Comment on Legal Blog
The charter rights protect the rights of every Canadian citizen to get treated according to the rules and regulations guided by the constitution. More so, the charter protects Canadians from all types of infringements by policies, laws, or government actions. Hence, the charter rights protect arrested people from a prolonged stay in custody before appearing to a judge in court. Therefore, this paper discusses the reduction of sentences by the judge and monetary award damages as the remedies issued to a person whose charter rights have been breached.
According to s. 24(1) in case someone’s charter rights get breached, the court either reduces the sentence or offer a monetary award to the person. Recently the Canada Supreme Court has granted a stay of proceedings due to violation of s.11(b) of the accused people’s rights (Brown, 2020). In the case of R versus Reilly, 2019 ABCA 212, the proceedings were stayed after breaching the rights of accused persons. However, the ABCA overturned the ruling of stay, claiming that the judge improperly provided a remedy for the accused due to systematic issues (Brown, 2020).
In Alberta, the charter rights of accused persons were bleached. First, the police officers conducted the hearings process instead of the Crown. Secondly, lack of duty counsels at the bail hearings. More so, frequent delay of accused people to appear in court (Brown, 2020). Thus, the provincial authority implemented the concerns by initiating substantial scale reforms. Mr. Reilly charged with assault was detained over 35 hours before appearing in the court. Hence, the judge’s order was to stay the proceedings due to the breaches. Moreover, the evaluation for a stay proceeding is from R versus Babos case, 2014 SCC 16. The case embraces that the stay of proceedings is an exceptional remedy. Also, it should get warranted in case the integrity of the judicial process gets undermined, and when the trial gets compromised.
The ABCA illustrates that the stay of proceedings is not for the interest of the public. The forms of breaches of the charter rights enhance specific challenges for judges and litigants. Thus, potential remedies suggested by ABCA entails the reduction of sentence, credit for the custody time, and monetary award to persons who are not convicted (Brown, 2020).
The case expresses the fight against the breach of the charter rights of accused persons. Furthermore, it uses the Canadian constitution to describe various remedies to compensate the accused in case their charter rights are abused by law enforcement. The Reilly case illustrates the failure of law enforcement on how to handle the accused people before appearing to the court. Therefore, the authority should follow the constitution regulations when dealing with accused persons to prevent the breach of their rights. Moreover, the case posted in the blog allows the accused to understand their charter rights and prevent them from mistreatments like prolonged detainment. The breaching of the charter rights facilitates the stay for proceedings. Thus, prosecutors should be cautious to prevent the violation of charter rights. Thus, the case raises challenges on criminal law on identifying the appropriate remedy in case of a charter rights violation.