The Right to Counsel and the Right to Have Counsel Present

John Burchill has written an excellent working primer on section 10(b) of the Charter entitled: "The Right to Counsel and the Right to Have Counsel Present". Below, you will find an excerpt from his introduction, followed by a link to the article itself.

"In this article I will attempt to canvass a number of court decisions dealing with the Constitutional right to remain silent leading up to the Court's decision in Singh and the eventual rulings in Sinclair, Willier and McCrimmon, excluding counsel from actually being present during the interview process, either as a silent witness or as a “coach”.

While I touch on such concepts as oppression, operating mind, and other aspects of the interview process that are generally considered when determining if a statement is voluntary of not, they are not the focus of this paper. Readers who are interested in the admissibility of statements and the law of confessions should refer to such cases as R. v. Oickle and to other sources such as Rene J. Marin’s book on the Admissibility of Statements."

Read the excellent paper here.