Anyone who is arrested or charged with an offence has the right to a lawyer. You have the right to choose your lawyer and you have the right to legal advice in your first language. The police must assist you, by providing a telephone and privacy, in contacting a lawyer.
Generally speaking you have the right to remain silent and to answer no questions. It is almost always most prudent to remain silent -- under no circumstances should you mislead the police. Misleading the police amounts to a crime whereas remaining silent is totally proper.
In case of arrest, you have specific rights. If the police want to take you into custody, they must:
Say who they are and show you identification.
Tell you they are arresting you, explain why and make sure that you understand them.
Touch you to indicate that you are officially under arrest.
Tell you that you have the right to call a lawyer and that you can remain silent.
Generally the only information you should give the police is your name, address and date of birth.
In the event you were driving a motor vehicle the police can ask you to provide a breath sample and you are legally obliged to provide such sample. This requirement is limited to driving -- a breath sample is not available otherwise. Also, if stopped while driving the police are entitled to see your driver's licence, auto ownership and insurance. Failing to produce these is a provincial offence.
Within 24 hours, the police must take you to court so a Justice can consider bail or let you go.
4 comments:
"The police must assist you, by providing a telephone and privacy, in contacting a lawyer. "
Within what period of time, if held incommunicado for 6, 12, or 18 hrs does this constitute a breach of their rights?
That's fine as far as the actual law goes, but what about dealing with "laws" that the police just make up.
Rural - I believe the actual text of the law states that these things must be provided within a "reasonable amount of time".
What is reasonable is determined by a judge. So if you were arrested alone in a small town 18 hours is probably not a reasonable amount of time.
However, if you were one of the 1000 people arrested at the same, a longer period of time would likely be considered reasonable due to a limited number of telephones, or officers to process people etc.
So yeah - there's no hard and fast rule.
I notice it's dropping offthe front pages very, very quickly.
Post a Comment