John Carpay
Career and advocacy
Career and advocacy
-------------------

He was called to the bar in 1999\. He worked in civil litigation with [Calgary](/wiki/Calgary "Calgary") legal firm Rooney Prentice before working for the [Canadian Taxpayers Federation](/wiki/Canadian_Taxpayers_Federation "Canadian Taxpayers Federation") conservative advocacy organization and as the [executive director](/wiki/Executive_director "Executive director") of the Canadian Constitution Foundation.

As of 2023, Carpay was the president of [Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms](/wiki/Justice_Centre_for_Constitutional_Freedoms "Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms"), which he founded in 2010\. The organisation describes its mission to defend "the constitutional freedoms of Canadians through litigation and education."

Carpay has written columns for [*The National Post*](/wiki/National_Post "National Post"), *[The Calgary Herald](/wiki/Calgary_Herald "Calgary Herald")*, and *[Huffington Post.](/wiki/HuffPost "HuffPost")*

In 2021, Carpay supported seven churches in their legal bid to fight COVID\-19 public health regulations, and during that time, he hired a private investigator to follow Manitoba chief justice [Glenn Joyal](/wiki/Glenn_Joyal "Glenn Joyal"). Those actions prompted a misconduct complaint from human rights lawyer [Richard Warman](/wiki/Richard_Warman "Richard Warman") and critique from [University of Alberta](/wiki/University_of_Alberta "University of Alberta")'s vice dean of law Eric Adams, who described the action as a "tremendous, tremendous lapse of judgment." Carpay took indefinite leave from the JCCF in July 2021, before being reinstated as president in August 2021\. Six of the nine members of the board of directors resigned following his reinstatement. An arrest warrant for was issued by [Winnipeg Police](/wiki/Winnipeg_Police_Service "Winnipeg Police Service") in December 2022, prompting Carpay to present himself to [Calgary Police Service](/wiki/Calgary_Police_Service "Calgary Police Service"), where he was arrested on December 30 before being released the next day. Carpay has been charged with "intimidation of a justice system participant and attempting to obstruct justice." The [Law Society of Manitoba](/wiki/Law_Society_of_Manitoba "Law Society of Manitoba") will bring professional misconduct against Carpay at a February 2023 hearing in [Winnipeg](/wiki/Winnipeg "Winnipeg").

On August 21 2023, The Law Society of Manitoba barred from practising in the province and ordered him to pay $5,000\. In his statement Carpay said, “I fully acknowledge that my instructing surveillance of Chief Justice (Glenn) Joyal was in violation of my professional obligations as a lawyer to the court and to society,”

  

  


What is the mission of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms?