory practice.” Colour-blindness, defined as “the insistence that one does not notice or see skin colour or race,” is also said to perpetuate discrimination.

“I think the Law Society’s conduct threatens the rule of law, which is that you have laws that are created by a legislature, and those are created by the people, for the people. They’re supposed to be applied equally to everyone,” he said.

“I think that ‘woke’ law would see laws applied unequally, ostensibly to achieve an equal result. That’s a very different approach than much of our legal system currently takes on these things.”

When asked about such content in the resources and a lawyer’s freedom to disagree with these statements, Ms. Osler said the resources provided “are not required reading and lawyers can choose their own resources.”

She did not respond directly to questions about Mr. Blackett’s concerns that LSA materials regarding systemic racism in the legal system could undermine the system.

Instead, she noted that the LSA’s approach to continued professional development is more flexible than other Canadian jurisdictions as it allows lawyers “more flexibility and the ability to self-direct their own learning.”

Regarding Mr. Blackett’s point that LSA policy essentially makes a lawyer “guilty until proven innocent” when it comes to discrimination accusations, Ms. Osler said, “If there is a breach of the Code of Conduct, the Law Society will follow the conduct process set out in the Legal Profession Act (LPA) and the Rules before any disciplinary steps are taken.”

She said the code of conduct, not the competency profile, is used to judge when a lawyer should be disciplined. The competency profile is “an aspirational guide,” she said.

The July 17 letter, which was addressed to LSA president Bill Hendsbee and Ms. Osler, and copied Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery and Premier Danielle Smith, says the Law Society “has assumed a political objective which is a threat to the rule of law.”

“In gross violation of our constitutional order, the LSA, as the regulator of Alberta lawyers with the power to sanction and suspend, has itself adopted a political ideology of its own choosing: social justice,” it said.

“As an immediate and inevitable consequence of adopting this political ideology, the LSA is now using its regulatory power to compel all lawyers to salute and pursue the same political ideology.”