9 Damning, Disturbing and Disgraceful Quotes From Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms President John Carpay’s Disbarment Report, The Law Society of Alberta has banned the president of a right-wing, convoy-friendly charity from practicing law by Luke LeBrun, Editor, September 4, 2025, Press Progress
John Carpay is unethical, unreliable and admits he is a public embarrassment.
These are a few takeaways from a Law Society of Alberta report ordering the disbarment of the president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms following recent hearings.
A three-member law society panel issued a scathing decision this week stripping the JCCF president of his license to practice law over his role in a surveillance operation targeting Manitoba’s chief justice in 2021.
Carpay, also the founder of the legal advocacy charity known for litigating cases on right-wing causes and challenging COVID-19 public health rules, has been in trouble with the law since hiring a private investigator to dig up dirt on a judge presiding over a case that the JCCF was involved in. Jay Cameron, the lawyer who acted for the JCCF on the same case, was also disbarred.
The JCCF was also a central player in the 2022 Freedom Convoy occupation of Ottawa, with one of the charity’s lawyers acting as the convoy’s main spokesperson and later offering to fund criminal defences of convoy participants using tax-deductible charitable donations.
Carpay, who former Alberta premier Jason Kenney once compared to civil rights icon Rosa Parks, admitted to hiring a private eye to follow the judge, but told PressProgress he is upset the law society dragged him through their disciplinary process.
“The Alberta Law Society’s September 2, 2025 decision to disbar John Carpay is a vindictive abuse of process,” Carpay said in a statement to PressProgress.
“Mr. Carpay acknowledged that including a judge in the surveillance was a mistake,” Carpay added, referring to himself in the third-person. “He publicly apologized for his error in judgment in July 2021.”
Carpay explained he was taken aback by the disciplinary hearings because he had already attempted to submit his resignation, but “the Alberta Law Society then refused to accept Mr. Carpay’s resignation, and commenced new disciplinary proceedings against him, regarding the same conduct for which Mr. Carpay had already been disciplined and punished by the Manitoba Law Society.”
Here are a few other takeaways from the panel’s recent report on Carpay’s unprofessional legal conduct:
1. The hearing committee concluded John Carpay has trouble telling the truth:
“We find that Mr. Carpay is an unreliable historian with a convenient memory. As explained above, Mr. Carpay’s viva voce evidence is rife with inconsistencies, gaps, improbabilities, and at least one falsehood.”
2. John Carpay’s testimony was “unreliable”:
“Mr. Carpay’s testimony is inconsistent with the email record and his admissions at the [Law Society of Manitoba] hearing. The emails show that Mr. Cameron suggested a list of people to watch, and that the [Chief Medical Officer] was already under surveillance when Mr. Carpay instructed the PI to watch [Chief Justice Glenn Joyal]. We prefer the indisputable email record and the LSM Decision over Mr. Carpay’s unreliable testimony”
3. John Carpay forgot to tell the law society that he spent a night in jail:
“Mr. Carpay explained that he failed to report to the LSA that he had been charged criminally in Manitoba due to the ‘shock and stress’ of being arrested and gaoled overnight. He did apologize to the LSA for his error and cooperated fully with the LSA after that.”
4. John Carpay’s private eye sent a child to spy on the judge’s daughter:
“Exhibit #15 says that only ‘passive surveillance’ occurred, despite the fact that a boy acting on the PI’s behalf attended the Chief Justice’s house and made contact with Joyal CJ’s daughter.”
5. John Carpay apparently tried, but failed, to conceal information by deleting emails:
“The Deletion of Emails
Mr. Carpay testified that he did not recall instructing Mr. Cameron to tell the PI to both delete all of the correspondence and to not talk to the police, the day after learning that the surveillance had been detected, but he conceded that it was possible that he did give those instructions.
Mr. Carpay did recall being advised by ‘someone’ that ‘there was hacking going on’ when he deleted ‘tens of thousands of e-mails’ sometime after July 13, 2021. He says the deletion is routine, and the timing is coincidental. This Committee did not receive any other evidence regarding JCCF’s email systems being hacked.
The LSM Committee neither accepted nor rejected the claim about a concern over computer hackers ‘While the wholesale purging (and subsequent recovery) of their JCCF Outlook accounts by both Carpay and Cameron may have been justified to shield their content from outside hackers’ …
The fact that the emails were later recovered does not change the facts of the timing of the deletion, and that the deletion is so close in time to instructions Mr. Carpay gave the PI (via Mr. Cameron) to delete the same emails, and to not cooperate with the police. Neither the LSM Committee nor this Committee has been provided any explanation as to how the PI deleting the inculpatory emails would address a hacker issue at JCCF. Nor has there been an attempt to explain how instructing the PI to withhold their cooperation from the police could address a hacker problem.
In our opinion, Mr. Carpay intended to conceal the Lawyers’ involvement in this plot when he deleted those emails and instructed the PI.”
6. John Carpay admits he has embarrassed himself publicly:
“Mr. Carpay testified to the many apologies he has made: to Joyal CJ in the LSM hearing, to the JCCF Board of Directors and colleagues, to friends and family, and to this Committee. He said that he has embarrassed himself as a lawyer, his family, his JCCF colleagues, and the profession.”
7. John Carpay’s behaviour was anti-democratic:
“The Lawyers’ misconduct was an attack on judicial independence. Mr. Carpay may justify his conduct under the rubric of the public’s ‘right to know’, but he is wrong. Judges are not the same as Premiers and Chief Medial Officers (a point he did not seem to fully appreciate, even when asked). An independent judiciary is essential to the rule of law. Whether the lawyer respects the person occupying the judicial office, the lawyer must respect the office.
Individual judges are not exempt from criticism, even from lawyers … A lawyer does not fail to encourage respect for the administration of justice merely by speaking out against the conduct of justice system participants. The question is how they choose to do so … Gathering and publishing embarrassing material involving a public figure is what the tabloids do. When the target is a judge, the conduct is wholly inconsistent with a lawyer’s obligation to the Court, regardless of the lawyer’s opinion about the person occupying the judicial office.
We adopt the LSM Committee’s observation: ‘Judges must have no fear of being subjected to harassment or physical harm … The harassment of one judge is a psychological threat to all judges, and cannot be tolerated in a free and democratic Society’.”
8. John Carpay lacks insight into the implications of his behaviour:
“Mr. Carpay explained in examination-in-chief that the problem with his actions is that Joyal CJ had not yet given his [decision in the case that the JCCF was litigating]; Mr. Carpay explained that he opened the door for people to speculate about using the fruits of the investigation to influence the judge. And, ‘it’s just not appropriate for a lawyer who is involved in the litigation process to be doing surveillance on a judge.’” Notably, Mr. Carpay did not connect his misconduct to the larger concepts of judicial independence or the rule of law. We have not considered his lack of insight as an aggravating factor.”
9. John Carpay believes he has already suffered too much:
“Mr. Carpay said that he has already paid a ‘very heavy price’ with the JCCF Board putting him on a leave of absence for six weeks, the disciplinary process in Manitoba, being punished in Manitoba, facing a criminal prosecution, the peace bond that prohibits practice of law anywhere in Canada, spending 23 hours in gaol, the proceedings in Alberta, and the associated costs; he said that ‘the process is the punishment’.”
Carpay has been ordered to pay Alberta’s law society $7,457.50 in costs.
@mimo-nielsen.bsky.social:
I was disappointed he got so little, especially for what he did. He’s definitely a danger to society and should have been sent down for 20 years at the VERY minimum. My personal opinion, I’m not an expert.
@greyareaperson.bsky.social:
Agreed. The above the law/breach of trust aspects should be extenuating factors in sentencing
Yup, but considering how many judges let rapists and murderers of women off completely (if they are white men) to protect careers and futures of the men, I was stunned Bowie was given any time at all.
@morganificent.bsky.social:
Now do Jeffrey Rath.
@morganificent.bsky.social:
Then Keith Wilson
Ha! Donors to the sleazy JCCF? I bet their biggest donors are rule of law and rights hating American Nazis, including Trump.
@ccland.bsky.social:
This is the best news ever. He was the one who challenged the legislation that guaranteed access to GSA’s in schools and is involved with Parents Choice for Education. We can only hope Revenue Canada is investigating his charity.
@morganificent.bsky.social:
Almost replied to this on my FB account with “Happy Fricking Day!”.
Then I remembered who my FB friends are.
They’d burn a cross on my front yard.
Still, good to see this seditionist get a dose of FAFO.
Watch Marlaina (and Ezra) go full Jordan Peterson on the Law Society.
Can’t have enforcement of professional conduct now can we.
@shirtdisturber.bsky.social:
He’ll claim “Christian” persecution and raise money to “fight back.” I mean, what else is he going to do?
@87henry.bsky.social:
That’s right; get out the ole’ KFC bucket and pass it around.
@yknot05.bsky.social:
Can he not still go to the AB Court of Appeal re the disbarment?
Or is this the final stepping stone and ‘done is done’?
Those who are in the legal profession in AB:
In AB, does disbarment mean permanently?
Or when can he reapply to be reinstated?
Law Society of Alberta disbars Calgary lawyers Jay Cameron, John Carpay, Pair were involved in court case challenging constitutionality of Manitoba’s COVID-19 restrictions by Meghan Grant, CBC News, Sep 03, 2025
The two Calgary lawyers who hired a private investigator to follow and photograph a Manitoba judge in hopes of catching him breaching COVID-19 public health restrictions have been disbarred by the Law Society of Alberta, which found their professional misconduct amounted to “an attack on judicial independence.”
John Carpay, the president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) and its then-litigation director Jay Cameron can no longer practise law in Alberta.
“The public must know that lawyers do not and cannot engage in this misconduct,” reads the 18-page decision released Tuesday.
The lawyers were found guilty of professional misconduct for failing to act with honour and with integrity.
‘Vindictive abuse of process’
Alain Hepner and Alex Steigerwald, lawyers for Carpay and Cameron, say they are considering appealing.
In a statement posted to the JCCF website, Carpay called the disbarment decision a “vindictive abuse of process.”
In December 2023, Carpay submitted a letter of resignation to the Law Society of Alberta that it “refused to accept,” according to the JCCF.
“The Alberta Law Society’s decision to refuse Mr. Carpay’s resignation, and to commence brand new disciplinary proceedings over the same issues after delegating the matter to the Manitoba Law Society, is a vindictive and petty abuse of process,” reads part of the statement on the justice centre’s website.
‘More than an error in judgment’
In 2021, Carpay and Cameron were involved in a court case challenging the constitutionality of the province’s COVID-19 restrictions, presided over by Manitoba Justice Glenn Joyal.
In June of that year, the pair hired a private investigator to take photos of Joyal in hopes of catching the judge breaching pandemic-era provincial restrictions.
Joyal noticed he was being followed and called the parties into his courtroom on June 12, 2021. When confronted by the judge, Carpay admitted he’d hired the private investigator. The judge also learned that day that an agent of the investigator had come to his home and spoken with his daughter.
“The lawyers’ misconduct was an attack on judicial independence,” wrote the law society panel in its hearing committee report.
“An independent judiciary is essential to the rule of law. Whether the lawyer respects the person occupying the judicial office, the lawyer must respect the office.”
The committee found that the decision to have the judge followed “was more than an error in judgment.”
“The lawyers knew that they had breached their ethical obligations, if not the law,” reads the report.
At the hearing in May, Carpay testified and expressed remorse and called the decision to hire a private investigator “the worst error in judgment I’ve ever made in my legal career.”
But in the statement he recently posted to the JCCF website, Carpay defends that decision.Fucking Rude Buffoon
“The surveillance was performed in June 2021, for no other reason than to illuminate a legitimate public policy question,” he writes. “Were politicians and judges complying with the stringent Covid restrictions that they themselves had imposed on the public?”
Carpay an ‘unreliable historian’
The panel also expressed concern with Carpay’s version of events, finding his testimony to be “rife with inconsistencies, gaps, improbabilities, and at least one falsehood.”
“We find that Mr. Carpay is an unreliable historian with a convenient memory.”
Carpay testified that he’d forgotten about emails between him and Cameron arranging to hire the investigator.Roaring laughter!
He also said that having Joyal followed had nothing to do with the court case the judge was presiding over despite filing the private investigator’s invoicing as a “litigation expense.”
Carpay also said that he didn’t remember instructing Cameron to tell the investigator that they should delete all correspondence and not talk to the police but conceded it was possible he’d given those instructions.
Both men on a peace bond
Carpay and Cameron are already banned for life from practising in Manitoba, and they are currently serving a three-year Canada-wide ban – a condition of a peace bond the lawyers entered into in exchange for their criminal charges of obstruction of justice and intimidating a justice system participant being withdrawn. In my view, these fucking let-criminals-off-the-hook legal-judicial deals are disgusting.
At the hearing in May, Cameron’s lawyer Alex Steigerwald argued that his client should be suspended until the expiry of the Manitoba peace bond on Oct. 26, 2026, while Carpay’s lawyer Alain Hepner asked the panel to consider a two-year suspension.
But the law society found that “the gravity of this misconduct cannot be understated.”
“We have concluded that there is no disciplinary measure short of disbarment that can achieve the ‘most fundamental’ goal of maintaining the reputation of the profession.”
The hearing committee also ordered Carpay and Cameron to pay $7,457.50 and $5,270.63, respectively, in costs. Wanna bet they’ll not pay?
In May, Steigerwald told the panel that his client is the sole breadwinner for his family and hasn’t been able to practise law since 2022. Cameron’s reputation, said Steigerwald, has been “irreversibly tarnished” and he’s experienced “professional disgrace.” Boo Hoo, you creepy privileged vulgar old white man! You ought to have thought of the consequences of your unbelievably anti public health and evil actions before acting on them. In my view, you and MAGAT pal Carpay deserve this, and if you appeal, may you lose big time and be ordered to pay triple costs for wasting everyone’s time.
***
@amirattaran.bsky.social:
The dopes behind the MAGA-like Centre for Constitutional Freedoms just lost their law licenses.
@charlesrusnell.bsky.social:
The Law Society of Alberta has disbarred both John Carpay and Jay Cameron of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms for hiring a private investigator to surveil Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal.
@emmettmacfarlane.com:
Good. They’re lucky they’re not in jail.
@ryanhumphrey.bsky.social:
Took long enough
@shirtdisturber.bsky.social:
Future Justice Minister.
@tangibullah.bsky.social:
Worth a try, right?
Although my impression is that Carpay is too far to the nonsensical right even for Danielle Smith.
@prnomad34.bsky.social:
JCCF operating like a typical charitable organization
@charlesrusnell.bsky.social:
Revenue Canada refuses to say if it is reviewing JCCF’s charitable status. I asked.
@privatevotary.bsky.social:
If they haven’t done anything about True North/Juno News’ registered charity status yet, they certainly aren’t going to leap into action over the JCCF.
@ratliw.bsky.social:
Does the UCP come after the Law Society now, or will they just hire both as advisors?
@allij.bsky.social:
They should be able to get jobs working for Trump. Those kinds of “lawyers” seem to be ok down there.
Calgary lawyers who had Manitoba judge followed fight disbarment, Lawyers for Jay Cameron and John Carpay asked panel to issue suspensions by Meghan Grant, CBC News, May 28, 2025
The two Calgary lawyers who hired a private investigator in 2021 to follow a Manitoba judge who’d been presiding over their court challenge of COVID-19 public health restrictions should be disbarred for their dishonourable professional conduct, argued a prosecutor for the Law Society of Alberta on Wednesday.
The law society hearing took place this week to determine what sanctions will be imposed against Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms president John Carpay and Jay Cameron, the litigation director for the organization at the time.
While law society lawyer Karl Seidenz asked the panel to impose the “maximum sanction” of disbarment, lawyers for the two men are fighting to keep them employed in their chosen profession, arguing the pair have already faced significant consequences.
‘Professional disgrace’
Cameron’s lawyer, Alex Steigerwald, told the court that his client’s reputation is “irreversibly tarnished” and said he had “experienced professional disgrace.”
“The consequences of his actions have already been severe,” argued Steigerwald, telling the panel that Cameron is the sole breadwinner for his family and hasn’t been able to practise law since 2022.
Steigerwald asked the law society to impose a suspension that would run concurrently with the three-year Canada-wide practising prohibition, issued by a Manitoba judge, which is set to expire in October 2026.
Carpay’s lawyer, Alain Hepner, also asked the law society panel to impose a suspension.
“This is a case of an error in judgment for which he’s apologized,” said Hepner.
The panel reserved its decision.
Carpay testifies
As part of the misconduct hearing, Carpay was called by his lawyer to testify.
Carpay called the decision to hire a PI “the worst error in judgment I’ve ever made in my legal career.”
In the spring and summer of 2021, the justice centre was involved in a court case challenging COVID-19 restrictionspublic health protections, presided over by Manitoba Justice Glenn Joyal.
On June 1, 2021, photos were released of then-Alberta premier Jason Kenney dining with several of his top ministers on the patio of a government building nicknamed Sky Palace. Although restrictions had been recently relaxed, there were questions about whether the politicians were properly distanced and/or having indoor encounters as well.
A week later, Cameron, the lead litigator in the court challenge to the constitutionality of public health orders, emailed Carpay, suggesting the justice centre hire a PI in hopes of catching Joyal and others breaching government-imposed restrictions.
“We know most of these jokers aren’t following their own laws,” wrote Cameron.
‘Most embarrassing moment of my life’
Carpay went ahead and hired an investigator, instructing him to follow Joyal, Manitoba’s chief medical officer of health and the premier.
On July 12, 2021, Justice Joyal called the parties into court after he noticed he was being followed.
The judge also learned that the private investigator had, days earlier, sent a teenage boy to knock on his door. The boy spoke with the judge’s daughter but when she asked who he was, he “got nervous” and ran to a waiting car.
When confronted in court that day, Carpay admitted to the judge that he’d hired a PI.
“Monday, July 12, 2021, is probably the most embarrassing moment of my life,” Cameron said while being questioned by Hepner.
‘I’ve paid a very heavy price’
Carpay testified that he’s apologized numerous times, to numerous people, including a letter written to Justice Joyal.
The decision to have the judge followed was a “grave error in judgment,” he said.
“I’ve paid a very heavy price for this.”
Carpay and Cameron were ultimately arrested and charged with obstruction of justice and intimidation of a justice system participant.
In 2023, the pair entered into a peace bond, the conditions of which include a three-year ban on practising law in Canada. In exchange, their criminal charges were withdrawn.In my view, such unsavoury white male legal characters ought not be given such sweet negotiations. Disgusting. If they were Indigenous women, they’d be locked up for years.
In that case, the judge who accepted the peace bond called the men’s actions “unprofessional, unethical and dishonourable,” and said their behaviour was “nothing short of an affront on the administration of justice.”
Carpay ‘traumatized’ by arrest
While Carpay says he’s remorseful, he stood by his denouncement of the criminal prosecution, calling it “utterly baseless” and “politically motivated.”
After his arrest, Carpay spent nearly a full day in custody.
“I was quite traumatized by the whole experience of being locked up for 23 hours,” he told the panel.Poor baby, you ain’t experienced nothing!
The men also faced Law Society of Manitoba citations.
As part of those proceedings, both men were banned for life from practising law in that province.
And they agreed to each pay a $5,000 fine. On top of that, Carpay said he has had to fork out “tens of thousands of dollars in legal bills.”You are fucking lucky you scumbag law violator. I did nothing wrong; Encana illegally frac’d and contaminated my drinking water supply. I sacrificed $400,000.00 of my life long savings into court costs and legal fees, and my business, income and career trying to enter Canada’s ultra privileged mostly white male, often drunk, legal-judicial industry, only getting strung along by shit head lawyers and judges, and remain with water too dangerous to even use to flush toilets
Lawyers deleted evidence
In 2023, Carpay tendered his resignation from the Law Society of Alberta.
In arguing for disbarment, the lawyer for the law society pointed out Cameron and Carpay’s post-offence conduct, which involved deleting evidence.
Seidenz referred to a document in which Cameron said he’d been told by Carpay to instruct the PI to delete all communications and to refrain from speaking to police.
During questioning on Wednesday, Carpay said he didn’t recall that instruction.
“You don’t recall advising the person in charge of the litigation to delete evidence?” questioned Seidenz.
Carpay responded that it was “quite possible that happened but I don’t have a recollection of it.”
Refer also to:
2024: Steeve Charland, another Fucker Trucker (aka convoy organizer), guilty
2024: “Freedom!” Canadian Fucker Trucker style: “Police made me do it.”