Ricky- defendant accused of stealing has fired his public defendant lawyer and decides to defend himself in court.

Ricky is an adult, but he is not a person who has had many opportunities in life.He only just passed his grade 10, he is not capable of speaking without swearing,and, he is addicted to cigarettes.Ricky tells the lawyer that under the Charter of rights and freedomswhile acting as his own defense he should be allowed to swear in court and smoke because he would not be able to defend himself otherwise. Not everyone who appears in court has the ability to hire a lawyer and of those people not all of them have excellent vocabularies. This is something you should consider in your analysis. The judge reluctantly agrees to let him swear and smoke in court while he is defending himself. Although the judge in this case made a decision in this matter, she did not really provide any reasons for her decision.Her decision was not necessarily correct.

Review the Canadian Charter and think of which sections/rights would be relevant and useful to Ricky's claims.Be creative with the Charter sections; be logical and rational too.