Premier Pushes Firms to Break Colour Barrier

Premier Russell MacLellan wants law firms doing business with the provincial government to take action and hire black and aboriginal law school graduates.

At a luncheon meeting of the Black Law Students Association of Canada, Premier MacLellan said that Dalhousie University law school graduates who entered under a program to increase participation of blacks and aboriginals in the legal affairs of the province are able to establish thriving careers elsewhere, but cannot break down barriers at large Nova Scotia law firms.

"These graduates are looking to their own province for fairness and we are letting them down," Mr. MacLellan said. "That is wrong, and it has to stop."

Premier MacLellan announced he has established a working group to design employment equity guidelines for law firms that do business with the provincial government. The working group has representation from the Department of Justice, the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society, Dalhousie Law School administration, the Dalhousie Black Law Students Association and Dalhousie's Aboriginal Students Association.

Douglas Ruck, Nova Scotia's Ombudsman, will serve as independent chair and the committee will meet within a couple of weeks.

Since 1989, Dalhousie Law Program for Indigenous Blacks and Mi'Kmaq has encouraged greater law school enrolment by blacks and aboriginal students. Fifty-four students have graduated from the program but none have broken into the ranks of large, established Halifax law firms, and many end up leaving the province as a result.

Premier MacLellan said the province will not adopt the federal system of employment equity, as applied to law firms, because it hasn't worked. "It is a laudable concept but there is no follow through and law firms know that. This is going to be different. We are going to make it stick and make it work."

Premier MacLellan agreed that comments he made about the issue in the legislature last December were wrong, and based on misinformation about the I, B and M program. Since then, he's gained an understanding of the issue through meetings with students, graduates, the law school administration, members of the barrister's society and officials from the province's Department of Justice.