Yesterday, the House of Commons (despite the best efforts of the Opposition) passed Bill C10. The Bill has already been approved by the Senate and must receive Royal Assent before it becomes law but that normally occurs within a matter of days.
There are also provisions within the Bill that will allow the different sections to come into force at different times but the reality is that our Pardon Program (soon to be Record Suspension Program) is about to change and many of our clients are going to be affected.
Over the past few months, I have received a surprising number of emails from clients who are worried that a Record Suspension will be somehow inferior to a Pardon. The fact is that this is truly just a change in nomenclature. A Record Suspension will have the exact same effect as a Pardon. A Record Suspension will clear a person’s convictions from public file. A Record Suspension will increase a person’s employability, will allow them to become bondable, and will allow them to pass a standard security clearance check. A Record Suspension will allow a person to adopt children, to travel to certain countries, and to close the book on past mistakes. In short, the name change is one of the few amendments that will have virtually no impact on our clients. And in case anyone was wondering, we will NOT be changing our name to the National Record Suspension Centre anytime soon.