''R v Hebert''

990 Year 990 ( CMXC) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Al-Mansur, Chancellor and effective ruler of Al-Andalus, conquers the Castle of Montemor-o-Velho (modern Portugal), expanding t ...

2 S.C.R. 151 is the leading

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

decision on an accused's

right to silence The right to silence is a legal principle which guarantees any individual the right to refuse to answer questions from law enforcement officers or court officials. It is a legal right recognized, explicitly or by convention, in many of the worl ...

under section seven of the

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part of the '' Constitution Act, 1982''. The ''Char ...

Background

In 1987, Neil Hebert was arrested for armed robbery. He was informed of his rights and taken to an

RCMP The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...

detachment. Upon consulting a lawyer, he said he was not going to make any statements. Hebert was put in a cell with an undercover agent posing as another arrested suspect. The undercover agent chatted with Hebert and managed to elicit several incriminating statements from him. At trial, a

voir dire (; often ; from an Anglo-Norman term in common law meaning "to speak the truth") is a legal term for procedures during a trial that help a judge decide certain issues: * Prospective jurors are questioned to decide whether they can be fair and i ...

was held to determine the admissibility of the conversation. The judge found that Hebert's right to counsel under section 10(b) of the Charter, and his right to remain silent under section 7 were violated. On appeal the court found that Hebert's rights were not violated and a new trial was ordered.

Opinion of the Court

Beverley McLachlin Beverley Marian McLachlin (born September 7, 1943) is a Canadian jurist and author who served as the 17th chief justice of Canada from 2000 to 2017. She is the longest-serving chief justice in Canadian history and the first woman to hold the ...

, writing for the majority, held that the evidence was inadmissible and upheld the trial judge's ruling. McLachlin found that the right to silence was a principle of fundamental justice and as such was protected under section 7. Once in police custody, an accused's right cannot be undermined through acts of police trickery. However, if the accused were to divulge information to an informer or undercover agent of their own free will then the statements could be used against them.

References

External links

* Section Seven Charter case law Supreme Court of Canada cases 1990 in Canadian case law Canadian criminal procedure case law Canadian evidence case law {{canada-law-stub