BLACKETT: The rule of law vs. social justice — why Alberta’s fight against legal wokeness is far from over

Glenn Blackett is a civil rights lawyer based in Alberta (@glennblackett on X).Should legal academics, lawyers, judges, and police be able to simply rewrite laws they don’t like, including the Constitution? Of course not. We live in a constitutional democracy. Elected legislators are supposed to make our laws, while the justice system faithfully applies them (it does ‘justice’). But, in a legal system corrupted by wokeness — especially critical legal theory and postcolonialism — legal actors warp the laws when applying them (they do ‘social justice’). Imagine a sports referee applying the rules so as to help one team win. To put it simply: if the justice system goes woke, the law goes woke — democratic consent be damned. Therein lies the evil genius of critical legal theory.These are the stakes for Premier Smith’s recent “Peterson Law,” the Regulated Professions Neutrality Act, which was intended to depoliticize professional regulators, including the Law Society of Alberta (LSA). The "Peterson Law" either bans wokeness in legal regulation, in which case it is a massive victory for Canadian justice, or it does not, in which case it is fiddling while the Constitution burns.In early compliance with the law (it is not yet in force), the LSA has made a number of big and promising-seeming changes. But, while more changes are likely coming, two problems are becoming apparent.First, it seems the LSA intends to stay woke. .A second problem, which compounds the first, is that the LSA’s changes may actually serve to conceal its wokeness from public view. But first, the good news. The LSA has decided to drop mandatory education in indigenous “cultural competence” once the law is in force; disbanded its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Indigenous Advisory committees; removed DEI and “Truth and Reconciliation” from its “Professional Development Profile;” and removed, from its website, a number of woke resources, including articles on “Whiteness,” its acknowledgment of systemic discrimination, commitments to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s “calls to action,” and a page telling lawyers that Canadians are “guests” on indigenous land. These are major changes which suggest an important victory for the rule of law. But before we bust out the party hats, we need to consider why the LSA has made these changes and what remains unchanged. As to “why,” we know little directly. Indirectly, we know that most of these changes were only required by the law if the LSA had been promoting certain, purportedly woke, “principles.” This would be shocking. It would mean the LSA has tacitly admitted that it was, indeed, promoting one or more of these “principles,” which include things like the idea that a person’s race determines their value.However, this may not be why the LSA has made these changes. If the law really bans wokeness, the LSA would be ceasing all of its woke activities — but it is not.Consider “The Path,” which is the LSA’s indigenous “cultural competence” re-education program. While the program will no longer be mandatory for the 10,000 Alberta lawyers who have already taken it, the LSA says “it will continue to be available to interested Alberta lawyers.” .If the LSA can still offer “The Path,” its content is obviously not banned by the “Peterson Law.” But its content, “cultural competence,” is just a euphemism for “woke.” Specifically, and so far as I could tell after very careful study, from the LSA’s mandatory education and other suggested reading materials, the “culturally competent” lawyer’s job is to “decolonize” (i.e. de-Westernize) the legal system, including the Constitution, so it stops traumatizing and oppressing minorities. To borrow a phrase from the BC Civil Liberties Association’s former executive director (who was discussing Christian churches), rather than be loyal to the Constitution, the culturally competent lawyer “burns it all down.”Likewise, while the LSA deleted DEI and “Truth and Reconciliation” from its “Professional Development Profile,” it is now in the process of inserting many or all of the same “competencies” into a different document: the “Western Canada Competency Profile.” Consider also the LSA’s Code of Conduct, which (so far) remains unchanged. Lawyers who breach the Code can face hearings, sanctions, remedial education, and even loss of licence. But the Code’s Part 6.3 still prohibits lawyers from “harassment and discrimination.” I use scare quotes because these terms don’t mean what you might think. The Code’s commentary explains that it is “discrimination,” for example, to fail to be “alert to unconscious biases … that serve to perpetuate systemic discrimination and harassment.” This all suggests that, according to the LSA, wokeness (including postcolonialism and critical legal theory) remains permissible under the “Peterson Law.” The LSA has confirmed it will “continue to advance permissible [DEI] initiatives through … other strategic committees.” It seems that, while the DEI committee may be gone, DEI is not..Finally, to make matters potentially worse, one upshot of the LSA’s compliance to date is a loss of transparency. The resources the LSA has removed from its website were for lawyers to understand what the LSA means by terms like “cultural competence” and “systemic discrimination.” The removal of the resources does not change the meaning of these ideological terms, but it does conceal those meanings from the public. It would be naïve to suppose that, by legislation, Smith can alter the ideological values of those who govern the LSA. But it would be equally naïve to judge the efficacy of legislation without acknowledging that same thing. Woke ideology is an institutional infection. Partially effective legislation will be like partially effective antibiotics: well-intentioned treatment which, in the long run, makes matters worse. We should reserve judgment until the "Peterson Law" is in force and the LSA has completed any further compliance. But early signs indicate a reason for serious concern for our terminally ill patient: the rule of law.Glenn Blackett is a civil rights lawyer based in Alberta (@glennblackett on X).

BLACKETT: The rule of law vs. social justice — why Alberta’s fight against legal wokeness is far from over

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