According to The Star, a judge in Canada stated in a recent case that individuals who are arrested should be given the right to look for a lawyer through Google. The Canadian judge did not stop at this, he also wrote in the ruling that each police station should have computers and access to internet so arrested individuals could search a lawyer. The ruling came from the Provincial Court of Alberta’s judge H.A. Lamoureux, who was listening to Christopher McKay’s case. The 19-year-old McKay was arrested after he was found under the influence and his breathalyzer test score was also over the legal limit. So when police brought him to the station he was offered to call a lawyer but the young kid made only one phone call and that too was not successful. Later when McKay was enquired why he did not make another call to find an attorney he said he thought that only one phone call is allowed as is generally portrayed in the movies and television.
Afterwards during a hearing, McKay said that the only way he would try to look for the information about an unknown subject is through Google rather than calling information or flipping through a phone book. He even stated that 411 is not a “viable search engine” in his view. After hearing these statements from McKay, Judge Lamoureux noted down in the ruling that “We are at an unprecedented time in human history,” and the “vast majority of individuals born after the year 1980 first look to the virtual world for information” rather than telephone books or “numbers posted on a wall.”
Therefore, when McKay was not offered the internet access, it means that he “was not given a reasonable opportunity to exercise his right to access a lawyer,” Judge Lamoureux writes in the ruling. The judge then went on to suggest that all police stations should readily available internet facility and computers to deal with such situations. Lamoureux wrote, “In the Court’s view, in the year 2013 police providing access to the internet is part of a detainee’s reasonable opportunity to contact legal counsel.”
Though, law offenders do deserve penalty or punishment, they also have rights therefore McKay’s case should be taken as a positive development in the way people use different means to search or communicate with each other. Furthermore, this case should also consider in other parts of the world as well, so more and more arrested individuals can practice their rights.
Source: TheVerge
Photo: Wired
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