Canadian national pardons have the roll of erasing a crime from your criminal record. This means that you can become fully rehabilitated in the aftermath of a convicted crime if you receive a pardon. There are some things that you need to know about pardons but also about how to get them. Continue reading to find out more on how you can actually get a pardon in Canada.
First and foremost you need to know that through a pardon you are benefitting from not having a stained criminal record. Other than that, nothing havens in terms of acknowledging your crime. A pardon doesn’t imply that the crime didn’t happen or that you are forgiven for it. Also, it does not mean that the Canadian government is stating that you were wrongfully accused of your crime. In recent years the official term has been changed to “record suspension” but it still means “pardon”. People refer to it as they see fit or what slides easier off the tongue but the majority of people in Canada should know what you’re talking about when you say either pardon or record suspension.
Applying for a pardon
Applying for a pardon is a pretty long and exhausting process so you might want to consider getting some help. However, if you don’t want to involve anyone else, you can do everything by yourself. You can do pretty much everything by yourself except the fingerprints. You should definitely look into more fingerprint information because you need to visit a professional and authorized fingerprint scanning location for your pardon application fingerprints.
The paperwork
When it comes to the paperwork, there will be a lot of it. In many moments you will possibly feel overwhelmed by the amount of papers you need to get sorted out. Moreover, doing everything yourself means that you have to do a lot of walking over long distances so you can deposit all the files. You can request help at any time and usually you have two options:
You can either get a qualified pardon counselor, which specifically works in the business of helping people with their pardons applications, or a downright lawyer. Lawyers don’t have as much experience with pardon cases but they do know the laws very well. This means that they will be able to guide your from a juridical standpoints and can be of massive value.
Acceptance rules
There are some things that you need to know before you even think about starting on your application. For starters, you need to have completed your sentence. If you were convicted of a crime, you need to complete your sentence before you can think about a pardon. Secondly, you must provide proof that you are no longer living the life you used to live. This specifically refers to being violent and outside the confines of the law.