Unchecked power: the constitutional regulation of arrest reconsidered.(Canada)

Over the last twenty years the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has had a profound impact on almost every facet of the criminal investigative process. Arrest provides a conspicuous exception. This article casts a probing light on police arrest powers in Canada. exposing justifiable concerns about how these powers are sometimes used. Gaps in existing intake and bail procedures are explored, revealing how a police officer's partisan assessment of the grounds for an arrest can often control an individual's custodial status long into the criminal process.

A reconsideration of the constitutional treatment of arrest highlights why the Charter has not yet provided a meaningful check on police arrest decisions. The article questions the current reading of section 9, the tight "not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned", for falling to recognize that unlawful arrests are inherently arbitrary. The author also explores how other Charter guarantees--including the fight "to be secure against unreasonable ... seizure", the right to have the validity of a "detention determined by way of habeas corpus" and the right not to be denied one's "liberty" and "security" interests "except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice"--could be interpreted to augment section 9 and mandate the creation of procedural safeguards to protect against unjustified arrests.

Ultimately, the author concludes that it is necessary for the Supreme Court of Canada to recognize that unlawful arrests are inherently arbitrary and hence unconstitutional under section 9. The Court must also recognize that the structure of current arrest and intake procedures is fundamentally unjust, and therefore at odds with section 7 of the Charter. Only then will Parliament be moved to provide the sort of checks that are necessary for the effective regulation of police arrest decisions in future.

Au cours des vingt demieres annees, la Charte candienne des droits et libertes a eu un profond impact sur la plupart des facettes du processus d'enquete criminelle. L'arrestation demeure toutefois une exception flagrante. Cet article met en lumiere les pouvoirs d'arrestation des corps policiers au Canada en soulevant certaines inquietudes quant a la maniere dont ces pouvoirs sont parfois exerces. L'auteur explore ensaite les lacunes des procedures d'admission et de cautionnement existantes, revelant comment l'valuation partisane d'un policier des motifs d'atrestation peut souvent controler l'etat d'artestation de l'individu tout au long de ha procedure criminelle.

Le defaut de ne pas avoir su developper de controles constitotionnels efficaces fondes sur la Charte pour ce domaine important du droit est ensuite explique. Cet article met en question l'interpretation antuelle de l'article 9, le >, parce qu'elle n'admet pas que les attestations illicites sont manifestement arbitraires. L'auteur explore comment les autres garanbes juridiques de la Charte--compte tenant le droit >, le droit > et le deoit de ne pas etre prive des interets de l'individu de la > et la > de la personne sauf >--pourraient etre interprete de manikin que l'article 9 se prenne plus de force et que la creation des sauvegardes de la procedure, se protegeant contre les arrestations lilicites, soit commande.