Anti-COVID restriction lawyers disbarred by Law Society of Alberta

By Medicine Hat News on September 4, 2025.

Calgary lawyer John Carpay, known for his fierce opposition to COVID restrictions, has been disbarred by a second provincial law society in two years.

Carpay, president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, along with Jay Cameron, its former litigation director, were first disbarred in Manitoba for hiring a private investigator in 2021 to surveil a judge. The pair said they were hoping to catch the judge disobeying the restrictions they’d imposed, leading to the 2023 decision in Manitoba.

On Tuesday, the Law Society of Alberta followed suit stemming from a hearing which occurred in May. In an 18-page report issued this week, the LSA says Carpay was being sanctioned for “failing to discharge all of his responsibilities to his client, the public and other members of the profession honourably and with integrity.”

The JCCF was funding court challenges of COVID restrictions in Manitoba in 2021, and Cameron had been chosen to lead the charge in court. The pair were not only caught paying a private investigator to surveil a judge, they were also tagged for deleting evidence after the fact.

A statement on the JCCF website says the “decision to disbar John Carpay is a vindictive abuse of process.”

It claims the LSA had agreed to have Manitoba’s law society handle discipline for the incidents, though the LSA report says the agreement was that Manitoba would simply go the disciplinary process first.

“In December 2023, Mr. Carpay submitted his letter of resignation to the Alberta Law Society,” the JCCF statement reads. “However, 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.”

The LSA report also cites criminal charges in Manitoba which both initially faced before going to civil sanctions through a plea deal.

Carpay has been fined $7,457.50, while Cameron has been fined $5,270.63. They were each fined $5,000 in the 2023 disbarment from Manitoba.