CALGARY, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) — John Carpay, one of Canada’s most high-profile constitutional lawyers who fought COVID mandates of all kinds and who also founded the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), has been disbarred from practicing law in Alberta in what he says was a “vindictive” manner.
This Tuesday, a hearing committee meeting for the Law Society of Alberta issued its ruling relating to Carpay, alleging that his past conduct included a serious breach regarding professional ethics. As a result, he was disbarred from practicing as a lawyer.
The Law Society said Carpay was “sanctioned for failing to discharge all of his responsibilities to his client, tribunals, the public, and other members of the profession honourably and with integrity.”
He was told to pay $7,457.50 in related costs and was “disbarred effective immediately.”
The reasons for Carpay’s disbarment come from an incident that occurred in 2021, when he hired a private investigator to tail a Manitoba judge to determine whether he was complying with COVID dictates.
Carpay later took a two-month leave of absence from his role as JCCF president in early July 2021 after admitting he had Chief Justice Glenn Joyal of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench and other government officials followed by a private investigator to see whether they were breaking local COVID rules.
In 2023, Carpay was fined $5,000 and banned for life from practicing law in the province of Manitoba because he hired a private investigator.
He later said that investigating a judge via a private investigator was a mistake and apologized.
Lawyer says disbarment a ‘vindictive abuse of process’
Carpay called the actions taken against him a “vindictive abuse of process.”
In a statement, which was seen by LifeSiteNews, he said the reasons the surveillance took place were “for no other reason than to illuminate a legitimate public policy question: Were politicians and judges complying with the stringent COVID restrictions that they themselves had imposed on the public?”
The Alberta Law Society said that its disciplinary panel found Carpay’s actions to be a breach of ethics, as well as tantamount to eroding public trust in the judiciary.
Carpay spent about a day in a Calgary jail after being arrested for having the Manitoba judge followed during the height of the COVID crisis.
In Canada, according to the Investigation Hotline, hiring a private detective is legal so long as certain rules are followed and the investigator is licensed to practice in the province where the investigation takes place.
Licensed private investigators are not allowed to enter someone’s property. They are also not allowed to wiretap one’s phones or access bank records or credit information.
According to the Manitoba government justice department, one can hire a private investigator only “after the business has been issued and receives a license from Manitoba Justice.”
The JCCF has been one of Canada’s most prominent legal groups over the last six years, having taken to court various government departments and officials over their imposition of draconian COVID mandates.
The JCCF said that Carpay will continue with his work at the organization.