RIGHT TO COUNSEL AT TRIAL

Abstract

This article considers the scope of the right to counsel, in particular, whether indigent youth have a positive right to counsel following summary offences and whether the unavailability of counsel violates the principles of natural justice. By surveying the case law that potentially supports this right and illustrating a lack of binding authority by systematically reviewing the case law relied on by the Court, it challenges the Supreme Court’s reluctance to find the right and argues the contrary result. The author also comments on judicial attitudes toward the procedural guarantees set out in the Canadian Bill of Rights, and their applicability to the case under discussion.