No right to lawyer during questioning, SCC rules

SCC- The Supreme Court of Canada
CTV.ca News Staff

Date: Friday Oct. 8, 2010 3:04 PM ET


Canadian suspects of serious crimes do not have a constitutional right to have a lawyer present during questioning by authorities, the Supreme Court of Canada said today.

In three decisions released Friday, a sharply divided court ruled on a suspect's right to have counsel, specifically whether the Charter's right to counsel extends beyond being able to call and talk to a lawyer after being arrested.

In the central case, the court ruled 5-4 that Canadians have no right to have a lawyer sit in during an interrogation.

"The charter does not mandate the presence of defence counsel throughout a custodial interrogation," the majority decision said. "Precedent is against this interpretation."

The court said police cannot force a suspect to participate in an interrogation, but that the suspect does not have the right to have a lawyer there if they chose to participate in the interrogation.

"The police are not empowered by the common law or by statute, and still less by our Constitution, to prevent or undermine the effective exercise by detainees of either their right to silence or their right to counsel, or to compel them against their clearly expressed wishes to participate in interrogations until confession," the court stated.

The court specifically noted Canadians do not have the same rights as Americans do during interrogations.

"We are not persuaded that the (American) Miranda rule should be transplanted in Canadian soil," the majority decision said. "Adopting procedural protections from other jurisdictions in a piecemeal fashion risks upsetting the balance that has been struck by Canadian courts and legislatures."

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20101008/right-lawyer-101008/


What the hell is happening to our country?

 

just use your right to be silent until counsel is available to you...problem solved

 

Canada is on the road to becoming a fascist militant state. Over the past 10 years I've gone from legally watching hacked American satellite television to not being legally aloud to install Linux on my Xbox! They increased police forces by 60 thousand and called it a "new safer Canada" with all these new laws and reduced freedoms to enforce and harass us with... I wonder what's next on the freedoms list to be cut.

 

Do you really believe that?

FYI, the majority of people support more police.

 

This is the path we're on; disarm the people, increase laws and fines, increase police force, decrease personal freedoms...

We let big corporations like Microsoft move in and run out family businesses with audits and million dollar law suits over the smallest software discrepancies while they struggle to compete with the likes of Walmart and Staples... We chuckle at Rick Mercer complaining about the government and do nothing while our tax money is swindled and our national resources are practically given away to other countries...

We need to start shooting at our politicians, Americans would not put up with being systematically disarmed, Americans would not put up with removing the right to attorney...

 

I think it is true for all of north america.

 

Stephen Harper, The Reform party and the rest of generation Disco.

Yes I do.

Thats the problème wth facism and police states....
They are always very popular and enjoy a large amount of support from the public.