You know those ads on TV where everything just works out, and at the end of the Christmas holidays your credit card bill is zero? The last thing they say is something along the lines of ”if only life was that easy!”

If only! True enough. I sometimes wish that at the end of the day all of the problems were solved and the dinner was made and my favourite show was on TV with no ads, no interruptions, nothing to distract me from relaxing for an hour.

Now considering what business I am in I talk to a lot of people who wish that after they had been arrested, gone to court, paid the fines, finished probation, performed the community service, etc. etc, etc. the criminal record would just magically dissappear when the ordeal was finally over. And in fact many of the people I speak to actually think that is the case. Only there is a little voice in the back of their head telling them they know perfectly well that criminal records do not disappear automatically. Otherwise they would not be calling me in the first place.

What I am trying to say is that when it comes to criminal records, and pretty much anything to do with Canada’s legal justice system, there is no Get Out of Jail FREE card…period! It does not exist.

So if you have a Canadian criminal record then you need to take the step necessary to ensure that it is properly removed. In other words you need to get a Canadia pardon. Otherwise you are taking a rish with important things in life like your career, freedom to travel, etc.

Trust me what when I say that if your record comes back to haunt you retrospect will tell you one thing very loud and perfectly clear. A pardon is a small price to pay for a clear criminal record!

Our new website is up and looking pretty sharp. Have a look around and if you have any comments on the layout, design, usability, etc we would love to hear what you have to say. The new look was kind of long overdue.

National Pardon Centre: Canadian pardons and US entry waiver services

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!

Well today at the National Pardon Centre we are all very excited because for the past few years we have been waiting patiently for our AFIS accreditation from the RCMP and Public Works Canada. This has been an ongoing project that has taken more than a little bit longer than expected. But such is the norm in both technology projects and anything involving the government. At least that is my experience.

After waiting very patiently (I don’t allow myself to be pushy with the RCMP or the government as I wold sooner bang my head against the wall) it looks like we might just be moving forward. Today we have a representative from Government Services Canada coming to do a site inspection on our premises. And as far as I know getting approval on the site inspection is a big step forward in this process.

As frustrating as the long wait has been I have to say that all of the people I have dealt with along that way have been extremely pleasant. And I never felt for a moment that the delay was caused by imcompetence or indifference (as I have with some other projects in the private sector). It’s just that there is a process when you work with public funds and everything has to follow that process.

So as long as its been with a little luck its coming to an end. Who said it again? This might not be the beginning of the end, but at least it is the end of the beginning.

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.

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!