The National Pardon Centre™

With George Bush about to [finally] leave the White House there is a lot of talk in the news about who will receive the final presidential pardons. I have no personal interest in who does or does not receive a pardon from the George Bush but there is a part of me that thinks the American pardon system is just a little unfair.

Word is that petitioning for a presidential pardon costs in the range of $200, 000 dollars in legal fees. Otherwise you will need to have a very close political connection if you have any chance at all of receiving a pardon.

If this is not an elitist system I don’t know what is. In Canada our own pardon system seems a shining example of a fair and unbiased government system in comparison. As many problems as there with our system here in Canada it really is not a system based on who you know or how much money you have. In Canada if you serve your time, complete your sentence, and stay our of trouble you can make an application to have your criminal record pardoned. And once you have a pardon it is illegal for anyone in Canada to discriminate against you based on it.

The idea that a president, particularly one as woefully inadequate as George Bush, is the only man in the country with the authority to determine who deserves a second chance is just a little too dystopian for me. I don’t know who will receive the final Presidential pardons before Bush leaves the Whitehouse but I would bet my last dollar that there are more than a few people who deserve it more, but who are, unfortunately, not even in the running for one.

The pardon system in Canada is not well understood. For the most part, the people who need a pardon look into the available avenues and in the process learn a little bit about Canada’s pardon program and how it works. On the other hand those who don’t need a pardon usually don’t bother with it at all and as a result, understand very little about it.

But every once in awhile I encounter someone with very little understanding of the pardon program, no need of the pardon program, but who nonetheless has strong feelings about pardon and those who would pursue the removal of a criminal record.

Usually in this case I’m dealing with the farther leaning right wing crowd and more often than not this type of person has decided that the whole business of pardons is for the birds. Or to put it in other terms, they  don’t believe that a person can change. Once a bad nut always a bad nut, they claim, and the tag of criminal record should always apply. Pardons simply undermine police ability to do their work.

But closer inspection of the pardon program in Canada’s reveals that the vast, VAST, majority of those people who would pursue a pardon have been arrested long, long ago for relatively trivial matters. The criminal justice system rarely exists in a world of black and white. Those who are arrested are not necessarily bad guys. On the other hand those who stay away from the long arm of the law aren’t necessarily the good guys either.

The bottom line is that everyone makes mistakes. And if we penalized ALL of us for life just because we made a mistake we would all be carrying a very heavy burden.

So if you don’t believe in the pardon program in Canada please give it some more thought because chances are you know someone who is a good person but who also has a criminal record. That person, just like all of us, deserves a second chance at a good name.

People sometimes get confused when they have been to court about what they have been charged with. Court can be a traumatic experience particularly for those people who made a simple mistake and were only arrested once in their life. The first time in court is the worst so it is easy for the mind to block out the memory of it. At best most people remember the experience as a little vague. And as time passes a vague memory rarely becomes more detailed.

One of the things people rarely remember after going to court is if the charge was summary or indictable.

The term “summary offence” corresponds with “misdemeanor” in the American lexicon .  On the other hand an “indictable offence” in Canada would correspond with a Felony conviction.

This is just a way for the courts to categorize offences as being less serious (summary) or more serious (indictable) in nature.

For example, a DUI charge which is considered a serious crime in Canada is still rarely categorized as an indictable offence unless someone was hurt in the process. On the other hand something like manslaughter is always indictable.

Some charges can go either way and is left to the discretion of the prosecuting attorney which further complicates the matter. If you are unsure of how your charge was cetegorized there is really no way to be certain unless you have access to your criminal record or court documents.

And finally as far as this all relates to Canada pardons and the pardon process just keep reading.

Once you have completed your sentence the following waiting periods must be met before you are eligible for a pardon:

Summary offence: 3 years

Indictable offence: 5 years

But remember to start the paperwork well in advance as it will save you some time.

This post has absolutely nothing at all to do with pardons or criminal records but waking up this morning to a new American president was such an enormous relief that I feel compelled to share my thoughts.

Is it just me or did the entire planet breath a deep sigh of relief when John McCain failed to secure the whitehouse for the Republicans? Is the whole world relieved that an era of disasterous social and economic policy is (hopefully) at an end? And is everyone as excited as I am to see the great American nation live up to its promise?

Because the American promise to the world is that anything can happen. The American promise to the world is that anyone can achieve whatever they want. The American promise to the world is that we can make the world a better place. In the last 8 years America failed to live up to that promise.

Now it is up to America, not Barack Obama, to once again fullfil the American dream. But with Obama in charge and George Bush stripped of influence the American people just might have a chance again.

As they say…USA! USA! USA!