A lot of people ask me what is the real value of a pardon? Because a pardon does not completely erase your criminal record (a pardon seals the record completely) sometimes people feel that it isn’t entirely necessary. But that isn’t the case. Have a look at the article below because a pardon even outranks a police force. And in my opinion that is a pretty strong rank and a good reason people should always get a pardon if they have a criminal conviction on their record.

By Pierre Saint-Arnaud, THE CANADIAN PRESS

MONTREAL — Montreal police violated a woman’s rights by rejecting her job application because of a prior shoplifting conviction, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday.
The woman, whose name has been withheld from court documents, pleaded guilty to theft in 1990 and was officially pardoned five years later. When she applied to be a police officer in 1995, the department ran a background check and discovered the conviction.
The woman was told her application was rejected because she didn’t have the “good moral character” to meet hiring standards.
But the country’s highest court said the rejection infringed on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Writing for the majority, Justice Marie Deschamps wrote that a person who has obtained a pardon is protected by the charter when applying for employment as a police officer.
She said the police department only based its rejection on the woman’s shoplifting conviction.
The court said while it’s true a police officer must demonstrate “exemplary behaviour,” the department could not use this one mistake against her.
Marc-Andre Dowd, vice-president of the Quebec Human Rights Commission, which originally championed the file, was satisfied with Friday’s ruling.
“The importance of this judgment is that it reinforced the value of a pardon,” Dowd said in an interview.

“It establishes a presumption that a person’s rehabilitation restores their moral integrity.”
The woman’s case was heard by the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal in 2002, which ruled in her favour.
Although the woman had since given up her attempt to join the force, the police department was ordered to pay $5,000 in moral damages.
The Quebec Court of Appeal upheld the tribunal’s decision in 2006.
The woman was 21 when she was arrested in August 1990 for stealing about $200 worth of clothes and accessories from a department store.
In May 1991, she pleaded guilty to theft and received a conditional discharge.
She did not tell police of her conviction because she believed, based on what she read in a letter from the RCMP, that the pardon had erased her criminal record.
The police department’s application form also never asked about pardoned offences.
After discovering she had pleaded guilty to theft, Montreal police reviewed reports and statements from the time of her arrest.
The police department would not grant interviews Friday, stating it was still reviewing the Supreme Court judgment.
“It establishes a presumption that a person’s rehabilitation restores their moral integrity.”
The woman’s case was heard by the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal in 2002, which ruled in her favour.
Although the woman had since given up her attempt to join the force, the police department was ordered to pay $5,000 in moral damages.
The Quebec Court of Appeal upheld the tribunal’s decision in 2006.
The woman was 21 when she was arrested in August 1990 for stealing about $200 worth of clothes and accessories from a department store.
In May 1991, she pleaded guilty to theft and received a conditional discharge.
She did not tell police of her conviction because she believed, based on what she read in a letter from the RCMP, that the pardon had erased her criminal record.
The police department’s application form also never asked about pardoned offences.
After discovering she had pleaded guilty to theft, Montreal police reviewed reports and statements from the time of her arrest.
The police department would not grant interviews Friday, stating it was still reviewing the Supreme Court judgment.

Recently I read an article in The Globe and Mail titled Pot: Why not legalize it? by Margaret Wente, July 24 2008. It concerns the state of marijuana law in Canada and why the law should be left just as it is, despite the fact that a majority of Canadians do not support it. Her closing line, after loosely running through the argument for both sides of this endless debate, is that the law is pretty much as it should be anyway, because police do not routinely enforce the law for simple marijuana possession…ie. the status quo is A O.K.

And this is actually true for the most part. Canadian police do not actively look to arrest people for simple possession of Cannabis; at least not everywhere in the country and not all the time. But that is exactly the problem. Even though police do not usually enforce possession laws they still can and they still do. The problem is that keeping outdated laws on the books gives police a power over the people that they shouldn’t have. Because once the police can arrest you for something that is not considered a crime society is taking one small step on a slippery slope towards a police state. And that is a scary thing.

Paranoid? Perhaps. But it comes with the territory because everyday I go to work I see a criminal record with a simple possession on it. I hear a story about an arrest for simple possession. I hear about people losing their jobs or being denied citizenship or being banned from crossing the border all because of a charge for simple possession. It’s time for us all to grow up on this issue because marijuana is a health matter, not a criminal one. And outdated laws are outdated laws, not good ones.

There are many reasons why an individual should have their Criminal Record removed. Below is a list of some of the most common problems associated with a criminal record.

Peace of Mind: Individuals can be consciously or unconsciously distressed by their past criminal records. Removing your criminal record will help make you feel better about yourself and your future prospects.

Getting / Keeping a Job: Employers conduct criminal record searches on job applicants prior to hiring them. A record may hinder your chance of getting hired. You can be subject to future criminal record searches by your employer. You may lose your job or denied a promotion if a future search reveals your criminal record. In some provinces Human Rights Codes prohibit discrimination based on a criminal record if the person has been pardoned.

Self Employment: Many companies who sub-contract individuals or small businesses are now requiring criminal record searches to be conducted on them.

Bondability: Being bonded means that the employer has paid insurance which will pay claims made against employees. It costs more to bond those with a criminal record. If having you bonded is too expensive for the employer, you may not be hired.

Custody of Your Children: Some parents have had their child custody and visitation rights negatively impacted because of a criminal record.

Apartment Rental: Standard rental application forms ask if you have a criminal record. It may be difficult finding a place to live when you have a criminal record.

Educational Opportunities: Many educational programs require criminal checks before the program requirements can be met.

Stigma of a Criminal Past: People often suffer accusations and have their credibility questioned because of their criminal record.

Travel to the U.S.A.: Individuals with criminal records have been denied entry to the USA. A U.S. Entry Waiver can provide you with peace of mind by ensuring a hassle free border crossing.

Canadian Immigration: Canadian Immigration often rejects applications for refugee status, landed status and citizenship for those who have criminal records.

Volunteer Work: Some organizations require a criminal record search as a precondition for performing volunteer work.

I have been writing articles for a magazine concerned with the trucking industry called Over the Road. You might think truckers are the type to get arrested and that’s why pardons and criminal records apply to them but that would be unfair. The reason truckers are interested in the pardon system more than the average Canadian worker is because they are crossing the border on a regular basis and therefore a criminal record, if it exists, will come under heavier scrutiny for people working in the industry. So maybe truckers get arrested more often that the average Joe but I don’t think so and I certainly don’t have any evidence to support the claim or deny it.

One of the articles I wrote was about a Canadian pardon and how it affects the border when the Americans were not previously aware of the criminal record. Click here to read some of my previous articles you aren’t quite sure how that works.

One of the readers was somewhat upset at the claims made in the article because it seems that his experience contradicted the advice I was giving. He sent me an email explaining how I must retract my statements because obviously they were flawed based on his experience crossing (or not crossing) the United States border.

This is a tough situation because the advice I give is accurate but not absolute. The system is a system and it is prone to flaws and transgressions and no, you can never expect it to work 100% effectively all of the time in every situation. Life just doesn’t work that way.

But all that being said the Canadian pardon program is still a valuable program and short of the most unusual cases you can certainly count on and have confidence in the system. It gets a little trickier when you factor in the American border but even then you should be ok. You just need to know where you stand.

If you have a pardon and you want to be sure all is ok drop by your local police station and ask them to search CPIC for you. If nothing comes up your pardon worked. And if you have never been stopped at the border, deported, or had any experience that would lead you to believe the Americans are aware of your criminal record then you should be ok to cross the border too. Just don’t tell the Americans about your pardon.

Mind you, in a case like that you are breaking the law again. If all this sounds complicated don’t worry because it is.

Life is like that!

Running the National Pardon Centre can be tricky business. On the one hand you have people who love the service, understand the service and are grateful for the service the business offers. On the other hand you have people who don’t really understand the service, understand less about pardons in general and fail to understand that it is a service being offered by a private company, just like hiring someone to do your tax return. The latter are the ones that will often come back to haunt you. Sometimes they say you ripped them off. Sometimes they thought it was a government service. Sometimes they are arrested again and upset about that. But more often than not, they are just fed up with how long the application can take and they have to release that frustration somewhere. It comes with the territory.When I first opened my office in 2002 we actually had an official from the Quebec prison system circulate a memo calling the National Pardon Centre a “National Problem”, which was almost flattering for a tiny office of three people at the time. Not only is this inappropriate of a government official but it is obviously illegal. The National Pardon Centre is a federally registered corporation and protected from slander by the same basic laws that govern basic day to day human behaviour,  but that is for another post. We sent our lawyers after that guy, not so much to actually get him in trouble but just to make sure it never happened again; which it didn’t.

When you are arrested in Canada you always end up with a criminal record but in truth not all criminal records are created equal. A little confusion arises for people who are granted a “conditional” or “absolute discharge” from the court.

A discharge is about half way to being found guilty although that is far from a perfect explanation. If you received a discharge it means that the court found you “guilty” but did not convict you, which sounds like nothing more than legal mumbo jumbo except that the verdict does affect how your criminal record is retained and dealt with.

The nice thing about a discharge is that it will be removed from CPIC automatically (CPIC stands for Canadian Police Information Centre and is essentially the RCMP federal database of criminal records) provided you received that verdict after 1992. If you received a discharge prior to 1992 you need to make an application to have the record removed. And the way you make the application is through a purge and file destruction. This is similar to a Canadian pardon but the paperwork is a little different.

What you want to be careful about is that even if you received a discharge after 1992 you should still process a purge and file destruction. You need to do this for many reasons. One is that you cannot always count on the police to remove your record, so it is worth making sure it gets done. The other is that the record is only removed from CPIC. Any local police and court documents, etc. will remain on file unless you apply to have them destroyed.

The bottom line is that if you have been arrested take the responsibility upon yourself and make sure you have all the records destroyed, purge or pardoned. Just make sure it gets done. Of course, if you are planning to remain criminally active don’t bother. But if you plan on putting mistakes like that behind you it is definitely something worth doing.

When it comes to fielding questions about the pardon and waiver process I get a lot of the same, over and over. One of the common questions I count on being asked on a daily basis is “what do I have on my criminal record”?

The answer is simple and always the same. Your criminal record contains everything you have ever been arrested for. And until you make the application to have it removed, via a pardon application or a purge and file destruction, it remains there indefinitely. There is NO statute of limitations. And unless you received a “conditional or absolute discharge” prior to 1992 the record remains forever (If you are wondering what a “discharge” is please see my post next week).

But your criminal record doesn’t have to remain there forever. If you were arrested in Canada you can have your criminal record cleared, provided you’ve stayed out of trouble with the law.

But until you decide that you want to get this done for you, don’t count on anything happening.  Canada’s pardon program is unique but you still have to take the responsibility upon yourself and make sure it gets done.  And the sooner you get started the sooner your criminal record will go away for real.

Since this blog is all about Canadian pardons and US entry waivers sooner or later I was going to have to address fingerprinting. When I tell people I need their fingerprints often I am told to go and retrieve the ones that are on file with the police. This seems somewhat reasonable as I deal with people who have been arrested and, therefore, had their fingerprints taken. But for a pardon or waiver application, or for a simple background check, what are needed are non-criminal fingerprints.

We need the non-criminal prints because we can then use them to compare against the criminal prints on file with the RCMP when retrieving a criminal record from Ottawa. Otherwise if we were processing a pardon for say, John Smith, there is a pretty good chance we would come up with a criminal record, whether or not it happens to be the correct John Smith or the correct criminal record.

When we retrieve a criminal record using fingerprints we eliminate the name confusion, because even though there are many John Smiths in Canada, each John Smith definitely has his own fingerprint pattern. So for that reason (and because the government agencies want it to be done this way) we must obtain a fresh, new set of non-criminal fingerprints. Otherwise a pardon or waiver cannot be granted.

One of the most common questions I am asked is: “why should I pay an agency to apply for a pardon for me when I can do it myself?” To be perfectly honest, there are pros and cons associated with either option, and the choice is ultimately a personal one. But as with all decisions, it is preferable to make an informed one than to simply take a stab in the dark, so I will address a few of the issues involved in this choice here.

To begin with it is possible to apply for a pardon on your own. Forms are available through the National Parole Board, some court houses, and certain police stations. You do not need a lawyer, and you will not have to appear before a judge in order to get your pardon. That being said, applying for a pardon is not simply a matter of ticking off a few boxes and signing on the dotted line. In order to be able to fill out the paperwork, you will have to do a considerable amount of legwork and will have to deal directly with various government agencies including the RCMP, courts, police, the National Parole Board and possibly the National Archives.

For a novice, navigating a bureaucratic system like this can be both intimidating and extremely frustrating. Unfortunately, not all court workers and police/ RCMP officers are necessarily familiar with what is involved in a pardon application, and are therefore not always the best resource to consult if you have questions about how to complete your application. Most try to be as helpful as possible, but I have run in to some rather prickly characters over the years who have not only offered bad advice but outright misled the people who need it. Who is to be believed?

Another thing to consider is the fact that mistakes on criminal records are not altogether uncommon. A professional pardon service will know how to recognize errors and how to remedy them. Similarly, court workers and law enforcement officers can make mistakes when they complete the forms required for your pardon. Something as seemingly minor as forgetting to put their stamp in the appropriate spot can result in your pardon application being rejected by the Parole Board. Pardon services are trained to watch for this type of omission.

You should also keep in mind that applying for a pardon is very much a step-by-step process. You need to complete step A before moving on to step B, etc. Certain forms also expire after a specified period of time.  Because of this people often jump the gun and complete certain steps too early, which allows the paperwork to expire, which means that they have to start all over again from square one.

An agency that specializes in pardons is obviously familiar with the process and should not make this type of mistake. Moreover, and again due to experience within the field, a competent pardon service may be able to shave months off of the process. A good pardon and waiver service will be able to determine if and when this is appropriate or even possible.

Finally, one very common misconception is that applying for a pardon on your own is free. It is not. Merely sending the application to the Parole Board for review costs $50. Aside from that, there are costs associated with virtually every step of the process. You can expect to pay anywhere from $25-$50 for fingerprinting and another $25 to have your prints certified by the RCMP. Ordering court records often carries fees as well. In Calgary, for instance, court records cost $20 per conviction. If someone has 3 or 4 charges on their record, you can see how this could quickly add up. Finally, there may be fees for local police records checks. These range from $0- $80. Taken in this context, you can see that the fees charged by a pardon agency might not be so exhorbitant after all.

So while it is possible to apply for your pardon by yourself, hiring an agency can save you time and a lot of work. Many guarantee that your pardon will be granted, provided that you meet governmental eligibility requirements. Employing experienced professionals can also give you peace of mind. Just remember that not all companies are the same. I cannot stress the importance of shopping around and asking questions. If you do decide to engage the services of a pardon agency, just be sure to ask whether there will be any additional costs involved and what you will be expected to contribute to the process. If you do this, chances are that you won’t regret your choice.

Every once in awhile I get an angry email from someone asking me why I would want to get a pardon for a criminal. These emails usually go on to rant against criminals – scurge of the earth type stuff - without any understanding of human behaviour or the criminal justice system.

Well, so be it. People are passionate and ill informed. And at the time of writing Stephen Harper’s Conservative government is pushing a tough on crime agenda even though no tough on crime agenda has ever worked. The research points overwhelmingly to alternative measures.

The fact is that on television you see the worst of the worst. They don’t show the average person going to court for a DUI who feels really bad about it. That is just the nature of TV. But in reality the court system is clogged with the dullest of the dull. Average people arrested for average boring things. The problem is that boring criminal records can screw up a life just like the other ones. And that doesn’t seem fair.

A lot of these people are just like you or me. They are just everyday people who made a mistake and got caught. And if we saddled everyone who ever made a mistake with a criminal record we would quickly be living in a society with nothing but criminals.

So it’s because of the average person that I honestly believe in the program that grants Canadian pardons to average people like you and me. People make mistakes, particularly when they are young. And when you label someone a criminal and don’t offer a chance to change then chances are that person will remain a criminal.

And for the unconvinced who still worry about the dramatic stuff you see on TV, because let’s face it, that happens every once in a while too, I say not to worry. Anyone convicted of something worth making a TV movie about is never getting a pardon. They will be in jail or at least on probation forever and someone on probation has not completed their sentence. And without a completed sentence you can never get a pardon.

It’s quite amazing actually because this system seems to work AND make sense. So don’t ask why we allow pardons in Canada? Ask why most places in the world do not?