The National Pardon Centre™

If you are looking for a service to handle your Canadian pardon or US entry waiver application for you take your time and look carefully because sometime around mid 2007 a lot of new companies popped up all claiming to be “Canada’s #1 Service”.  Most of these are old paralegals trying to get into the pardon and waiver market but very few have any experience in preparing pardon or waiver applications.

Unfortunately it is clear that a number of these new services are in it for the money alone with very little concern for the client whose life often depends on the results of a successful application. You can see this from companies offering limited time specials that are not limited at all but are always available. It is the classic bait and hook technique common to sales based companies whose profits are the bottom line. I watch the industry regularly and I have never seen a true “limited time special”. The special is always available, at all times. Unfortunately, sales techniques like this often work because people fail to see the relationship between “cost” and “value”. Usually the sale is offset by the additional charges written in fine print.

If you would like to see the pardon and waiver industry’s number 1 scam click the link in the next paragraph. I can only hope no one is gullible enough to fall for this because the writer of this “website” could not even bother to do a spell and grammar check. If I didn’t think a few people actually fell for this I would find it quite amusing  

Click here to view the pardon industry’s number one SCAM! Also note that another company is actually advertising on this site. I do not know if they are affiliated but I strongly advise not using either of these websites. The advertising company plagiarized my own company’s website (National Pardon Centre) quite obviously when they opened their doors recently.

All this being said every business must make money so don’t expect to find a company willing to handle your paperwork free of charge. The fact is you made a mistake and it is your responsibility to deal with it. But with a little research you should be able to find a service that is honest and that you feel comfortable dealing with.

The following is a short list of things to think about when looking for a reliable pardon and waiver service:

• Office location: Where is the office of the company you are dealing with located? And more importantly can you visit the office and speak with a counselor in person? A company that only does business over the phone or only by internet lacks credibility.
• Fingerprinting services: The first step in a pardon or waiver application is to have your fingerprints taken. This service is either provided by the police or by an authorized fingerprinting agency. Most pardon and waiver services will outsource this step because they are unable or unwilling to take the necessary steps to obtain the credentials required to obtain fingerprints. Ask if they provide on-site fingerprinting. If not go somewhere else. Keep in mind that if you are processing an application through the mail you may have to go to your local police anyway, but the availability of this service is a good indicator of a company’s status.
• Additional charges:  Also known as “disbursement charges” these are necessary fees payable to various government agencies (National Parole Board, Local Police, Courts, etc.). Some companies will include this in the fee schedule, some will not. This is not necessarily an indicator of the reliability of a company but it is something to look out for. Some companies that offer a service at an apparently low fee will be charging you extra as the application progresses. Ask in advance so you know what you are getting into.
• Application System: When you are applying online with a company look at the information they are asking you in the system. Is the applicatin page only concerned with your name and credit card information? Or is the company actually asking for details about your criminal record? Obviously a company that asks for no details about your criminal record is probably only out to sell you a service. Be careful with these ones.

Another thing you should keep in mind is that a pardon or waiver application can be handled entirely on your own. But contrary to what some people will tell you it is far more involved than simply filling in a few forms and submitting the application with a $50 cheque to the government. There are many fees payable to various places for a variety of reasons. And each application is unique so unless you know what you are doing you can’t really be sure you are doing it right.

And finally you are going to have to be patient because no matter what service you deal with Canadian pardons and US entry waivers cannot be completed overnight. Some pardons take a few months, but in general you should plan on things taking up to a year, depending on the details of your case of course.

Good luck!

Contrary to popular belief circulating among the media these days American border agencies do not have access to pardoned criminal convictions. Pardoned records are sealed and kept separate and apart from active criminal records and no matter what anyone tells you the Americans do not have access to the pardoned criminal record database. And although this is the good, honest truth there are many reasons for the confusion going around. The following should help clarify:

If an American border agent has viewed your criminal record prior to obtaining a pardon it will be downloaded into FBI files. Border agents will then always have access to it, regardless of a pardon from Canada.

• American law and American authorities do not recognize Canadian pardons. Therefore, if you admit to having received a pardon they will register your name with the FBI database. You will then be considered to have an active criminal record as far as the American border is concerned.
• Since American law does not recognize pardons when you enter the country you are required to disclose your pardon to border authorities, even though they do not have access to pardoned criminal records.
• You do not need to have been convicted of a crime to be barred from entering the United States. Canadians have been refused entry for admitting to having used marijuana among other minor transgressions.

The bottom line is that you should be aware of the laws when traveling to the United States. But the truth is that American border guards DO NOT HAVE ACESS TO PARDONED CRIMINAL RECORDS.
 

The answer to this question should be self-evident but I receive so many calls at the National Pardon Centre that I am confronted, on a somewhat regular basis, by people who do not see the value of a Canadian pardon. I find it unsettling because these people will invariably see the value of a pardon once it begins to affect their life. In many cases the effects are permanent. Perhaps the person lost a job, was permanently banned from the United States or could not adopt a child.

It can even be as simple as a ban from volunteering with a child’s little league team. The point is that it doesn’t matter what your motivations are, it just matters that you clear your name. A pardon is important because there is no shortage of ways a criminal record can affect your life.

The bottom line is that we have all made mistakes in our lives. And for some people (current studies suggest up to 35% of the population) those mistakes come with the penalty of a criminal record filed by the RCMP, the courts and any local police involved when the charges were laid. The result is a detailed trail of criminal activity and a label beside your name that says “criminal”. In most cases it doesn’t matter what the crime was, it only matters that a crime was committed.

Now let me make this perfectly clear. THERE IS NO OTHER COUNTRY WITH A PARDON PROGRAM LIKE CANADA’S. If you live in Canada you live in a country where you are allowed to be pardoned. The system is not biased, it does not favour anyone. It has no interest based on personal or political connections, race, religion, education or any other defining characteristic. It is a surprisingly fair and humane program that we should be proud to have.

Here in Canada we believe that people can change for the better and that rehabilitation works. It is a principle the pardon program was created for and one we all feel strongly about here at the National Pardon Centre. If you need help moving forward you’ve found the right place. We are here to help you get clear the record of past mistakes!

The following article was commissioned by CMMA (Canadian Medical Marijuana Association) in September 2003 and was published in their annual ciruculation. It is represented here unedited:

Although the National Pardon Centre does not encourage any form of transgression from the law I personally believe that a criminal charge for the possession, production and/or distribution of marijuana is disproportionate to the harms this simple plant can cause. In Canada’s current political climate the issue of marijuana legislation can realistically be reduced to one important point and easily argued on several others.

If the Canadian government, the medical community, and a significant majority of the Canadian population have come to realize that the medical use of marijuana is legitimate, then it is the responsibility of the government to provide the public with a safe and legal means of obtaining it. Failure to do so is not only ridiculous but a crime against the individual, both legal and moral.

The government should be held accountable when sick Canadian citizens are forced into a position whereby obtaining medicine is tied to a criminal record. There is no choice to be made here. Anyone who would refuse medicine based on the risk associated with police intervention clearly does not take the disease they are suffering from seriously.

As if a victim of multiple sclerosis does not have enough barriers in life to overcome. As if my neighbour, who struggles daily with Parkinson’s disease, concerns himself with the police when smoking marijuana will ease his pain!

Any argument against the legalization of marijuana denies the rights of the individual and conveniently avoids the realities of human nature in a free society. People will do what they want to do and will be policed only as much as they want to be policed. And in the presence of illness, a rational, educated population will obtain whatever they can to ease their suffering, by whatever means possible. The human desire to ease pain outweighs the human need to comply with the law…always. 

We need to realize that the prohibition of marijuana does not make sense to Canadians now, just as the prohibition of alcohol did not make sense to Americans in the 20’s. The war on drugs is essentially a post-modern example of mass hysteria and it will not be won. We know this because history has proven it. Marijuana use will continue regardless of any legal penalty.

Producers should be licensed and monitored with a government program created to educate the public. Teach people that the abuse of marijuana is an unhealthy and potentially harmful activity. It is the only fair and logical solution because criminal charges no longer make any sense.

The federal government has a chance to make things different. It has a chance to stop the crime and unclog the courts. But the answer is not decriminalization. It is complete legalization. Taxes create more revenue than tickets and education is more effective than empty scare tactics. The former encourages personal reflection, the latter paranoia. So which kind of society shall we choose?

It’s time to be real. Let’s move forward. I say support the complete legalization of Marijuana. Grow it, regulate it and tax it for Canada’s health and education funds. It’s as simple as that. Anything else is a waste of the public’s time and resources.

By Michael Ashby
Director: National Pardon Centre