The Supreme Court of Canada refused to import the Miranda doctrine, and found that “while suspects have a right to consult a lawyer and to be informed of that right, they don’t have a right to legal counsel while they are being interrogated.”

Over strenuous objections from their dissenting colleagues, Madam Justice Beverley McLachlin and Madam Justice Louise Charron rejected the notion of the U.S.-style Miranda warnings that are a fixture of television police shows.

“Adopting procedural protections from other jurisdictions in a piecemeal fashion risks upsetting the balance that has been struck by Canadian courts and legislatures,” they wrote. “We are not persuaded that the Miranda rule should be transplanted in Canadian soil.”

I wonder if the Justices of the United States Supreme Court will find this opinion from a foreign Court persuasive when construing American criminal procedure law. Probably not.