John Carpay | |
---|---|
Born | |
Citizenship | Canada |
Alma mater | Université Laval University of Calgary |
Occupation(s) | Lawyer, and President of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms |
John Carpay is a Netherlands-born Canadian lawyer, the president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, and a newspaper columnist.
In 2021, Carpay made Canadian news and took a leave of absence from the JCCF after he hired a private investigator to follow the Manitoba chief justice who was presiding over a COVID-19 related court case in which Carpay was legal counsel.
Carpay was born in the Netherlands, before moving to British Columbia, Canada.[1]
He has a bachelor of arts in political science from Université Laval and an Bachelor of Laws from the University of Calgary.[1][2]
He was called to the bar in 1999.[1][2] He worked in civil litigation with Calgary legal firm Rooney Prentice[2] before working for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation conservative advocacy organization[1][3] and as the executive director of the Canadian Constitution Foundation.[4]
As of 2023, Carpay was the president of Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms,[5] which he founded in 2010.[6] The organisation describes its mission to defend "the constitutional freedoms of Canadians through litigation and education."[7]
Carpay has written columns for The National Post, The Calgary Herald, and Huffington Post.[3]
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.[7][8] Those actions prompted a misconduct complaint from human rights lawyer Richard Warman and critique from University of Alberta's vice dean of law Eric Adams, who described the action as a "tremendous, tremendous lapse of judgment."[7] Carpay took indefinite leave from the JCCF in July 2021, before being reinstated as president in August 2021.[7] Six of the nine members of the board of directors resigned following his reinstatement.[4] An arrest warrant for was issued by Winnipeg Police in December 2022, prompting Carpay to present himself to Calgary Police Service, where he was arrested on December 30[9][10] before being released the next day.[11] Carpay has been charged with "intimidation of a justice system participant and attempting to obstruct justice."[5] The Law Society of Manitoba will bring professional misconduct against Carpay at a February 2023 hearing in Winnipeg.[5]
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,”[12]
In 2018, Carpay drew criticism from Jason Kenny for comparing the LGBT flag to a swastika[13] in a discussion on Rebel Media, for which he later apologised.[14]
Carpay ran for the Reform Party in 1993[15] and the Wildrose Party in 2012.[3] Carpay is a member of the United Conservative Party of Alberta.[13][16]