The Law Society of Alberta (LSA) has disbarred two lawyers nearly four years after they arranged for a private investigator to surveil a Manitoba judge overseeing a case concerning COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
The LSA announced the decision to ban John Carpay and Jay Cameron from practicing in the province on Tuesday, saying “The misconduct in this case, compounded by issues regarding integrity, leads us to find that a reasonable observer would surely consider that misconduct of this kind must inevitably result in disbarment.”
The allegations date back to 2021 when Carpay, the president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), and Cameron, the litigation director for the JCCF at the time, were involved in a court challenge in Manitoba of the province’s COVID-19 restrictions.
The pair hired a private investigator to surveil several provincial officials, including then-premier Brian Pallister, Chief Medical Officer Brent Roussin and Justice Glenn Joyal, who was presiding over the court case, in an attempt to find them breaching pandemic restrictions.
Joyal first noticed a vehicle following him, then confronted the driver — and made Carpay and Cameron aware of the incident soon after.
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The LSA decision says both lawyers attempted to delete communication with the private investigator and instructed them not to cooperate with police.
“A reasonable observer would think that influencing the judge’s decision is what the lawyers intended,” the LSA decision says.
Both Carpay and Cameron first faced similar proceedings in Manitoba in 2023, where they were banned from practising law in the province.
They also agreed to a peace bond that banned them from practicing anywhere in Canada for three years — an order that will expire in the fall of 2026.
The JCCF issued a statement on the decision, calling it a ” vindictive and petty abuse of process.”
“Mr. Carpay has not practiced law for years. He last appeared in court on behalf of a client in 2015. The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms has no staff lawyers, and all legal work is done by outside counsel,” it says.
“Today’s decision does not impact the vital work of John Carpay or the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. We continue to defend the constitutional rights and freedoms of all Canadians.”
Both lawyers have also been ordered to pay several thousand dollars in costs to the Law Society.
Alex Steigerwald, Cameron’s lawyer, says they are considering an appeal.
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