Pay Your Fines
www.nationalpardon.org
If you don’t pay your fine you will never be eligible for your Canadian pardon.
Unpaid Fines Stop You From Being Eligible For a Pardon
Before the Conservatives got involved in the business of pardons there was a stipulation that allowed a person to apply for a pardon despite an unpaid fine if more than fifteen years had elapsed. That is now gone so I have a few clients with charges going back forty years who are now ineligible for a pardon. They will have to pay the fine and then wait another ten or five years.
I think it is important to make people complete their sentences and I think fines should be paid. However it would seem more appropriate in cases where fines are older than the waiting period that the applicant could pay the fine and still be allowed to apply for a pardon. I don’t know many people who think it is fair for someone to wait 50 years before becoming eligible to have their criminal record removed from public file.
But that is where we are at with the new Conservative pardon program. So please remember if you are ever arrested and you receive a fine in court pay the fine right away. If not you are asking for trouble down the road.
Comment (0)
Bonnie Harris / April 1, 2012
I would like to know how I am supposed to find out if I have any outstanding fines, where I can find out the information about my situation because when I was supposed to go to court I was so scared that I had my parents bring me home to Canada and as far as I know I still have an outstanding warrant for my arrest because I have been caught at the border and turned around back home. Can you please send my any links I could go on to try to find out anything on my situation. I was down in Santa Clara county when I was arrested and spent 3 days in jail (very scary) that is why I came home. It was when I was 20 years old I think and I am now 45 years old. Please can you help me, I really want to get a pardon not waiver (which I have had 2? already) I love America and want to go see my family down there.
Thank you very much, Bonnie
Michael Ashby / April 5, 2012
Hi Bonnie,
I think I may have responded to your question by email but in case not I can only suggest contacting a lawyer in the USA as we are not familiar with their procedures. I wish you luck in dealing with this.
Michael
Susan / April 4, 2012
A $210 fine from 1996 has made my husband ineligible for a pardon (oh, excuse me ‘record suspension’) until March 2016. That would be fine and dandy IF my husband lived in this country. He’s deemed criminally inadmissible until he receives the record suspension. So, here my son and I sit……waiting on March 2016 to roll around so we can be reunited as a family thanks to good ol’ Stephen Harper. *sigh*
Michael Ashby / April 5, 2012
Hi Susan,
Thank you for sharing your story. I agree that this policy is ridiculous. I believe it is just part of the Conservative agenda to stop people from obtaining pardons. And based on the direction they are now taking immigration in this country it is clear that this administration is not interested in reuiniting families. Everyone in the Conservative party should be ashamed of this and many other things it has done to Canada.
Michael
Michael Ashby / April 5, 2012
One more thing Susan. We do not handle these applications at the moment but in the meantime your husband could obtain a temporary resident permit in order to be able to travel here freely.
Susan / April 5, 2012
Thanks Michael. Yes, we have already applied for my husband’s TRP and Application for Rehabilitation. Actually, you and I have corresponded back and forth regarding it. We’ve now just hit the 8 month mark, in what we’ve been told is a 10-12 month processing period. Fingers crossed this works. I would have joined my husband on the other side of the pond by now had our son not been special needs. He simply won’t get the help in that country that he gets here. It has been an emotional roller coaster to say the least. It started with one of your competitors advising my husband was ‘definitely eligible for a pardon and once that’s completed, he will be in Canada within a year’. We even have a letter to Immigration indicating they were assisting with the pardon and it ‘will be successful’. Needless to say, this very small fine reared its ugly head and here we are, devastated but keeping positive (moreso because that’s all we can do at this point). I have fought with that company – my main point being, how could they ‘guarantee’ a pardon if they hadn’t received the RCMP report yet? He was full of all these promises. I have lodged a Better Business Bureau complaint against his company and will be seeking legal advice (afterall, we sought immigration legal representation at his urging because he was ‘100% positive’ my husband was eligible.). A huge scam if you ask me!