On September 30, we observed the National Day for Truth & Reconciliation for the fourth year. This day each year gives us time to reflect on what we have learned and where we are in our journey of Reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, including our Indigenous colleagues and clients. June 2025 will be the 10th anniversary of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission Executive Summary. We can anticipate many assessments of progress on the 94 Calls to Action as the milestone approaches.

Call to Action 27 called upon law societies to ensure lawyers receive the appropriate “cultural competency training,” as it was then called. Each jurisdiction approached the task in a different way. The Law Society of BC created the “Indigenous Intercultural Course,” which all lawyers completed by January 1, 2024, and new and returning to practice lawyers must complete within two years. Others directed lawyers to take “The Path: Your Journey through Indigenous Canada,” a six-module course originally promoted by CBA. These required courses seek to provide a baseline of knowledge shared by all lawyers.

With the educational baseline in place in B.C., a future step is to amend the Code of Professional Conduct to make it clear that lawyers have ethical and professional obligations to foster Reconciliation. The Federation of Law Societies of Canada has issued proposed amendments to the Model Code and invites comments from law societies and individuals by November 29, 2024. The Law Society of BC has conducted two consultations on the amendments (June 26 and September 26, 2024) in order to inform its comments. The Federation will consider this feedback, make adjustments, and propose amendments to be considered by the Council of the Federation. Once approved, each law society will consider adoption and implementation.

While the majority of proposed amendments are to the Competence sections of the Code, there are also proposed amendments to Integrity, Quality of Service, The Lawyer as Advocate, Duties of Principal, and Discrimination. The proposed amendments will affect all lawyers regardless of whether or not you provide legal services to Indigenous clients. This is because some of the amendments address communication (including advocacy), the impact of trauma on clients and witnesses, and ensuring you take steps to understand the culture of your clients when it is different from your own.

Many of the amendments are arguably long overdue, and the desired actions and attitudes are already embraced by many lawyers. But there is much more to be done within the profession of lawyers (as well as with our laws and justice systems) and the proposed amendments are an opportunity to make more progress.

Lawyers, as life-long learners, know that sometimes our existing knowledge, skills and approaches need a refresh. Sometimes reviewing previous learning after more experience helps the teachings finally land with full impact. And unlearning helps with these changes.

To help lawyers advance their knowledge and skills in their Reconciliation journey, CBABC has offered short courses. The 5-year collection, from “Economic Reconciliation — Working in a Colonial Framework” to “Trauma Informed Practice for Lawyers
in Small Communities” to “Building Business Relationships,” you can find these and more in PD On Demand. And this fall we have new Advancing Reconciliation courses, including one in partnership with Indigenous Perspectives Society.

While there are intersections between Reconciliation work and equity, diversity and inclusion efforts in our profession, they are distinct concepts as the work comes from different histories and has different approaches. Overlapping themes such as anti-racism and uncovering unconscious bias are covered in our past sessions from our EDI Series, also available on demand.

As the 10-year TRC anniversary approaches, I hope you think about how your knowledge and approach has changed. Although Murray Sinclair, the TRC Chair, said Reconciliation will take generations to achieve, incremental actions will help us make progress.