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From Mao to mandatory training: Alberta lawyer challenges Law Society over compelled ideology
Roger Song was called to the Alberta bar in 2014, bringing with him years of experience as a law professor in Beijing. But his memories of life under Maoist China—marked by political indoctrination and government coercion—never faded. Those memories resurfaced in 2019, when the Law Society of Alberta required him to complete a “cultural competence” training course to keep his license to practise law in the province.
According to Mr. Song, this mandatory training reminded him of the ideological conformity he experienced under the Chinese regime.
Challenging the Law Society of Alberta
Undeterred, Mr. Song launched a constitutional challenge in 2023 with lawyers provided by the Justice Centre.
At the centre of the challenge are a series of specific Society rules and codes:
- Rule 67.4 is being challenged for enabling the Society to impose a wide range of politicized requirements—not limited to Indigenous content.
- Rules 67.2 and 67.3 compel lawyers to submit annual Continuing Professional Development (CPD) plans tied to a new “Professional Development Profile,” which Mr. Song argues redefines legal competence as adherence to woke political beliefs.
- Part 6.3 of the Code of Professional Conduct, which addresses harassment and discrimination, is being challenged for seeking to redefine legal ethics and to suppress dissent.
- The Profile and the Code are further criticized for being so vague that they are impossible to navigate without adopting an approved ideological framework.
Together, these requirements form part of what the Society itself calls its “Political Objectives,” which Mr. Song argues constitute an abuse of regulatory power and a direct violation of the Society’s duty to shield the profession from political interference.
Appeal filed
On October 9, 2025, lawyers funded by the Justice Centre filed an appeal in the case of Alberta lawyer Roger Song, who is challenging the Law Society of Alberta’s authority to impose mandatory “cultural competence” and other ideological conditions on lawyers.
The appeal follows a September 2025 ruling by the Court of King’s Bench that upheld the Law Society’s power to compel ideological training and to amend its Code of Conduct to include broad prohibitions on “harassment” and “discrimination.” Mr. Song, a former law professor from Beijing who lived through Mao’s Cultural Revolution, argues that these measures amount to compelled ideology and violate his Charter rights to freedom of conscience and expression.
The appeal contests several Law Society rules and policies that redefine professional competence in ideological terms and compel participation in politically motivated training.
Constitutional lawyer Glenn Blackett said, “The Law Society seems bent on transforming Alberta lawyers into a sort of woke commissariat, who see Western legal systems like our Constitution as systems of colonial and anti-black oppression.”
Albertans urged to speak out as regulators push ideological agendas
On Friday, October 17, 2025, the Justice Centre launched a new letter-writing campaign urging the Government of Alberta to amend legislation and ensure that professional regulators stay out of politics.
Thousands of Albertans — including doctors, nurses, dentists, teachers, pharmacists, psychologists, social workers, and lawyers — belong to regulatory bodies that are increasingly seeking to control, or even compel, the speech and political beliefs of their members.
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