Section Nine of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

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Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [ v • d • e ]
Preamble
Guarantee of Rights and Freedoms
1
Fundamental Freedoms
2
Democratic Rights
3, 4, 5
Mobility Rights
6
Legal Rights
7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Equality Rights
15
Official Languages of Canada
16, 16.1, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22
Minority Language Education Rights
23
Enforcement
24
General
25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31
Application of Charter
32, 33
Citation
34

Section Nine of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, found under the "Legal rights" heading in the Charter, guarantees the right against arbitrary detainment and imprisonment. The provision is invoked in the criminal law context generally where a police officer who stops, detains, arrests or otherwise restains a suspect without reasonable grounds. This right is among the rights that can be overridden by section 33.

Section nine states:

9. Everyone has the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned.

[edit] Interpretation

Detainment within the meaning of both section nine and section ten is not invoked unless there is significant physical or psychological restraint. ^[1] Detainment can be found to be arbitrary where thereis "no express or implied criteria which govern its exercise."^[2]

Where section nine has been invoked the crown must show that the police were acting under a lawful duty. This duty can either be from the common law^[3] or statute. Following this, the crown must show that the conduct itself was a justifiable use of their authority granted under the duty.

In R. v. Wilson (1990), it was found that random stops by police, authorized by statute, were in violation of section 9 but was justified as a reasonable limitation under section 1 of the Charter. Likewise, in R. v. Ladouceur (1990) highway stops were found to be arbitrary where absolute discretion was given to the police. Again, the violation was justified under section 1.