President Bud Melnyk says the LSA has reached out to other orgs to continue some of the axed programs
In late 2025, when the Alberta government introduced and passed a law that barred professional regulatory bodies – like those governing lawyers, doctors, architects, or tradespeople – from mandating cultural competency, unconscious bias, or equity, diversity, and inclusion training, the Law Society of Alberta launched a review of its own programming.
Over several months, the LSA examined the wording of the new legislation, the Regulated Professions Neutrality Act, and its applicability to programs and initiatives the legal regulator had maintained for years. What followed was a progressive dismantling of numerous initiatives, including those aimed at fostering mentorship opportunities and career development for law students, sparking criticism by lawyers across Alberta.
In March, an LSA spokesperson told Canadian Lawyer that the regulator had opted not to re-establish its EDI committee as a result of the RPNA. Later that month, LSA president Bud Melnyk told the CBC that the regulator would no longer require Alberta lawyers to complete The Path, the Indigenous cultural competency training course that had been mandatory since 2021. The program would still be available to lawyers who wanted to take it.
On July 9th, the LSA published a letter to the profession from Melnyk, detailing more changes. These included ending the LSA’s Indigenous mentorship program, which allowed new lawyers, articling students, and law students who identified as Indigenous to match with experienced Indigenous counsel, and the Indigenous summer student program.
The latter program, which had operated for nearly two decades, connected first and second-year Indigenous law students with prospective employers for summer work, including law firms, corporate legal departments, and government bodies.
“We felt that those programs would fall within the restrictions of the new [Regulated Professions Neutrality] Act,” Melnyk told Canadian Lawyer this week. “And we felt that we would not be able to sustain them in the face of that legislation.”
Passed in December, the RPNA had been nicknamed the “Peterson law” by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, in reference to psychologist and media personality Jordan Peterson. In 2022, Ontario’s regulatory body for psychologists had ordered Peterson to complete continuing education after fielding complaints about comments he had made during an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Peterson challenged the order in court, but the court dismissed his challenge on the grounds that regulated professionals must comply with their regulatory body’s rules.
The Alberta government says the goal of the RPNA is to allow regulated professionals like Peterson to express themselves freely. In addition to barring professional regulatory bodies from mandating training on cultural competency, unconscious bias, or EDI, the law limits the circumstances under which regulators can discipline professionals for off-duty conduct.
Regulators can also no longer “arbitrarily” assign value or blame, or give people “adverse or preferential treatment” to achieve EDI goals based on factors like gender or race.
The RPNA takes effect on different dates for different affected professions. The law will take effect for lawyers and law students on September 1.
Since the LSA began announcing its responses to the legislation, lawyers across Alberta have raised concerns with both the regulator and Melnyk himself, the law society president says. A common theme among the concerns related to the LSA’s decision to no longer require lawyers to complete The Path, which had previously survived other challenges, including a 2023 referendum in which 75 percent of the voting lawyers were in favour of preserving the mandatory nature of the course. Last year, the course also survived a lawsuit.
“I think many lawyers feel that some level of cultural competence training is still something that should be important for lawyers to undertake as part of our competency training,” Melnyk says.
The LSA has tried to soften the blow of the changes resulting from the RPNA. Speaking to Canadian Lawyer in March about the regulator’s decision not to re-establish its EDI committee, an LSA spokesperson said the regulator would continue to pursue “permissible initiatives” related to EDI through other committees. The Path will remain free for Alberta lawyers who choose to take it. Melnyk says the LSA reached out to other institutions in Alberta’s legal community late last year to ask if they would be interested in continuing the programs for Indigenous law students. However, he could not share any details or whom he reached out to.
“I’m not able to speak about what [other institutions] are doing or not doing, but I’m hopeful and optimistic that some of these programs may get picked up by other organizations,” he says. Some law firms and companies, including Miller Thomson and Enbridge, currently offer comparable programs.
As a law student at the University of Saskatchewan with family in Calgary, Mark Oldershaw participated in both the LSA’s Indigenous mentorship program and Indigenous summer student program. The mentorship program allowed him to meet experienced Indigenous lawyers across Alberta; in 2022, through the summer student program, he applied for and was hired for a summer job with a unit within Enbridge’s legal department focused on Indigenous and regulatory law.
Oldershaw, who is a member of the Métis Nation–Saskatchewan and struggles with a learning disability stemming from craniosynostosis, says his participation in the programs helped him develop work experience and introduced him to mentors whom he continues to keep in touch with. “It’s really a shame that the Law Society of Alberta is creating more barriers now for… Indigenous students, because these programs were specifically designed to help the students succeed,” he says.
In a letter sent to Alberta’s justice minister in February, The Advocates' Society requested a meeting about the impact of the RPNA. Hilary Book and Shaun Hohman, TAS’s president and Alberta committee chair, cited 2021 census figures indicating that approximately 27 percent of Albertans identified as racialized. The lawyers said it was “unclear” why the provincial government “would ever want to diminish – much less outlaw – efforts to improve the diversity of any profession that serves Alberta’s diverse public.”
The lawyers added, “Individuals from minority or equity-seeking groups may prefer to retain lawyers who understand the nuances of their language, culture, or lived experiences, leading to more tailored legal advice and better client service experiences with lawyers.”
Oldershaw says the programs he participated in were not perfect: lackluster promotion meant few of his classmates were aware they existed, and they sometimes failed to accommodate students who lived outside of large urban centres or were responsible for caring for family members.
Still, the LSA’s decision to eliminate them “will be a punch in the stomach” for students who wanted to participate, he says.
