#1 Canada No right to counsel during interrogation: top court
Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 4:50 pm
Globe and Mail
[quote]Police are winning the unceasing war over the rights of suspected criminals on a major battleground – the Supreme Court of Canada.
In a ruling full of friction between a bare majority of judges wanting to avoid hampering officers in their work and a minority fighting for the rights of the accused, the court said on Friday that while suspects have a right to consult a lawyer and to be informed of that right, they don’t have a right to legal counsel while they are being interrogated.
The judges focused on the constitutional right to legal counsel, but the bigger picture involved the steady erosion of criminal rights established in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Over strenuous objections from their dissenting colleagues, Madam Justice Beverley McLachlin and Madam Justice Louise Charron rejected the notion of the U.S.-style Miranda warnings that are a fixture of television police shows.
“Adopting procedural protections from other jurisdictions in a piecemeal fashion risks upsetting the balance that has been struck by Canadian courts and legislatures,â€
[quote]Police are winning the unceasing war over the rights of suspected criminals on a major battleground – the Supreme Court of Canada.
In a ruling full of friction between a bare majority of judges wanting to avoid hampering officers in their work and a minority fighting for the rights of the accused, the court said on Friday that while suspects have a right to consult a lawyer and to be informed of that right, they don’t have a right to legal counsel while they are being interrogated.
The judges focused on the constitutional right to legal counsel, but the bigger picture involved the steady erosion of criminal rights established in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Over strenuous objections from their dissenting colleagues, Madam Justice Beverley McLachlin and Madam Justice Louise Charron rejected the notion of the U.S.-style Miranda warnings that are a fixture of television police shows.
“Adopting procedural protections from other jurisdictions in a piecemeal fashion risks upsetting the balance that has been struck by Canadian courts and legislatures,â€