Mandatory courses on Indigenous cultures opposed
Alberta lawyers say requirement ‘an insult’
EDMONTON • A group of Alberta lawyers is arguing that the province’s attorneys should not have to complete mandatory courses on Indigenous cultures in order to practise law, ahead of a special meeting of the Law Society of Alberta to debate the merits of the “cultural competency” training.
Leading the charge is Calgary lawyer Roger Song, who garnered 51 signatures for the petition that’s up for debate. In a letter to the law society, Song says he grew up in China, and knows a thing or two about indoctrination.
“This kind of mandatory education constitutes an insult to freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression,” he writes. “It amounts to a use of power to impose propaganda and politics.”
Still, the signatories take pains to make it clear they do not believe that understanding Indigenous culture is unimportant. In an interview, Song said his belief is that lawyers would be better off if they could choose their own continuing education.
“It will raise a lot of concern for people who may have a different world view, who may have a different faith, who may have a different cultural perspective,” Song said. “Lawyers want to improve themselves by a lot of ways, but they don’t just want to be treated like a (third grade) student.”
Song suggested the law society could establish seminars for lawyers, or a forum to connect lawyers to Indigenous people.
“Nobody can claim that they, with a five-hour video and reading some stuff, then suddenly you’re culturally competent,” Song said.
While the debate has spilled over into larger discussions of culture and politics, at least some of the signatories firmly believe what’s at issue is whether the law society actually has the power to implement continuing education.
“Rather, we oppose it because we do not believe the (law society’s board members) have or should have the power to mandate cultural, political, or ideological education of any kind on Alberta lawyers as a condition of practice,” says a letter to the law society.
Since April 2021, the law society has mandated such training, citing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action No. 27.
The province’s lawyers have 18 months to finish the course.
In the time since, 9,769 Alberta lawyers were required to take the course. Just 26 lawyers missed the October 2022 deadline; since then, all but eight lawyers have acceded to the rule.
The course is called The Path and pledges to teach lawyers about the history of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. The curriculum mirrors the sort of subjects social studies students tackle.
Krysia Przepiorka, an Indigenous defence lawyer, said she found the course didn’t “sugar-coat” Canada’s history. She said when she heard of the objections, she was disappointed.
“I found it accurate when I took the course and I just thought, you know, there was a lot of effort put into this course, and I really thought it was a great response to that call to action,” Przepiorka said.
The petition argues that mandatory training “unnecessarily diminishes and hinders professional autonomy in the area of (continuing professional development) to the detriment of the profession and the public.”
On Thursday, the 51 signatories of Song’s petition were countered by a 400-lawyer-strong letter that favours retaining the course. It also includes another 124 signatures from non-active lawyers, as well as law and articling students, and urges the law society to keep the training requirement.
“The petition appears to be a direct attack on the Indigenous cultural competency requirement,” the letter notes.
The fact that the overwhelming majority of Alberta’s lawyers have done the course hasn’t stopped the controversy. And, while there’s the dimension of whether the law society even can — or should — mandate such training, some argue such training constitutes progressive indoctrination of the legal profession.
Leighton Grey, a lawyer in Cold Lake, Alta., argues in a letter included in a package sent to law society members that The Path is based upon “political ideology” and is “rife with inaccuracy and skewed by a postmodernist history of Indigenous peoples in Canada.”
Grey, a member of the Carry The Kettle First Nation in Saskatchewan, argues that his grandmother attended a residential school, and came away with fond memories; “stories like hers are far from unique and may in fact be far more representative of the (Indian Residential Schools) experience than the victimhood narrative” in the final TRC report, Grey writes.
In a lengthy essay for the Dorchester Review, Glenn Blackett, a litigator with the libertarian Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, argues that the education program is part of a “radical, activist and authoritarian movement known as ‘wokeness.’”
The law society, for its part, has urged lawyers to side with the training, arguing that such a program is in the public interest.
If the members vote in favour of the motion to eliminate cultural competency training, the board — called benchers — will need to consider removing the training; it would then take a twothirds vote among the law society’s 24 benchers to fully implement the change.
I REALLY THOUGHT IT WAS A GREAT RESPONSE TO THAT CALL TO ACTION.