Frankly, this is yet another article justifying why you must never speak to the police.
But section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms:
> 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.
has been found to provide similar protections. You can be required to identify yourself, and, in drunk driving cases, you can be required to do roadside sobriety tests, but in general, you aren't obliged to answer questions from the police.
Had he not spoken to the police at all, and instead waited to present his evidence in court, he likely would have been found not guilty and therefore would have cleared his name.
Him talking to police worsened the situation because they are not the ones who evaluate the evidence and make a conviction decision (judges/juries do that). The job of the police is to collect evidence, and Barker did that for them (to his detriment).
Modulo the third party scammer that created the situation, the bad actor here is the RCMP itself for bringing the weight of the government down on this guy without doing the real work of actually investigating. The true reform would be to destroy this regressive idea whereby government agents/systems can attack people and then just walk away from the matter after realizing they are wrong. If there were statutory reimbursements for hiring legal representation, time spent/detained, emotional distress etc, then the victim here would have the resources to continue the matter in the eventually consistent justice system. Instead the official policy would seem to be something like "Thank you for your involuntary contribution to this rookie agent's training. Better luck next time"