Record Suspension and Pardon Lawyer in Brampton, ON

A record suspension is an order of the Parole Board of Canada under the Criminal Records Act. Section 2.3 provides that the judicial record of the conviction is kept separate and apart from other criminal records, and removes disqualifications or obligations arising from that conviction under federal law, subject to defined exceptions.

The term 'pardon' was replaced by 'record suspension' in 2012. People still use the old word, and applications are still commonly described that way, but the legal instrument is a record suspension.

It is a suspension, not an erasure. The record still exists and can be disclosed in limited circumstances, and a record suspension can be revoked if the person is later convicted of a new offence.

Section 4 of the Criminal Records Act sets waiting periods that begin only after the sentence has been completed in full — including all custody, all probation, and payment of every fine, surcharge and restitution order.

The most common reason an application is returned is that the sentence was not actually complete when the clock was assumed to start. An unpaid victim surcharge from years ago is enough to reset the calculation, so confirming the true completion date is the first step, not the last.

Section 4(2) makes some people ineligible: those convicted of an offence listed in Schedule 1, which concerns offences against children, and those with more than three convictions for indictable offences each carrying a sentence of two or more years. Section 4(3) provides a limited exception for certain Schedule 1 offences.

For most practical purposes, a criminal record check will come back clear. That is what employers, landlords, licensing bodies and volunteer organisations usually see.

What it does not do is equally important.

Anyone whose real objective is United States travel should get advice on that specifically. A record suspension is frequently sought for that purpose and frequently does not achieve it on its own.

The application is made to the Parole Board of Canada and is documentary. It requires fingerprints and a criminal record check from the RCMP, court information for every conviction, local police records checks for each place you have lived, and proof that every part of every sentence has been completed.

The Parole Board sets an application fee and publishes the current amount. Assembling the supporting documents is the part that takes time, and processing is measured in months rather than weeks.

You can apply yourself. The Board's own materials explain the process and there is no requirement to be represented. Where legal advice tends to earn its place is in the harder cases: working out the true sentence completion date, dealing with eligibility under section 4(2), addressing an old record with gaps in it, or advising on whether a record suspension will actually achieve what you want.

A discharge is not a conviction, so it does not need a record suspension. Records of discharges are removed from the RCMP database automatically — one year after an absolute discharge and three years after a conditional discharge.

If your matter ended in a discharge and a record is still showing after those periods, the problem is usually a local police record rather than the federal one, and it is addressed differently.