Ontario law society considers scrapping diversity rule
The Law Society of Ontario is expected to continue a debate today, September 11, which discusses whether a rule requiring members to outline their commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion should be scrapped.
In June, the law society’s board of directors held a meeting to discuss the controversial rule, which calls for lawyers to create and abide by an individual ‘ statement of principles’ that acknowledges their obligation to promote equality, diversity and inclusion.
The measure was one of 13 recommendations issued in 2016 by an internal working group on tackling systemic racism in the legal profession.
During the June meeting, the removal of the rule was debated, along with a second motion to amend the requirement so that participation becomes voluntary.
The controversial requirement was met with criticism during the meeting.
Jared Brown, an elected bencher at the Law Society of Ontario, said: “Even now when finally a group of benchers has the fortitude to abide by the public interest and kill this thing with a clean repeal some move to pick over the carcass. They try to water it down further and make it more digestible.”
He added that the statement of principles has been a “policy debacle” since the beginning, with “lawyers' independence and their speech rights hanging in the balance”.
“It's time to get the Law Society out of the thought control business. Kill the statement of principles with a clean repeal. Anything less is, frankly, an embarrassment to this body,” concluded Brown.
However, supporters of the measure state that the initiative has brought raised awareness of systemic racism.
Robert Burd, chair of the law society’s paralegal standing committee, said: “So if you think the initiative and the reason for [the] recommendation was to accelerate a culture shift, well, we have brought systemic racism from the background to the foreground, and in my mind, that's what the purpose of the statement of principles was for, to bring it to the forefront that we can all talk about it.”
Before the meeting, a number of lawyers wrote into the law society with their thoughts.
Lori Anne Thomas, president of the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers, wrote: “It is our submission that equity, diversity and inclusion is not controversial to strive for as a profession that serves a diverse public.”
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