Alberta Attorneys Vote to Require Commission Members to Take Indigenous Cultural Literacy Course

Alberta lawyers voted Monday morning to reject a resolution that would have eliminated mandatory Indigenous cultural competency education.

Unofficially, 2,609 of the 3,473 active members of the Law Society of Alberta (LSA) who participated in the vote wanted the LSA to continue to mandate professional development requirements at its discretion and within a reasonable timeframe. That figure represented about 75 percent of voters. According to the Bar Association, there are over 10,000 lawyers in the province.

“Strong statements have been made about the importance of self-regulation and how we as legal professionals should learn about legal history and the relationships between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples. Today I am proud of my profession and the Alberta Bar,” said Koren Lightning-Earle, Legal Director of the Wahkohtowin Law and Governance Lodge at the University of Alberta.

A petition was filed by 50 active members of the Society who wanted to abolish Rule 67.4, which allows benchers (members of the Board) “to prescribe in any form and manner continuing professional development requirements to be met by members as well as timeframes for the Benchers acceptable.”

At the time the petition triggered a resolution on the matter, there was only one professional development requirement, and that was for the Indigenous Cultural Competence course called The Path.

Roger Song, who organized the petition, referred to the “pain of automatic suspension” that is the result of The Path’s failure to complete. In November, 26 lawyers were administratively suspended.

Another signatory, Glenn Blackett, a trial attorney at the Justice Center, wrote an article for The Dorchester Review saying The Path was “re-education or indoctrination into a certain type of awakening called ‘decolonization’”. He also questioned the legality of LSA to order “cultural re-education.”

Lightning-Earle, who served as the liaison for LSA’s indigenous initiatives for several years, did the initial work that led to the formation of The Path.

The course was the Bar Association’s response to the 2015 appeals by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the heritage of Indian housing. With 18 of 94 appeals targeting the justice system, appeal 27, in part, “directs the Federation of Law Societies of Canada to ensure that attorneys receive appropriate cultural competency training that reflects the history and heritage of boarding schools, the United Nations Declaration Nations, encompasses rights of indigenous peoples, treaties and rights of indigenous peoples, indigenous law and relations between indigenous people and the Crown.”

Lightning-Earle, Hadley Friedland and Heather (Hero) Laird, all with ties to the Wahkohtowin Law and Governance Lodge, along with active LSA members Métis Nation of Alberta member Sarah N. Kriekle and Anna Lund of the UAlberta Faculty of Law sent a letter to the Law Society of Alberta Benchers on February 2 supporting mandatory Indigenous cultural literacy training.

“…The history of the treatment of indigenous peoples in Canada by the legal system, including the legal profession, warranted the requirement that those practicing counsel in Canada be made aware of that history,” they wrote.

In just over 48 hours, the letter collected signatures from 524 attorneys, law professors, article students, law students, legal organizations and other supporters, including 400 active members of the Bar.

On January 31, all 24 benchers of the Bar Association issued a letter urging members to vote against the resolution repealing rule 67.4.

On Jan. 30, the Alberta Branch of the Canadian Bar Association declared its support for Rule 67.4, saying the Bar Association, as the regulatory body, “should have the authority to determine what learning activities are necessary to maintain a high professional standard and the integrity of the legal profession a.” , which serves the public interest.”

If the resolution fails, no further action is required from the Bar Association.

The Benchers hired The Path in October 2020 as continuing professional development for the Bar Association. This mandate was followed by the adoption of rule 67.4, which allowed benchern to prescribe specific continuing professional development.

Lawyers have 18 months to complete The Path, a five-hour series of online modules. The training was open to both active and inactive lawyers free of charge. Those who do not attend the course will be suspended.

windspeaker.com

By Shari Narine, Reporter, Local Journalism Initiative, Windspeaker.com, Windspeaker.com

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