What is the impact of a police officer on a defence counsel’s confidence in their own counsel?
Ontario, Canada
The following excerpt is from R. v. Ma, 2008 ONCJ 799 (CanLII):
[51] Defence counsel urges upon me that the total deflecting the witness when he raises his advice from counsel, and when that officer on several occasions tries to convince the defendant to give a statement, notwithstanding his counsels advice, is that “it makes no sense for s. 10(b) of the Charter to provide for the right to retain and instruct counsel if law enforcement authorities are able to undermine either an accused’s confidence in his or her lawyer or the solicitor-client relationship”. (Burlingham v. The Queen (1995) 1995 CanLII 88 (SCC), 97 C.C.C. (3d) 385 (S.C.C.).)
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