Alberta lawyers planned surveillance of Manitoba premier, top doctor in 2021 COVID challenge

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This article was published 02/10/2023 (748 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two Alberta lawyers who hired a private investigator to spy on a Manitoba judge as he presided over a 2021 COVID-19 public health orders challenge had plans also to surveil the province’s premier and top doctor.

At a Law Society of Manitoba hearing in August, John Carpay and Jay Cameron of the Calgary-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms were barred from practising law in Manitoba and issued $5,000 fines.

The law society’s Sept. 15 written decision on the file (made public last week) contains further details of misconduct, including concretely revealing their plans to conduct surveillance on then-premier Brian Pallister and chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin to see if they were complying with public health orders.

Previously, Carpay had admitted to hiring the PI firm to tail unnamed, senior Manitoba government figures; statements from officials had only suggested Pallister and Roussin may have been similarly targeted.

At the Aug. 21 hearing, Carpay and Cameron agreed to the law society’s recommendations. Carpay pleaded guilty to breach of integrity, while Cameron admitted to professional misconduct.

The lawyers represented seven churches in 2021 seeking to overturn Manitoba public health orders which prevented in-person religious services during the pandemic.

Carpay’s lawyer said previously his client was not acting as counsel for the churches but gave them instructions.

Carpay temporarily stepped down as president of the libertarian centre after admitting during the churches’ court challenge he had hired a private investigator to follow Chief Justice Glenn Joyal of the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench.

The spying began after Cameron, the centre’s litigation director, sent two emails to Carpay on June 8, 2021.

“Cameron had received unverified information that some notable government representatives in both Manitoba and Alberta may have been observed breaking public health orders,” read statements of agreed facts included in the law society’s written decision.

“In the first email, Cameron proposed hiring private investigators ‘to get pictures of a few key people breaking health orders’ and using any proof of officials breaching the public health restrictions in an affidavit to potentially support an argument that the orders were arbitrary. He described the proposed surveillance as a ‘legitimate litigation expense.’”

In Cameron’s next email, he suggested adding Joyal to the list, the facts read.

Carpay then hired an unnamed, local private investigation firm to conduct “passive covert surveillance” of the premier and chief public health officer.

“In an email to the PI dated June 16, 2021, Carpay wrote: ‘I suggest you commence surveillance of premier Pallister to catch him breaking rules, and further watch Chief Justice Glenn Joyal of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench,’” the law society decision reads.

No other Manitoba judges or justice system participants were placed under surveillance, the decision notes.

On June 28, 2021, the private investigator told Carpay that Joyal had been spotted riding in a vehicle with an unidentified woman while neither wore a face mask.

Cameron and Carpay had further contact with the private investigator in the following days, including discussions about determining the identity of the woman — during which time the Winnipeg Police Service was alerted to the surveillance of the judge.

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On July 12, 2021, Joyal convened a hearing, during which he revealed publicly he had been tailed by a private investigation firm.

Joyal later rejected the churches’ challenge and concluded public health orders did not violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and a provincial public health officer had the authority to issue the orders.

Carpay and Cameron still face criminal charges in Manitoba, including allegedly attempting to obstruct justice.

Lawyers for the men told the August law society hearing the Alberta duo never meant to interfere with a court case.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Erik Pindera
Reporter

Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.  Read more about Erik.

Every piece of reporting Erik produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.