Bruce Pardy: Surveilling a judge was wrong, but we must keep a close eye on government officials msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Yet, the responses of the two different organizations couldn’t have been more different.
The most recent rogue was John Carpay, president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.
On July 12, he admitted that he had hired a private eye to not only spy on senior government officials in Manitoba to see if they were complying with COVID-19 restrictions, but on Glenn Joyal, chief justice of Manitoba’s Court of Queen’s Bench.
Joyal, who is hearing the case of seven rural churches that violated COVID restrictions by staying open, raised the matter in court, where Justice Centre lawyers are asking for parts of the provincial public health act to be declared unconstitutional.
The revelation that a firm representing Manitoba churches hired a private investigator to tail a judge, to see if he complied with COVID-19 public health orders, sent shockwaves across the country Monday. Any effort to intimidate a judge is not acceptable in a free and democratic society such as Canada, federal Justice Minister David Lametti said.
Four days after he realized he was being followed around Winnipeg, Court of Queen s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal accepted the apologies of two lawyers for the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, a right-wing Calgary group, which is fighting Manitoba s public-health restrictions in court.
Winnipeg Free Press By: Dan Lett | Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Monday, Jul. 12, 2021
Opinion
It would not be wrong to suggest Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba s chief public health officer, has a penchant for understatement.
Winnipeg Free Press
Roussin typically answers direct questions with short, direct answers. He is not given to hyperbole or exaggeration.
In stark contrast to Manitoba s volatile first premier, for whom every news conference is an opportunity for political self-flagellation, Roussin has never said anything for which he must later apologize.
Right-wing centre condemned for hiring P.I. to follow Manitoba chief justice Click to Expand
The chief justice of Manitoba s Court of Queen s Bench, Glenn Joyal, says he s been followed by a private investigator. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press files)
Author of the article: Glen Dawkins
Publishing date: Jul 13, 2021 • 5 hours ago • 3 minute read • Glenn Joyal, Chief Justice of the Court of Queen s Bench, speaks during a media availability in the Manitoba Court of Appeal about changes to the three levels of Manitoba Court in light of the COVID-19 pandemic on Tues., March 17, 2020. Photo by Kevin King /Winnipeg Sun
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A Manitoba judge says he was followed by a private investigator to try to embarrass him by catching him breaking public health orders, as he deliberates on a court challenge against those rules by seven churches.
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“Without wishing to sound apocryphal, as it relates to the still-unknown person or persons who hired the agency, the situation I have described raises the spectre of potential intimidation, and it can also give rise to possible speculation about obstruction of justice, direct and indirect,” said Court of Queen’s Bench Chief Justice