What does Section 9 of the Charter protect against?

Section 9 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects everyone in Canada from arbitrary detention or imprisonment. The full text reads: 'Everyone has the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned'. Section 9 prevents the state from depriving a person of liberty without lawful authority and (where the law confers authority) without complying with the applicable legal standards. A detention is arbitrary if it lacks lawful authority or if the authority is exercised without reasonable grounds.

The Supreme Court of Canada set out the modern framework for section 9 in R. v. Grant (2009), companion case to the section 8 evidence-exclusion decision. A detention occurs when a state agent compels a person to comply with a demand or significantly interferes with the person's freedom of movement, whether by physical or psychological compulsion. R. v. Suberu (2009) confirmed that the section 10(b) right to counsel applies the moment detention crystallises. R. v. Mann (2004) recognised a limited common-law power of investigative detention based on reasonable suspicion connected to a recent or ongoing criminal offence.

Section 9 has shaped policing across Canada. Random street checks (commonly called 'carding' or 'street checks') have been challenged as section 9 violations and as racially discriminatory under section 15. Ontario's Regulation 58/16 (in force January 1, 2017) banned arbitrary collection of identifying information during police stops not connected to a specific investigation. Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia have all introduced similar reforms. R. v. Le (2019) addressed racial profiling in a police entry to a backyard.

Section 9 also applies to immigration detention under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, mental-health detention under provincial mental-health statutes, and pandemic-related quarantine and isolation orders. The Canadian Council for Refugees v. Canada (2023) addressed the Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States. The Federal Court has reviewed many immigration-detention cases under sections 7, 9, and 10(c). Bail provisions under section 515 of the Criminal Code engage section 11(e) of the Charter (the right not to be denied reasonable bail without just cause), and reform is a recurring topic in federal-provincial justice ministers' discussions.