The National Pardon Centre™

January is always a busy time at the National Pardon Centre. It some cases it is because people decide that removing a criminal record is their new years resolution but in a lot of cases it is because people have tried to travel over the holidays and found themselves stuck at the US border.

Nobody wants to have their christmas / holiday plans ruined for any reason and least of all for a criminal record. Getting stuck at the border because you procrastinated on a pardon application is a tough thing to tell the kids. Unfortunately it is a story that I listen to more than a few times in the course of a typical January at work.

So what I woudl like everyone to realize is that you need to make sure your criminal record has been dealt with as soon as possible. Don’t wait until you lose a job or get caught illegally entering the United States. Just go ahead and get your pardon granted before it comes out to haunt you. Otherwise you are just making a small headache into a migraine.

And finally the last thing I would like to say is HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone! I’m calling it now, right here, today. 2009 has big things in store for us all!

One of the statistics we deal with in the pardon business on a frequent basis is the percentage of Canadians with a criminal record. The most common number is 10% but I have numbers all the way up to 30% thrown around. All the time we hear that 10% of the population in Canada has a criminal record. But the issue is complicated by a few factors. We cannot just say that given a population of, say, 33 Million people we can safely assume that 3.3 million  of us has a criminal record. We need to ask a few more question before we could hope to arrive at a reliable prediction.

Here are a few things to consider:

• Does 10% include people arrested but found not guilty?
• Does 10% include people who have obtained Canada pardons?
• Does 10% include people who were only questioned by police but never charged?

The problem is that there are criminal records and then there are criminal records? In the vague sense a criminal record is any type of documentation attesting to a confrontation with the law and subsequent police intervention. In the specific sense a criminal record is a documented guilty conviction with registration of the offenders name in CPIC (Canadian Police Information System). A criminal record is not just black and white.

The problem is that even if we answered all the questions above it would still be extremely difficult to assess the actual number of criminals, or people living with a criminal record, in Canada. But the 10% solution is a good compromise. And while it may seem like a relatively large percent of the population it really isn’t. One thing I like to tell people is that crime is not going anywhere. Put all the indivdual and societal blames aside for a moment and consider that policing is a job someone is paid to do. If that person isn’t making arrests there is no more job. This is not to imply the the police make arrests without due cause. It is just to point out that policing is a career. 

Let’s face it. For all the good people do in the world we still haven’t found a way to stop people from doing bad. And so long as they do we will always have the police there to catch as many of them as they can. And besides, at least with the cases I deal with, it is mostly just people making mistakes. In other words, all those criminals out there are just a bunch of people being human.

I might sound like a broken record but I just have to say one more time how fair and just Canada’s pardon program seems in comparison to the ludicrous system of our neighbours to the South. If there was ever an example of political favouritism the American presidential pardon system must certainly lead the list.

I cannot understand how the President of a country can be expected to administer a pardon based on those who deserve it, rather than those who are owed a favour.  I have always tried not to be a pessimist in life but I also try not to ignore the realites of human nature.

Imagine for a moment, say George W Bush, preparing a list of people deserving a pardon. Does anyone in their right mind think that list would be based on anything other than political favouritism? No of course not. Just saying so would be simple let alone trying to defend the position.

So as much as I dislike the inefficiency of government bureaucracy I have a stronger dislike for injustice. And although Canada’s pardon program can be along and tedious at times the fact that it is adminstered in a fair manner makes me happy because I am quite sure that if I ever needed an American pardon I don’t think my world populairty rank would get me onto the President’s list anytime soon.  

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.