Article content continued

Each member’s statement must be filed with the society in the next few weeks, if they wish to continue in their chosen profession.

A profession that obliges its members to sing in unison cannot say it supports independence

The society’s new policy is so abhorrent because it’s an attempt to compel speech by lawyers and paralegals. It also goes well beyond what our human rights laws actually and properly require.

The Ontario Human Rights Code says basically that all employers and service providers have an obligation not to discriminate on prohibited grounds such as race, gender, religion, etc. This includes both directly discriminatory acts and systemic discrimination, when an ostensibly neutral policy improperly disadvantages some groups.

The society’s Rules of Professional Conduct say that, “A lawyer has a special responsibility to respect” human rights laws. Presumably that’s because of lawyers’ central role in protecting people’s rights.

The new policy, however, goes much further than the code or any previous professional obligations. It asserts that lawyers and paralegals now have an obligation to “promote equality, diversity and inclusion generally.”

This is not what the code requires of Ontario citizens, businesses or professionals. The law does not force citizens to “promote” anything or anybody. We have freedom of belief and freedom of expression. We’re not required to espouse any particular viewpoint, no matter how benign. Until now — for lawyers and paralegals.

The society’s new policy misstates and twists human rights law for the seeming purpose of imposing unprecedented obligations on its members, through the back door of a required “Statement of Principles.”