The National Pardon Centre™

Since Bill C 10 was first tabled, I have been corresponding with a client who, under the current law, becomes eligible for his pardon on March 27, 2012. He has an indictable conviction and would have to wait until March 27, 2017 under the new proposed eligibility framework before being able to apply for a record suspension. He has been following the progress of the Bill closely and, with his eligibility date a mere 2 weeks away, was obviously very disappointed to learn that it had passed yesterday. His first question was: can we submit the application today and see what happens? My response was: maybe. The problem is that the Parole Board normally returns pardon applications that are sent in too early. As a rule of thumb, we can only submit pardon applications one week ahead of the date that they become eligible at the most and the same will hold true for record suspension applications. Now, it may be that the Parole Board will be feeling magnanimous in light of the changes and will try to help people out that find themselves on the cusp of becoming eligible but it is probably more realistic to expect that it will be business as usual and that applicants who are too early will have their paperwork returned.

To compound the problem: the mailroom of the Parole Board of Canada is a significant affair. A number of weeks can pass between the time that the Board decides to return an application and the time that we actually receive that application at our office. As the situation currently stands, Bill C10 has not yet received Royal Assent and therefore has not yet become Law. It normally takes a week or 2 for this to happen. And even when it does receive Royal Assent, it includes a number of Coming into Force provisions that mean that the Governor in Council can set a specific date for a particular section to take effect. In other words, even if the Bill were to become law tomorrow, they may not start enforcing it for some time. Unfortunately, we don’t yet know if there will be a delay in the implementation of this section of the Bill and, if there is to be a delay, how long that might be.

To return to the initial problem of taking a risk and submitting an application too early: if we assume, somewhat conservatively, that it could take a week for C10 to receive Royal Assent and that it could take another 2 weeks before the section of the Bill dealing with record suspensions comes into force, then that buys us another 3 weeks to submit applications that are close to becoming eligible. In other words, if we are patient and can wait until, say, March 20th to submit the client’s application mentioned above, we just might get lucky and squeak in before the new law takes effect. If, however, we are too eager and send the application in today and it is returned by the Board for being too early, we may not actually receive the returned documentation for a month, by which time the law will have changed and pardons will have been replaced by record suspensions.

Ultimately, this is an extremely complex and unfortunate situation that some of our clients now find themselves in. We are all dealing with a lot of unknown factors and all we can do, really, is guess as to what the best course of action is right now. If you are a client who is set to become eligible for a pardon/ record suspension in the next week or 2, please contact a counsellor to discuss your options.

Yesterday, the House of Commons (despite the best efforts of the Opposition) passed Bill C10. The Bill has already been approved by the Senate and must receive Royal Assent before it becomes law but that normally occurs within a matter of days. There are also provisions within the Bill that will allow the different sections to come into force at different times but the reality is that our Pardon Program (soon to be “Record Suspension Program”) is about to change and many of our clients are going to be affected.

Over the past few months, I have received a surprising number of emails from clients who are worried that a Record Suspension will be somehow inferior to a Pardon. The fact is that this is truly just a change in nomenclature. A Record Suspension will have the exact same effect as a Pardon. A Record Suspension will clear a person’s convictions from public file. A Record Suspension will increase a person’s employability, will allow them to become bondable, and will allow them to pass a standard security clearance check. A Record Suspension will allow a person to adopt children, to travel to certain countries, and to close the book on past mistakes. In short, the name change is one of the few amendments that will have virtually no impact on our clients. And in case anyone was wondering, we will NOT be changing our name to the “National Record Suspension Centre” anytime soon.

Proscrastinators. I have never understood them. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I used to BE one up until my first year of University when I quickly realized that leaving things to the last minute would probably result in me eventually flunking out of school. So I cleaned up my act and learned how to get things done on time. Especially the things that I most dread doing. The most unpleasant tasks are probably the ones that should be accomplished first.

Listen, I’m not here to judge or to act all high and mighty. I realize that we all have flaws and that sometimes life events occur that require immediate attention and that we all have different priorities. However, my priority, between the hours of 8:30 and 5:00, is getting people their pardons and waivers. My job is to ensure that my staff administers client files as quickly as possible. But sometimes my staff can’t move forward on a file without a little cooperation from the applicant. And so it is that clients have our somewhat insistent emails and phone calls to look forward to on a monthly basis.

The fact is: there are consequences to not getting a file together in a timely fashion. Aside from the obvious problems of having to wait longer for a pardon, clients also need to consider that certain documents in a file are time-sensitive and can expire. I have one client whose Local Police Check was completed June 28th, 2010. Local Police Checks are valid for 6 months only. I have been calling my client once a month since July to see if he has been able to track down his previous addresses since and today, he finally sent them to me. Unfortunately, there is no way that I can get his application to the Parole Board before the 28th of November (6 months from the date this Police Check was completed)and so his Police Check is going to expire and will have to be re-done, resulting in a further delay in this poor guy’s file.

Another thing to consider is that the pardon program itself could transform in the future. Just as July 2010 unexpectedly saw some major changes to pardon eligibility procedures, we have no way of knowing what variations may or may not be implemented in the coming years. Just because you are eligible for a pardon today does not mean that you necessarily will be 6 month from now. I don’t say this to scare people, just something to keep in mind.

At the end of the day, we are here to help you and we truly do have your best interests at heart. If you are having trouble with something, let us know! We may be able to offer some good suggestions that will ultimately help you to get your pardon faster!

A discussion on discharges is, I feel, warranted as they seem to be the source of much confusion for a lot of people. A discharge is a finding of guilt but is not the same as a conviction in that it only stays on a person’s criminal record for a certain period of time.

To begin, there are 2 types of discharge: conditional and absolute. A conditional discharge will appear on a person’s federal criminal record for a period of 3 years while an absolute discharge stays with a person for one year from the date that it was ordered. Conditional discharges require that the offender meet certain requirements otherwise the discharge may be rescinded in favour of an actual conviction.

Today, discharges are purged automatically from the RCMP system after the required waiting period has expired but prior to July of 1992, offenders actually had to submit a purge request to the RCMP to have their discharge removed from their criminal record. If you received a discharge prior to July 1992, your discharge is still showing on CPIC and anyone performing a background check on you will see it (including US Customs and Border Protection). Remember that a discharge is still a guilty finding and as such you may be refused entry to the United States and told to apply for a waiver if it is still on your record.

People who received discharges after 1992 are not totally in the clear, however. I have had numerous files across my desk where, due to either court or RCMP error, a discharge was showing up as a conviction on a person’s criminal record and was never purged when it should have been. The lesson is that you should never take anything for granted and always verify that your discharge was properly purged. One really good way of doing this is by having a set of fingerprints certified. This is the only sure way of knowing exactly what your criminal record contains.

Keep in mind that a discharge is not only held at the national level on CPIC. The arresting police and the courts also hold records of the discharge. It is very important to apply to have these records destroyed (especially in Quebec where courts allow the general public to search their system) if you want to be sure to remove all traces of your past indiscretion and to prevent the discharge from showing up on local police indices checks.

I hope I have clarified the issue somewhat here but if anyone has any additional questions please feel free to get in touch with me personally at 1-866-242-2411!