Charter Rights: Legal Rights: Difference between revisions

These legal rights are not absolute. As explained above, governments can limit them under section 1 of the Charter. Apart from these possible limits, the Charter protects the rights described below. The legal rights in the Charter most often apply in criminal cases, but they can also apply in other cases—for example, if you worked for a government agency and your employer attempted to search you before you left the premises after completing your shift.

Section 7 gives everyone the right to life, liberty, and security of the person, and the right not to lose these things unless they are taken away according to principles of fundamental justice. The Charter protects more than just the right to physical liberty—the right not to be held against your will without proper process. It also protects the right to be free from physical assault or interference, or the threat of them. It protects conduct that people are free to pursue. If the government interferes with your liberty or security, it must follow fair laws and procedures.

An important right under section 7 is the right to remain silent if you are a suspect in a criminal offence. The police cannot force you to answer their questions, but they may continue to ask questions even if you say that you do not want to answer.

Section 8 gives everyone the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure. Section 8 affects the laws that permit the police to search your home or place of business, your car, or even you, in certain cases. It also affects the actions of individual police officers. Section 8 protects property if you have a reasonable expectation of privacy. So before police can search or seize, they must have a good reason to do so. For example, if the police believe that you have stolen TVs and cell phones, they cannot just enter your apartment and search you and your rooms. Such a search would usually be unjustified if the police do not have a search warrant from a judge or justice of the peace. And even if they did have a warrant, it might not be properly issued. These are examples of searches that would be unreasonable, and would therefore violate section 8. But section 8 does not protect your privacy in all cases. It depends on the context. Courts focus on the person’s expectation of privacy in the place, thing, or information at issue. For example, if you leave property at a friend’s house or put garbage out on the sidewalk for pick-up, you don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy in those places. But if you password-protect your personal computer at your home, you have a stronger expectation of privacy.

Section 9 gives everyone the right not to be arbitrarily arrested, held, or imprisoned. Something is arbitrary if there is no good reason for it or if it is done because of someone's opinion and there is no good reason for that opinion. The Criminal Code and other laws control powers of arrest and those laws must be consistent with section 9 of the Charter. For example, the police can arrest a person who they reasonably believe committed a murder or fraud or some other criminal offence. The person must be brought before a Justice of the Peace as soon as possible—normally within 24 hours—to see if they can be released from custody. The police cannot hold the suspect in custody without proper grounds (or reasons) to arrest or detain them. The police must be able to justify what they did.

Section 10 applies if police arrest or detain you. It gives you the right to be told promptly why you are arrested or held. You also have the right to speak to a lawyer immediately – before the police question you – and to be told that you have that right. The police must give you privacy and a way to exercise your right to call a lawyer.

Section 11 puts several fundamental principles of Canadian criminal law into the Charter. It controls how a person charged with an offence is treated in a criminal case. Some of these rights, such as the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and the right not to be a witness against yourself, existed long before the Charter. One important right with a powerful effect under the Charter is the right to a trial within a reasonable time. Another is the right to be informed without unreasonable delay of the specific offence you are charged with. Section 11 also gives a person charged with an offence the right to reasonable bail unless there is just cause (a good reason) to deny it. Section 11 provides a right to trial by jury if an offence can be punished with imprisonment for 5 years or more (the Criminal Code also gives a right to trial by jury for some other serious offences).

Under section 12, everyone has the right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual treatment or punishment. When courts decide whether treatment or punishment is cruel and unusual, they often ask if it is so harsh that it shocks the conscience of the Canadian public. Torture is an example of cruel and unusual treatment.

At a criminal trial, the accused person can decide whether to testify (give evidence) in their own defence. Other people generally cannot refuse to testify: they must do so if they receive a subpoena (a document ordering them to come to court and give evidence). If they refuse to testify, they can be charged with contempt of court. And anyone who lies in their testimony (the evidence they give) can be charged with perjury.

If a witness at the criminal trial of another person is asked about their personal involvement in criminal activity, they must answer honestly. But a prosecutor cannot use their answers against them. Section 13 says that testimony from a witness showing they committed criminal cannot be used to prove they are guilty of that criminal activity. But a prosecutor can use a witness's answer to show that they are lying (committing perjury) in that case, or in a later case if they are charged and deny the criminal activity.

Section 14 gives everyone the right to an interpreter in any legal proceedings if they don't understand or speak the language being used, or if they’re deaf.