Know Your Rights · Canada

Rights that apply across Canada

These come from the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is part of the Constitution and binds every level of government. Provincial law adds caveats and procedures … it cannot subtract from these.

• You can speak and assemble in public. Sections 2(b) (expression) and 2(c) (peaceful assembly) protect protest in public spaces. Police can impose narrow time, place, and manner restrictions but cannot lawfully restrict based on the content of your message.
• You can record in public. Filming police performing their duties in a public space is legal across Canada. Officers cannot lawfully demand you stop, delete footage, or hand over your phone without a warrant.
• You can refuse a search. Section 8 protects against unreasonable search and seizure. Police need a warrant, your consent, or a recognized exception (search incident to lawful arrest, plain view, exigent circumstances) to search you, your bag, your vehicle, or your phone (R v. Fearon imposes limits even on incident-to-arrest phone searches).
• You can remain silent. Section 7 (principles of fundamental justice) and the common-law right against self-incrimination mean you don’t have to answer questions about where you’ve been, what you’ve been doing, or who you know. Unlike the UK, Canada generally does not draw adverse inferences from silence.
• You can ask if you’re being detained. “Am I being detained, or am I free to go?” If detained under section 9, your section 10 rights to know the reason and to retain counsel without delay attach immediately.
• You can have a lawyer. Section 10(b) guarantees the right to retain and instruct counsel without delay on detention or arrest, and to be informed of that right. Once you ask for a lawyer, police must hold off on questioning until you’ve had a reasonable opportunity to consult one.

Provincial law layers on top of the Charter. Quebec has a separate Charter of human rights and freedoms (Charte des droits et libertés de la personne) and a civil-law system that affects procedure. Indigenous Peoples have additional protections under Charter §35, treaties, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), now incorporated into federal law. Each scenario card lists the divergences that matter most for that situation.