5 Surprising Legal Rights Most Canadians Get Wrong

Most Canadians think they know their criminal law legal rights, and you’d be wrong about that, many Canadians get those rights, wrong. And here today, we’re trying to break down why Canadians get their legal rights wrong.

We’re going to go through the top five legal rights that they typically get wrong. So first of all, the biggest one I find is, you don’t have to answer police questions. A lot of people think you have to, the police approach or the street, you have to answer the questions. You have to cooperate. If you saw a crime, you have to cooperate, you don’t. Whether you’re charged, whether you’re witness. You do not have to answer those questions.

There are only very narrow exceptions to that. In a traffic stop, if you’re the driver, you have to provide your identification, your licence, insurance, registration. If you’re under arrest, you have to identify yourself in the same manner, and that’s all. You don’t say anything else, and that’s what any lawyer is going to tell you, shut up. Don’t talk to the police. You don’t have to talk to them unless you want to. I mean, if you’re a witness to a crime, morally, you may feel that you want to, but you may not. That’s totally up to you.

Secondly, this is one that the public gets wrong all the time. The police cannot search your phone without a search warrant. That’s your basic right. Certainly, when you’re arrested, they can seize your phone as part of the arrest, but they can’t go scrolling through it and search it.

They need to get a search warrant, only if they have reasonable and probable grounds that you’ve committed a crime that’s going to be stated in your phone, like hiring a hit man or doing a drug transaction or engaging in a minor for sexual relations as an example, they’d have to get a search warrant and do an analysis of your phone. There are very narrow exceptions to that, and they rarely apply. The one exception, for example, is if they feel there’s some sort of imminent crime going to happen that they need to stop. For example, it’s called exigent E, X, I, G, E N, T, circumstances of emergency, where they need to see who you’ve texted on that phone, for example, to kill someone. How often does that apply?

So they can’t search your phone without a warrant, typically, unless that narrow exception applies. And you don’t have to give them your password. If they ask for the password, don’t give it to them. That’s totally up to you, of course, but that’s your right. Very misunderstood, right?

Thirdly, you don’t have to let the police in your home without a search warrant. The police show up at your home and they say, we’re coming in, “well do you have a search warrant?. No, no, you’re not coming in.” Close the door. Done, done deal. But you can consent. Many people in that situation, the police will say, “Oh, do you mind if we look around” and they don’t know what to do? They panic and they let them in, and then they find evidence of a crime or not. Police rummage through their stuff and wreck their home for a while. You don’t have to let them in your home. That’s a very misunderstood right and they should produce a search warrant and then, of course, cooperate and let them in and stand by her and let them do the search. You have no choice at that point.

Fourthly, a lot of people don’t realize that you’re allowed to film the police in public. So it’s the day of the iPhone cell phones. People do this, as long as you’re not interfering with an arrest or interfering with them, and you’re in a public place, you stand back, you can perfectly film. They demand you give them the film. You don’t have to. They shouldn’t be doing that, by the way. That’s your right to film the police in public, as long as you’re not interfering with their duty. So for example, you’re right in the face during arrest, and they can’t even arrest the person. You could get charged with obstruct justice.

Then, fifthly, this is a little bit similar to the states, a little bit different. A lot of people don’t realize we have a right to a speedy trial here. That’s a state’s terminology. It is in Canada, under Section 11 B of the charter, you have a right to be tried within a reasonable period of time. That’s a guaranteed right. And the timelines are this, in the Ontario Court of Justice, the lower court, from the date the information is sworn against you until the completion of your trial that has to be completed within 18 months. In the Superior Court of Justice It’s from the date of information to the completion of trial, little longer, 30 months. If that delay is caused by lack of judicial resources, not getting disclosure to you, etc, lack of courtrooms, lack of judges, lack of Crown attorneys, that’s going on a little bit in the province, believe me, I do another video about that. That case will potentially get tossed out because your lawyer would bring a section 11b of the charter application for trial delay, and hopefully get the matter stayed for you, if it’s beyond those timelines. Of course, sometimes defense counsel causes delay because they sit on their hands. Those times will be subtracted from that so that we’re talking about systemic resource delay due to lack of resources, lack of judges, lack of Crown Attorney’s, delayed disclosure, delayed getting things to you. We have fairness getting speedy trials in Canada. So there you have it. There are five rights that many Canadians think they know about, but they’re wrong about it. I’ve explained how these rights are in Canada. It’s been great. Another great day of videos. We’ve enjoyed it per usual, and we’ll see you in the next video.