"Subject: RE: BS: does one have to go to police station
From: McGrath of Harlow - PM
Date: 10 Nov 12 - 11:07 AM

Mind, putting that into the formal warning is just saying something that had always been the unstated truth."

I would like to get Richard's take on that assertion as far as Britain is concerned, but that is most certainly untrue in Canada. No prosecutor would be allowed to make such a suggestion in cross-examination, and if a judge said so in his instructions to the jury, any conviction would likely be reversed on appeal.

In Canada the police cannot force you to come in for questioning. Their options if you refuse are to let you go on your way, or to arrest you. Of course they can be quite good at persuading you, but if they bring you in against your will without reasonable and probable grounds to believe you have committed a crime it's unlikely that anything you say would be admitted into evidence.