The Difference between the Miranda Rights and the Charter of Rights

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As Canadians, a portion of our rights that are read to us upon arrest are as follows: "It is my duty to inform you that you have the right to retain and instruct counsel in private without delay, You may call any lawyer you want.....You have the right to a reasonable opportunity to contact counsel. I am not obligated to take a statement from you or ask you to participate in any process which could provide incriminating evidence until you are certain about whether you want to exercise this right (Griffiths, 2011)
It seems pretty straight forward. We get arrested and we are told we can get a lawyer. Although you may not have been through the process, you have probably seen what happens next on the latest episode of law and order or NYPD Blue. You get taken into a tiny room to be questioned by an investigator or two, and your lawyer sits next to you and continually tells the investigators that you have nothing to say (Friedman, 2014). "You have the right to ... not much: Why are there no 'Miranda rights' in our country ?", is an article by Solomon Friedman that explains this is not the case in Canada, and asks the question, Why not?
Missing from this article is an explanation of what Miranda rights are, and how are they different from the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Miranda rights, also known as the Miranda warning, is a warning given by police in the United States to suspects in custody before they are interrogated. The name 'Miranda rights' comes from the case Miranda v. Arizona, where the Supreme Court held that the admission of incriminating statements by a suspect who has not been read their rights, violates one's right to council. Therefore if a police officer does not inform a suspect of their Mi...

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Friedman, S. (2014, March 10). You have the right to ... not much: Why are there no 'Miranda rights' in our country ?. The Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved from http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Griffiths, C. (2011). Canadian criminal Justice: A Primer. Toronto, Ontario: Nelson Education.
Miranda Warning. (2014, March 30). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_warning#Canada
Statistics Canada. (2013, July 24). Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/
Ward, J. (2010, October 8). No right to lawyer during questioning, says top court. The Canadian Press. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/
Warder, R. (2013, May 22). 10 controversial convictions based on false confessions. Listverse. Retrieved from http://listverse.com/

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