July 27, 2022

PRESS RELEASE
RE: Alberta Legislative Requirement to Swear Oath to Queen in Bar Admission

The National Indigenous Law Students’ Association stands in solidarity with Prabjot Singh
Wirring and his efforts to make the Alberta bar admission requirement of an oath of allegiance to
the Queen optional. Swearing an oath of allegiance to the Queen is incompatible with Mr.
Wirring's religious beliefs, thus creating an unnecessary barrier in his licensing journey. We fully
support Mr. Wirring's challenge to this requirement, wish to highlight the overarching
intersectionality of this issue for the broader legal community, and call upon the Province of
Alberta and The Law Society of Alberta to take the requisite steps to remove the requirement for
an oath of allegiance to the Queen.

The Law Society of Alberta recently acknowledged the existence of systemic discrimination in
the profession and committed to taking further steps to address it. The requirement that law
students swear an oath to the monarch of a colonizing nation inherently rejects the notions of
diversity, inclusion, and Indigenous nationhood, and undermines ongoing reconciliatory efforts
by both the Province of Alberta and The Law Society of Alberta. Further, continuing to allow the
existence of such requirements serves only as a deterrent to potential law students and lawyers,
thus contradicting the Law Society of Alberta’s commitment to the promotion of equity,
diversity, and inclusion in the legal profession.

Since the Confederation of Canada, Indigenous peoples have had a fraught relationship with the
legal profession. Until 1951, the Indian Act barred Status Indians from retaining legal counsel;
until 1961, Status Indians were unable to pursue a post-secondary education without
enfranchising—surrendering one’s legal and ancestral identity to gain “full” Canadian
citizenship. The effects of these systems continue to be experienced by Indigenous peoples.
Indigenous peoples make up approximately 5.5% of Edmonton’s population yet represent nearly
60% of incarcerated individuals in Edmonton’s federal prisons. Conversely, Indigenous peoples
remain severely underrepresented in the legal profession, both provincially and nationally.
Canada outwardly speaks of working towards diversity, inclusion, and equity, while the
requirement to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen directly contradicts these goals.

At present, a number of Canadian jurisdictions have already made the swearing of such oaths
optional; others have removed them entirely. We call upon the Minister of Justice & Solicitor
General of Alberta, the Honourable Tyler Shandro, to follow their lead and amend Alberta’s
Legal Profession Act to make an oath of allegiance to the Queen optional.

In solidarity,
The National Indigenous Law Students’ Association (NILSA)