The Parole Board of Canada has launched another online consultation concerning the user fee for applying for a record suspension (pardon). We can only hope that the results it received are taken with greater consideration than the last time.
Under the previous Conservative government the Parole Board increased the filing fee for pardons from $50 to $150. Incredibly it was then increased again to $631 in an effort to gain “full cost recovery”.
The response to the online consultation that time around was overwhelmingly against the increase. However in a move that was surprising to no one, the increase went ahead.
Read more about the previous online fee consultation:
https://nationalpardon.org/results-of-the-user-fee-review-by-the-parole-board-of-canada/
The good news is that this time around we have a Liberal government in charge and this administration already appears to be less dogmatic on matters relating to criminal justice. Of course the government is young and since politics is politics we can never really be sure what will happen.
But I’m feeling fairly confident about Canada’s pardon program for the first time in about 8 years. The previous administration clearly used criminal justice as a political platform and the results were disastrous.
I encourage everyone to complete the survey even if I don’t really believe the results of it will have any effect on the final decision.
For the record, I think we’re headed towards a two tier fee system which, frankly, seems perfectly reasonable.
Further reading:
https://nationalpardon.org/breaking-news-liberals-announce-pardon-overhaul/
https://nationalpardon.org/pardons-more-expensive/