British Columbia And Alberta Clash On How To Regulate Lawyers

 

Two neighbouring provinces are running a live experiment on professional regulation, and the results could shape how Canadians think about law societies, licensing bodies, and government power. We walk through British Columbia’s Legal Professions Act changes, including the shift in what the Law Society is being asked to prioritize, and how that ties into disputes over mandatory cultural competency and sensitivity training for lawyers.

Then we cross into Alberta, where Bill 13, the Regulated Professions Neutrality Act, lands like a hard reset. The law sets out a “neutrality” framework that rejects assigning privilege or disadvantage based on enumerated personal characteristics or beliefs, and it specifically blocks regulators from mandating training on topics like cultural competency, unconscious bias, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Put beside BC’s approach, it’s a stark policy split, and it raises a bigger question: what happens to independent regulation when politics starts writing the regulator’s mission?

We also shift to criminal law and a case with an ordinary trigger and an extraordinary outcome. A dispute over an e-bike, a shove, a fall, and a death days later led to a manslaughter conviction, with the key issue being defence of property under Criminal Code section 35, not self-defence. We unpack the “reasonable in the circumstances” standard, the modified objective test, and why appeals courts usually won’t redo a trial judge’s judgment call.

If you care about legal rights, regulatory independence, Canadian criminal law, and where “reasonable force” really sits in practice, this one will stay with you. Subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review, then tell us: should governments ever steer professional regulators this directly?

 

Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan is live on CFAX 1070 every Thursday at 12:30 p.m. It’s also available on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.