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Canadian Police Are Texting Potential Murder Witnesses (vice.com)
On Thursday, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) will send text messages to anybody who was in the vicinity of a murder in the hopes that one of them will have information that can help catch the culprit. One of the recipients may even be the killer. Others may wonder how the police obtained their phone number in the first place, or knew where they were on the day in question. From a Motherboard report: The OPP is ramping up its efforts to find the murderer of 65-year-old hitchhiker John Hatch, who was found dead near Erin, Ontario, on December 17, 2015. He was last seen alive the day before, outside Ottawa. Now, the OPP has announced what it's describing as a "new investigative technique" for the force: obtaining the phone numbers of everyone who was in the area where and when Hatch was last seen alive, via a court order, and sending each person a text message directing them to a police website. If they follow those instructions, they'll be asked a series of online questions. According to digital privacy lawyer David Fraser, this technique is known as a "tower dump" -- essentially asking telecom companies for information about everyone who connected to a certain cellphone tower, at a given time. If the police plan on using this technique again, its future uses could have unintended effects, Frasier said.
You're right, the US right is much weaker. Canada listed it twice just to be sure that it didn't disappear:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_7_of_the_Canadian_Charter_of_Rights_and_Freedoms
7. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.
"In R. v. Hebert the court held that the right to silence was a principle of fundamental justice. Statements of the accused may not be achieved through police trickery and silence may not be used to make any inference of guilt."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_v_Hebert
"McLachlin found that the right to silence was a principle of fundamental justice and as such was protected under section 7."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_11_of_the_Canadian_Charter_of_Rights_and_Freedoms
11. Any person charged with an offence has the right ...
(c) not to be compelled to be a witness in proceedings against that person in respect of the offence;
The only exceptions are for witnesses in court, in which case anything a witness is compelled to speak about in court cannot be used against them in any case ever. I guess that's three times! My bad! Well, that and anytime you're crossing the border in any fashion. When the CBSA orders you to talk, you must or face jail/fines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_13_of_the_Canadian_Charter_of_Rights_and_Freedoms
13. A witness who testifies in any proceedings has the right not to have any incriminating evidence so given used to incriminate that witness in any other proceedings, except in a prosecution for perjury or for the giving of contradictory evidence.
IANAL, but if you speak with a police officer they'll tell you how seriously the right to remain silent is taken in Canada. You can even refuse to talk at a RIDE checkpoint, but expect to be given a hard time for it. I have not yet found an exception outside of a courtroom.
Now, the right to open your trap and say something, and then have Miranda rights get that erased, no, we don't exactly have that in Canada. So don't open your mouth and you won't have that issue. And lawyers will tell that that you will have to keep it shut for a long time. Could get annoying. Better than jail. But Canada doesn't have any laws that compel you to talk, except in a courtroom where you're covered by section 13 of the charter anyways. Unless you can point me towards something I don't know about.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2007/11/02/right_to_remain_silent_not_a_given_court_says.html