The National Pardon Centre™

It has been a long time since we won our information technology award from CIPA. Since then we haven’t stopped working hard to be the best pardon and waiver service in Canada. But since that award was granted the National Pardon Centre has certainly not been stagnant, especially not in the area of technological innovation.

We achieved RCMP accreditation making us one of the only pardon and waiver services able to offer this crucial step in the process. We have also invested in a new VOIP phone system to better handle calls between our offices.

Essentially we have done everything possible to ensure that we are at the forefront of any technology that help us better serve our clients. But I am also happy to say that we don’t jump on a band wagon just because the band is playing loudly. You will see that we are NOT on twitter; not because we dislike twitter but because there is nothing in the day to day business of doing pardons that needs to be “tweeted” (did I say that right?). Twitter is great, or can be I’m told but it is not for us. We would rather focus our energies on doing what we do best: Canadian pardons and US entry waivers. That’s what we do and we do it very well.

So give us a call if you need help. We would be happy to clear things up for you.

Every single day I come to work I can be guaranteed to hear a horror story from someone who experienced unpleasant behaviour from a United States Border Guard. This is not to suggest that they are all bad because considering the number of people crossing the border and the number of border guards there to handle the volume of traffic, obviously most of them are decent, intelligent people capable to handling their job competently and with manners intact. However, that being said I still hear stories everyday of people being mistreated at the border. This is why I couldn’t resist reposting this cartoon from the Globe and Mail today. If you have had a similar experience at the border I think you will appreciate it. And if you have been to an airport in the last ten years I think you will appreciate it even more.

January is always a busy time of year for us here at the National Pardon Centre. There are many reasons for this but one of the main reasons is that people tend to travel over the holidays. And whenever people are travelling (to American at least) the the ones with the criminal records are going to find themselves in trouble.

Unfortunately what tends to happen is that people try crossing the border for the holiday season. They are quickly rejected by a border guard doing his job and, come January, when people realize that a Canadian Pardon or US entry waiver is important, they call us.

I always tell people to stay away from the border until things are taken care of but the fact is a lot of people just aren’t aware that an old criminal record is a problem. The other thing is that a lot of people are able to travel to the States without getting caught, creating a false sense of security. And finally, a lot of people (all of us as matter of fact) have a tendency to wait until things like this catch up with us before we decide to finally take care of it.

If you have a criminal record you need to have it taken care of regardless of what may or may not have happened at the border. Even if the criminal record is not affecting your life, there is a good chance that it will in the future. But don’t wait until your holidays are ruined to finally make the decision to clear things up. Give us a call at the National Pardon Centre. We can help make sure your past is not going to come back to haunt you.

 If you have any questions relating to Criminal Records, Canadian Pardons or US Entry Waivers please feel free to email me directly at mashby@nationalpardon.org.

Happy New Year to Everyone.

Michael

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!