Alberta law society weaponized as politicians face complaints

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The former head of Alberta’s human-rights commission has filed complaints with the provincial law society against New Democratic Party Leader Rachel Notley and one of her top MLAs, as aggrieved individuals increasingly rely on the professional regulator to sanction politicians.

Collin May, who is also suing the government for wrongful dismissal after losing the top job at Alberta’s Human Rights Commission last year, alleges in complaints to the Law Society of Alberta that Ms. Notley and Irfan Sabir damaged his legal and academic career by falsely accusing him of Islamophobia and racism on social media.

The LSA is a self-regulating body, overseeing Alberta’s 10,000 lawyers, with a mandate that includes enforcing a high standard of ethical and professional conduct for its members. Ms. Notley and Mr. Sabir are lawyers and therefore subject to the LSA.

However, experts argue the complaints process at Canadian law societies is vulnerable to misuse when it comes to cases against lawyers who double as politicians. Tyler Shandro, Alberta’s Justice Minister, appeared at an LSA hearing last month as the organization investigates three complaints of unprofessional conduct while he was in charge of the province’s Ministry of Health.

Robert Hawkes, a lawyer at JSS Barristers in Calgary, is among those who believe law societies are being used inappropriately to settle political scores.

“Increasingly as political opponents discover that they can make life difficult for politicians who also happen to be lawyers, the law society complaints mechanism is being weaponized,” he said.

Ian Holloway, the dean of the University of Calgary’s law school, shares concerns that law societies’ complaints process is being misused. The complaint system, Mr. Holloway said, was meant to “ensure that lawyers who were being professionally incompetent – incompetent in the performance of their legal duties – would be held to account.”

Incompetence in the political arena, Mr. Holloway said, does not necessarily equate to incompetence in the law profession.

Mr. May last week said the LSA has not yet decided whether his complaints will proceed to hearings. The cases, he said, may create precedent for whether the LSA is an appropriate venue for such disputes.

Elizabeth Osler, the LSA’s executive director, in a statement said complaints and investigations are confidential and only become public if a citation is issued and the matter is elevated to a public hearing. She noted that under the LSA’s code of conduct, a “lawyer who holds public office must, in the discharge of official duties, adhere to standards of conduct as high as those required of a lawyer engaged in the practice of law.”

The government, under the control of the United Conservative Party, named Mr. May as a part-time human-rights commissioner in August, 2019. The government appointed him as chief of the organization in May, 2022, and he took up the post in July.

Just prior to starting as chief, an online organization examined a book review Mr. May published in 2009. The article accused Mr. May of writing: “Islam is not a peaceful religion misused by radicals. Rather, it is one of the most militaristic religions known to man.”

Mr. May, in his LSA complaints, said these sentences summarized the viewpoint of the author he was reviewing and, as such, were taken out of context.

Mr. Sabir, on Twitter and Facebook, pointed to the online article to discredit Mr. May’s appointment, according to the complaints. Mr. Sabir also tried to woo one LSA bencher to join his anti-May campaign, according to the documents. Ms. Notley retweeted Mr. Sabir’s posts about Mr. May, according to the complaints. Other NDP MLAs did the same, the complaints said. Mr. May was fired in September.

Mr. May said he turned to the law society rather than the courts because his wrongful dismissal case is already moving through the justice system and that avenue is expensive. He said he plans to pursue a defamation lawsuit related to the chain of events, but noted politicians are often protected by fair comment provisions. “I may not go after the politicians,” he said.

Mr. May said he, too, is concerned about the weaponization of disciplinary processes. But in his case, Mr. May said lawyers engaged in actions against him as a lawyer, and that falls under the LSA’s purview. “We’re not supposed to bad mouth each other,” he said, noting he was unable to defend himself at the time because he was in a quasi-judicial position on the commission.

“I don’t want our political discourse to be subject to professional regulators,” Mr. May said. “But in [Ms. Notley’s] case, I think there’s also a certain level of civility in our profession and civility in politics, too.”

NDP spokesman Benjamin Alldritt in a statement said: “We stand by the comments of our members of caucus, and have nothing further to add.”

In 2018, an Edmonton lawyer filed a LSA complaint against former justice minister Kathleen Ganley, for comments she made about a case involving a jailed sexual assault victim. That incident did not result in a hearing. In 2013, an Ottawa professor asked the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society to investigate comments Peter MacKay, then the federal justice minister, made about Justin Trudeau and marijuana. The complaint was dismissed.