Manitoba lawyers will be required to take Indigenous culture course
Manitoba lawyers will soon have to take mandatory training about Indigenous rights and history as part of a new requirement from the Law Society of Manito‐ ba.
The one-time, mandatory training is a new requirement from the Law Society of Mani‐ toba, which regulates the le‐ gal profession in the province, to ensure all lawyers in Mani‐ toba have a common knowl‐ edge base on Indigenous is‐ sues, said Alissa Schacter, eq‐ uity officer and policy counsel for the Law Society of Manito‐ ba.
The law society believes having this education is a matter of competence, she said.
"Lawyers need to have this understanding of the place that we live, its history and the people who lived here pri‐ or to European contact in or‐ der to be able to assist their clients and represent them ef‐ fectively," she said.
"So it's partly a matter of public confidence in the legal system, in the profession and the administration of justice."
The requirement is in re‐ sponse to the Truth and Rec‐ onciliation Commission of Canada's Call to Action 27 which calls on law societies in Canada to ensure that lawyers receive appropriate training on Indigenous histo‐ ry and culture.
It's been in the works since 2021, when the law society created its Indigenous adviso‐ ry committee.
All lawyers in Manitoba will be required to complete it re‐ gardless of their area of prac‐ tice, something committee vice-chair and lawyer Jessica Saunders feels is important.
"Anyone who walks on this land should know its history," said Saunders, who is a mem‐ ber of Opaskwayak Cree Na‐ tion.
"Particularly as a lawyer, it's important to know the law, but it's also important to know the context for the law and the reason why you have, you know, fee simple [owner‐ ship] or Crown land is through treaty or through these agreements and rela‐ tionships with Indigenous peoples."
The course will be launched on Oct. 1 for mem‐ bers of the Law Society of Manitoba, who will then have 18 months to complete it.
Lawyers who refuse to take it could face disciplinary action, but Schacter said the response thus far has been positive and she doesn't think it will come to that.
What the course is
The training required by the Law Society of Manitoba will consist of The Path, an on‐ line course that teaches In‐ digenous cultural competen‐ cy through a series of online modules.
It was created in 2018 and is meant to give people a broad overview of Canadian history from an Indigenous perspective, as well as Indige‐ nous culture, world views and contemporary issues, said Jennifer David, a senior con‐ sultant at the Ottawa-based NVision Insight group who led the development of the course.
"It's really meant for any Canadian working in any sec‐ tor," she said.
The goal of the course is to help advance reconciliation by giving people some basic education, she said.
"How can we restore rela‐ tionships when one party of that relationship knows al‐ most nothing about the other party, or what they do know is misconceptions, stereo‐ types, racist attitudes and tropes?" she said.
"So education is that very first step."
Creating better tionships
Having this training could help lawyers establish better relationships with their In‐ digenous clients, and in turn, rela‐ better represent them in court, said Christopher Gam‐ by with the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association of Mani‐ toba.
"Sometimes if there are things that are lost in transla‐ tion or if there's something maybe that we're not aware of culturally, if there's a blind spot, that could obviously create some problems and maybe we're not going to be as effective at representing that person as we otherwise might be," he said.
He said members of his as‐ sociation are by and large happy to take the course.
"In particular with Indige‐ nous people who are brought before the courts on criminal charges, I think it's important that they have a good work‐ ing relationship with whoever their lawyer is," he said.
"So I do think it would help. It would help me per‐ sonally to understand better so that I can better engage with those clients."
Law societies in Alberta, British Columbia and Yukon have also made Indigenous cultural competency training mandatory for their mem‐ bers, while law schools like Robson Hall at the University of Manitoba are making simi‐ lar courses mandatory to graduate.
Educating lawyers about Indigenous issues is still a rel‐ atively new concept, so law societies can play an impor‐ tant role in filling that gap in knowledge, said Marc Kruse, Indigenous legal studies coordinator at Robson Hall.
"Even people that have been practising for 30 years, this is information that they wouldn't have had the oppor‐ tunity to have before," he said.
"I think it will help bring sort of an understanding of why we encounter the sort of issues that we see within the justice system for Indigenous peoples."