Alberta lawyers defending legal professionalism under Canada’s free and democratic Constitution.
CAL was organized in response to the Law Society of Alberta’s decision to adopt a political objective, a violation of professional independence.
A free and democratic society requires that lawyers be independent – protected from political interference so they may loyally represent clients within the law.
The Rule of Law
The rule of law is necessary to the Canadian way of life.
To maintain the rule of law, lawyers have very important and special duties.
Independent service
A lawyer’s role is to help clients, within the law.
That means putting the client first. We do that through:
- loyalty;
- competence; and
- freedom to vigorously pursue the client’s interests.
To do this, a lawyer must be “independent” meaning free to loyally serve the client. A lawyer isn’t independent if they’re being influenced by someone or something else.
A lawyer must be independent, especially, from state and political interference. Otherwise, instead of serving a client, a lawyer is working for the state or a political interest.
Without an independent lawyer helping, a client will have difficulty knowing and enforcing their legal rights.
And legal rights are everywhere: in business, government, politics, education, science, travel, communication, society, and even in the family.
Upholding the law
For the rule of law to work, a lawyer also has be neutral towards the law.
Canada is a democracy, so a lawyer’s job is not to change the law, it’s to serve the client’s interests within the law.
As key operators of the Canadian legal system, lawyers have lots of opportunities to practically change the law in big and small ways.
But, lawyers would have much more power to change the law if they work in concert with other lawyers to change the law, and more power still if they work in concert with the courts.
If all of the lawyers and judges in Alberta decide that the laws should be changed in some way, they will be – and quickly.
Simply put, if you influence lawyers to change the way they think and feel about the law, you change the law, you change the Constitution, you change Canada.
To preserve our constitutional democracy, then, lawyers need to think neutrally when they perform their legal duties.
Canada’s Constitution
Canada is a great country in large part because of its constitution. The Canadian Constitution includes foundational principles:
- freedom;
- individual dignity including freedom of conscience and religion;
- the rule of law including equality before the law;
- reason and science;
- democracy including freedom of expression;
- parliamentary sovereignty;
- minority rights and tolerance; and
- multi-culturalism.
The Council of Alberta Lawyers works to preserve Canada’s Constitution.
Protecting an Independent Alberta Bar
The Law Society of Alberta, the statutory body empowered by the Provincial Legislature to regulate the competence and ethics of Alberta Lawyers has assumed a political objective.
The Law Society is now advancing that political objective within the legal profession using its regulatory powers.
This puts the rule of law and the Canadian Constitution at risk – it is political interference with professional independence.
The Council of Alberta Lawyers is working to restore professional independence so you have access to lawyers who are loyal to you.
Council of Alberta Lawyers 