Remember: if you are looking for a pardon, record suspension, or U.S. Entry Waiver, try a Canadian Pardon | Record Suspension Service.
You’ve heard it before: you should get a pardon. But what is it? What does it do? How do you get one? How long does it take to get one. Well, answers to these and other questions will be available in my book, which is set to come out next year. Until then, however, you can read what I’ve briefly written below or, in case you require a pardon, contact Canadian Pardons.
A pardon is a status that, once achieved, effectively hides your criminal record. It doesn’t destroy it. Nor does having a pardon mean that you are absolved or pardoned from having committed a crime. It simply means that you are deemed to be rehabilitated and that your criminal record will be inaccessible to police, courts, border services, immigration officials, employers, volunteer organizations and others. Having a pardon doesn’t guarantee that it remains hidden forever: if you reoffend or if you lied in getting a pardon, for example, it could be taken away from you and therefore be visible once again. Importantly, if you’ve been convicted of an offence of a sexual nature, then even a pardon cannot hide your criminal record. It will be revealed through a criminal record check. This becomes relevant when you’re planning on working or volunteering with organizations or persons in the vulnerable persons sector (e.g. children, the elderly, the disabled, etc.).
So a pardon is nothing more than a status obtained under the Criminal Records Act. That act governs how pardons are granted or issued, by whom, what their effect is, and how they can be revoked.
The Act designates the National Parole Board as the government body which has exclusively authority to grant or issue pardons.
To be eligible to apply for a pardon, you have to have been convicted of a federal offence (so that a record exists to begin with) and then you must apply to have the record removed and sealed from other criminal records. You can’t apply until you’ve completed your sentence (e.g. served all jail time or community service and paid all fines and restitution, etc.) and waited a set number of years. In applying, you’ll need to pay a fee (currently $50 but possibly going up to $150), obtain and submit your criminal record, and fill out a whole bunch of other paperwork. Assuming your paperwork is in order, after a few months (for simple, less serious offence) to a year or two (for more serious offences), you’ll hear back from the National Parole Board. They issue or grants pardons almost all of the time (e.g. 99%). And the number of pardons they revoke is very low (e.g. less than 3-4%).
So that’s a quick overview of the pardon process. Again, if you’d like to know more information about how to get a pardon, how it benefits your everyday life, you’ll need to wait until my book comes out or contact Canadian Pardons.
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