Do You Have To Answer Police Questions In Canada?

You’re walking down the street, you’re minding your own business one day, and a police officer comes up to you and says, “Hey, can I ask you a few questions?” How do you respond in this situation? What do you do? Can you walk away? Do you have to answer the questions? 

This is a very misunderstood concept, and I’m going to break it down for you today. Do you have to answer police questions in Canada? Let’s break it down. So first of all, the typical and general rule is you have a right to remain silent. You typically do not have to answer any police questions. And in that situation of walking down the street, what I would do is I would say to the officer, look, am I under arrest under detention? And if the officer says no, say ‘I’m not answering any of your questions, I’m choosing to walk away and I’m remaining silent,’ and I would just walk away if the officer says to you, however, yes, you’re under detention. 

You don’t have to answer any questions, except for one, you do have to produce ID. I would just produce ID and identify yourself and say nothing more, ask to speak to a lawyer, because either your under an investigated attention, and I would ask that and say, “look, I’m not answering any of your questions, and I want to speak to a lawyer now.” That’s what you do in that particular situation. So, what are the other exceptions? Well, I’ve gone over this in other videos. One exception is if you’re a driver in a car. In that situation, if the police pull you over, the only thing you have to provide, because they’re going to ask is your license, registration, identification, of course, and insurance. So you do have to provide that. You are not obligated to answer any other questions. If you don’t want to answer their questions, you can say, I’m choosing to remain silent. 

But of course, you also don’t want to tick off an officer in a given situation if you know I’m leaving it to your discretion. But it certainly doesn’t hurt if you haven’t been drinking or anything like that, to say where you answer the odd question. But your basic right is you don’t have to say anything in that situation. So let’s break it down further. What are your rights in Canada? Under the section seven of the charter, you have a right remain silent. That’s a very important right, and I break that down in another video. If you’re under arrest or investigation by the police, you do not want to give your version of events. You don’t want to answer any of the questions other than you know ID, provide your ID. You do have to do that. So you have to be careful in this situation, whether it’s a traffic stop, do provide your ID. If it’s on the street, ask the question |”Am I under arrest or detention”, and if they say no, no, I’m not answer your question, I’m walking away. But clearly, if they do arrest or say you’re under detention, you better give that ID and then just absolutely shut up. 

Same after arrest. You need to shut up. You need to ask to speak to a lawyer. So those are tips that I’ve gone over in other videos. But these are the basic rights in Canada. We have freedoms under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and we have privacy rights, and the police can’t just intrude in your life and start, coming up here on the street, they were doing this for years. They were doing carding, where they randomly approach people. People don’t know their rights. They’re confused. They think they have to talk to the police, and it led to a lot of racial profiling, very unfortunately, and that’s a very poor practice in my submission to you. So, there you have it. Stay safe, stay informed. Know your rights, and you can watch a lot of these rights on my YouTube channel. 

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