Charges against John Carpay and Randal Jay Cameron of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) have been stayed after a Manitoba court ruling Friday afternoon. The lawyers’ defence and the Crown attorney reached a common-law peace bond agreement requiring Carpay and Cameron to abstain from practicing law in Canada for three years. The lawyers were charged with attempting to obstruct justice by hiring a private investigator to follow Manitoba chief King’s Bench Justice Glenn Joyal in 2021. They were also charged with intimidation of a justice system participant. Joyal was presiding over Cameron and Carpay’s 2021 case against COVID-19 restrictions. The lawyers were representing seven rural Manitoba churches impacted adversely by government overreach. At the time Carpay, president of JCCF, wrote a personal letter to the judge apologizing for “making an error in judgment” by including “a judge in the passive surveillance of government officials,” according to a statement from JCCF. He also took responsibility as the director of the organization. More than 17 months after the surveillance and the apology, Carpay was unexpectedly arrested on Dec. 30, 2022 and spent 23 hours in jail. “I am not going to be intimidated, and I’m going to keep on speaking out against … all the violations of our rights and freedoms,” Carpay said in a short video after he was released. Justice Joyal ultimately ruled the public health orders in Manitoba were reasonable limits on the population’s Charter rights and the chief health officer was allowed to implement them. This week the matter came to court, with Carpay and Cameron’s defence attorneys, Saul Simmonds and Alex Steigerwald, arguing men did not intend to intimidate the judge, as well as Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin and then premier Brian Pallister.Simmonds argued Carpay, "believes in the importance of the judiciary's independence" and acknowledges his obligation to act with integrity as a lawyer. Steigerwald emphasized Cameron’s career fighting for individual rights and freedoms and so far has had an “"unblemished career doing so.”King's Bench Justice Shane Perlmutter agreed to the common-law peace bond in court Friday. He called it a type of "preventative justice” and said the behaviour was “an affront on the administration of justice.” Crown attorney Chris Vanderhooft accepted the assertion that the accused did not “intend” to cause fear but said their choices were "egregiously misguided.” The JCCF released a statement explaining the “sole purpose and intent of this passive surveillance in 2021 was to attempt to determine the veracity, or lack thereof, of rumours that Manitoba government officials (including judges) were not complying with the Covid restrictions which they themselves had placed on the people of Manitoba.”“During lockdowns, media reported that many government officials across Canada did not follow Covid restrictions.” “The decision of the Crown to stay the charges reflects the fact that there was never any criminal wrongdoing on the part of Mr. Carpay,” the statement said. “There was nothing criminal about Mr. Carpay’s error in judgment. There was never any intent to interfere with the course of justice or with the judicial process.”“Lawyers in Manitoba and across Canada routinely hire private investigators, particularly in the practice of family law and insurance law. Crown Prosecutors know that there is nothing criminal about operating a private investigation business, or retaining a private investigator, or conducting passive surveillance.”“It is worth noting that no criminal charges were filed against the private investigators who conducted surveillance on the judge and on other government officials.”“Depriving a man of his liberty and of the company of his family and friends, particularly during his short Christmas vacation, was extremely stressful for Mr. Carpay and his family. It appears that these charges were brought against Mr. Carpay for political reasons, in an attempt to intimidate him.”
