Alberta lawyers to vote on keeping Indigenous course

Should lawyers in Alberta have to pass a course on Indigenous cultural competence in order to practice law in the province? 50 lawyers have signed a petition asking for it to be scrapped.

“I was scooped from children’s services, grew up in poverty with a grandmother who rescued me from children’s services, who was then talked into letting me go to residential school when I was in grade eight. So I’ve lived this life,” explianed Richard Mirasty, criminal defence lawyer.

Next week, lawyers in Alberta will vote on whether or not to keep ‘the path’ — a free — mandatory five-hour training course designed to teach lawyers Indigenous culture and history in context to the justice system.

If lawyers don’t complete the course they are suspended from practicing law in the province.

Mirasty told CityNews he doesn’t understand why some longtime lawyers would be averse to completing the course.

“To those people that say it’s woke-ism, I really have nothing to say to that. There’s nothing you can say that’s going to change their minds.”

CityNews reached out to some of the names listed on the petition but have not heard back at this time.

Mirasty says more than his personal experience, it’s about those impacted by the justice system.

“The people I represent on a daily basis, the tragic stories of their upbringing and their background, being scooped from child welfare, 8-9 kids, being placed in different homes and then they make their way into the youth justice system and then later the adult justice system.”