The National Pardon Centre™

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?

There is a lot of misinformation circulating about Canadian pardon applications and how to apply for them so it is my hope that this blog will help clear things up a little. So first of all, let me explain how a Canadian pardon application works in the simplest terms.

A Canadian pardon application is granted by the National Parole Board so it is the gorvernment that is ultimately responsible for giving you your pardon. That being said the government has no program to assist people with the paperwork which is extrememly time consuming and fairly complicated in all but a few cases.

If you require assistance with your Canadian pardon application there are many companies offering pardon services but you may find a fairly large discrepency in how they work. The industry is not at all regulated so you may find certain companies trying to convince you that they are the government, or that they represent the government. This is simply not the case. Hiring a company to handle your Canadian pardon application is a lot like hiring an accountant to do your taxes. You can do it all on your own, but most people think it makes sense to have a professional handle it for them. The truth is that the police, the courts and even lawyers to a large extent are simply not up to date on pardon procedures and how they work. So very often people handling their own application are confused due to nothing more than getting the wrong advice.

At any rate a good pardon company should handle all of the paperowork on your behalf, with mimimal effort done by you. It should cost in the ballpark of $500.

Sometimes there are one or two steps that the client is REQUIRED to handle on his own, but in this case your representatvive should provide all the necessary documents and clear instructions on how to get it done.

When hiring a pardon company you should first clearly understand what it is you are paying for. Some companies will charge $500 simply to send you detailed instructions on how to complete the application yourself. This is a clear waste of money as you can get intstructions from the National Parole Board free of charge.

You also want to be aware of what the costs include. Some companies will charge the service fee and then bill disbursement charges at a later date, so a $500 fee becomes a $700 – $800. Generally speaking, most disbursement charges should be included in the service fee but it is not always the case and it is ultimately your responsibility to understand what it is you are paying for, and what is required of you.

Our modern Canada pardon originates from the Royal Prerogative of Mercy- a British tradition that gave the ruling monarch the ability to exercise absolute power over persons convicted of criminal acts. Via the Letters Patent, this authority was embodied in the Governor General of Canada; our acting representative of the British Crown. (http://www.npb-cnlc.gc.ca/infocntr/policym/man_14_e.htm). Over the decades, helped along by the civil rights movements of the 1960’s and the enactment of legislation such as the Canadian Human Rights Act, the Canada pardon system has evolved into its current form. In theory, it is a nod to the fundamental goal of rehabilitation that pervades our criminal justice system. In practice, the Canada pardon provides individuals with Canadian criminal records a second chance and removes many of the barriers that are associated with having a criminal conviction.

In this day and age of routine background checks, finding employment is perhaps the greatest obstacle faced by people having Canadian criminal records. The fact of the matter is that a person who has a criminal conviction– no matter how petty and no matter how long ago it occurred – will generally be passed over by employers in favour of an applicant who has a clean record. Similarly, a Canadian criminal record prevents a person from being bonded, from performing most types of volunteer work, from adopting children, and from travelling freely to certain countries, most notably the USA. Attempting to cross the US border with a Canadian criminal record could result in vehicle seizure, incarceration, or, at the very least, will make it necessary that a person apply for special permission in order to travel there. This “special permission” is called a US entry waiver and is expensive, complicated, must be renewed every 1 or 5 years, and is not guaranteed. Once a person has been refused entry to the United States, they will require a waiver for the rest of their life.

Aside from these concrete examples of how having a Canadian criminal record can negatively affect a person’s life, we must not forget the emotional impact that being labelled a “criminal” by society can have on a person. People live with feelings of guilt, regret, and shame due to their past mistakes. Individuals with criminal records know that they aren’t “bad” people, but nonetheless have to worry about whether their spouses, relatives, children, coworkers, and neighbours will be quite so forgiving if and when the proverbial cat is let out of the bag. Fortunately, a Canada pardon can end the discrimination faced by people with Canadian criminal records. Once a pardon has been granted, a person’s criminal history is removed from public file. This means that no one can subsequently find out about a person’s past convictions unless the person in question chooses to divulge that information. Background checks will come back clean, employment opportunities will open up, and life can return to normal. We are all extremely lucky to live in a country that espouses liberal values, that believes in second chances, and that is willing to constitutionally guarantee that the rights of individuals are protected. A Canadian criminal record can have serious negative repercussions. And these repercussions tend to creep up repeatedly at the most inopportune and unexpected times. But a past conviction need not become a life sentence. There exists a simple solution to ending discrimination, stigmatization, and shame. Encourage anyone you know who needs one to seek out a Canada pardon and to clear their record of past mistakes.