Latest news with #JusticeCentreforConstitutionalFreedoms
Calgary Herald
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Calgary Herald
Calgary lawyer John Carpay tells disciplinary hearing his decision to spy on Manitoba judge was 'grave error'
Spying on a Manitoba judge who was presiding over a COVID-related case was 'foolhardy, misguided, inappropriate and stupid,' a Calgary lawyer told a disciplinary hearing Wednesday, calling his behaviour a 'grave error in judgment.' Article content Article content But John Carpay, the founder and president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, testified he still believes his criminal prosecution in the case was wrong and 'politically motivated.' Article content Article content Carpay told his lawyer, Alain Hepner, he was exonerated when the prosecution dropped criminal allegations when he agreed to a three-year peace bond prohibiting him from practicing law. Article content Article content The lawyer is facing sanctions by the Law Society of Alberta over his conduct in hiring a private investigator in a bid to catch Manitoba Court of King's Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal breaking COVID rules during pandemic lockdowns. Article content Carpay also had his investigator follow then-Manitoba premier Brian Pallister and the province's chief medical officer of health. At the time Joyal was presiding over a challenge by the Gateway Bible Baptist Church and other Manitoba churches to the constitutionality of the COVID-19 rules imposed by that province's government. Article content Carpay denied a suggestion by Law Society of Alberta prosecutor Karl Seidenz that had his private investigator been able to obtain photographs or videos of Joyal breaking the rules, he would have released them to expose the judge as a hypocrite, as he would with the premier or chief health officer. Article content Article content 'In the case of the chief judge I would have released photos only after the final conclusion of all litigation proceedings, there's no way I would have released that prior to the release of the judgment,' Carpay said. Article content 'It's about accountability for government officials, It's not about embarrassment or hypocrisy per se, although those could be constituent elements that play into the bigger issue, which is accountability.' Article content Carpay, and lawyer Jay Cameron, are before a three-member Law Society of Alberta panel after having been found to have breached their professional code of conduct by spying on Joyal. Article content Carpay told Hepner his organization, which assists groups making constitutional challenges, had taken on the Gateway case to fight the pandemic-related lockdowns.
Globe and Mail
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
Convoy organizer asks for stay of proceedings after guilty verdict
Convoy organizer Chris Barber has asked for a stay of proceedings, two weeks after an Ontario judge found him and Tamara Lich guilty of mischief for their roles in the 2022 mass protest in Ottawa. According to a news release from the non-profit helping his defence, Barber is arguing the proceedings should be halted because he 'sought advice from lawyers, police and a Superior Court Judge' on the legality of the protest. The application was filed a day after Barber learned Crown prosecutors were pursuing a two-year prison sentence, according to the news release from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. The organization said the application, if successful, would allow Barber to avoid jail time. Barber and Lich were key figures and in the protest that saw hundreds of vehicles and thousands of people occupy downtown Ottawa and insist they would remain until COVID-19 public health mandates were eliminated. In finding them guilty, the trial judge concluded the evidence showed Barber had encouraged people to join or remain at the protest, despite knowing the adverse effect it was having on downtown residents and businesses.
CBC
07-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Former MPP Randy Hillier wins bid to appeal dismissal of COVID-19 lockdown Charter challenge
Social Sharing Ontario's highest court has ruled that gathering limits during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2021 unjustifiably violated the Charter right to peaceful assembly, and it's allowing former Ottawa-area MPP Randy Hillier to appeal the dismissal of his challenge on the constitutionality of those limits. In a decision published Monday, Justice Peter Lauwers wrote that peaceful assembly and political protest are "integral to a functioning democracy," and that the effect of shutdown and stay-at-home orders was to "stifle" assemblies protesting those bans. Hillier was charged with provincial offences under the Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act for acting as a host or organizer at two protests in eastern Ontario in 2021: in Kemptville on April 8, and in Cornwall on May 1. After he was charged, Hillier and his lawyers at Charter Advocates Canada — funded by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms — challenged the gathering limits. In 2023, Superior Court Justice John Callaghan determined the limits were reasonable and dismissed Hillier's challenge. Lauwers disagreed with Callaghan's analysis, finding that Callaghan "focused on the law's overwhelming social good in preventing the spread of COVID-19, not on ways in which the fundamental freedom of peaceful assembly might still be accommodated in the delicate task of balancing," among other errors. 'Constitution does not fade from view in times of crisis' He also noted that Ontario managed to come up with more tailored restrictions on religious gatherings in order to facilitate freedom of religion, but "no such tailoring was performed to facilitate the right to peacefully assemble." In fact, the evidence showed that the province failed to consider it, Lauwers wrote. "The pandemic posed significant challenges for Ontario, but the Constitution does not fade from view in times of crisis," his decision reads. There is no evidence that an exemption to allow peaceful assembly outside would have increased risk, Lauwers found, or that matching the exemption for permitted gatherings like weddings, funerals and religious services would have increased risk. There is also no evidence of increased risk at the outdoor protests Hillier attended. Court of Appeal Justices Benjamin Zarnett and Renee Pomerance agreed with Lauwers. Hillier has 10 days to write to the court about what he thinks an appropriate remedy should be, with the province's submissions and any follow-up submissions by Hillier to follow. The parties aren't seeking to be reimbursed for costs. One of Hillier's lawyers, Chris Fleury, wrote in an emailed statement that he and Hillier are "extremely pleased with the decision" and that "a Canadian Court has finally found that a government went too far in imposing Covid-era gathering restrictions and curtailing civil liberties." He declined to comment on remedy, as the issue remains before the court.
CBC
01-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Alberta lawyers who had Manitoba judge tailed lose bid to avoid law society discipline in their province
Two Alberta lawyers who hired a private investigator to follow the Manitoba judge who presided over their case challenging COVID-19 restrictions in 2021 have lost their bid to avoid possible law society discipline in their province. Jay Cameron and John Carpay argued they shouldn't have to face potential censure by the Law Society of Alberta because they had already been punished for their actions by Manitoba's legal regulator, which in 2023 barred them from practising in that province and ordered them to pay $5,000. The lawyers argued Alberta's law society "exhausted its jurisdiction" when it allowed Manitoba's regulator to conduct the initial investigation and proceedings, and that proceeding with its own now "amounts to "double discipline" and is an abuse of process,'" a Law Society of Alberta hearing committee decision released last month says. However, the decision concluded, going along with that interpretation "would result in the untenable situation" that the Law Society of Alberta "is unable to remove from its rolls a lawyer who is unsuitable for practice," and noted the Manitoba proceedings determined that province's law society didn't have the jurisdiction to suspend or disbar Alberta lawyers. Cameron and Carpay were charged with attempting to obstruct justice and intimidation of a justice system participant after hiring a private investigator to follow Manitoba Court of King's Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal, who was presiding over a case against pandemic rules brought forward by seven rural Manitoba churches represented by the Calgary-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which the accused both worked for. Both lawyers were in October 2023 barred from practising law in Canada for three years as part of a plea deal with Manitoba prosecutors that saw their charges stayed in a case that involved behaviour a judge called " nothing short of an affront on the administration of justice." Wanted to prove public health rules arbitrary Court heard in 2023 Carpay hired a private investigation firm to tail several Manitoba officials in addition to Joyal, including Dr. Brent Roussin, chief provincial public health officer, and then-premier Brian Pallister. Cameron, whose professional corporation had been retained by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, had proposed using any proof of public officials breaching public health rules in an affidavit to potentially support an argument that the orders were arbitrary, court heard. Joyal revealed in court that he was being followed while the COVID-19 challenge case was being heard in July 2021. He said he noticed he was being tailed by someone in a black vehicle and tried to confront them as they avoided eye contact, court heard. After a break in that hearing, Carpay said his organization had retained the investigator. Both he and Cameron apologized for the error in judgment. At some point after that, court heard, Carpay deleted the entire contents of his email account, including all correspondence with the private investigator. Cameron also later directed the investigator to stop all surveillance "and delete everything." Cameron and Carpay's lawyers previously said their clients didn't intend to obstruct justice or intimidate, and that they were taking steps they "believed to be appropriate at the time." Joyal ultimately found the province's public health orders were reasonable limitations on the group's Charter rights in the context of the pandemic, and that Manitoba's chief public health officer did have the authority to execute them. Cameron and Carpay's law society hearing in Alberta is scheduled for May 28, the law society decision says.
