Criminal record: The stain that won’t go away
Torstar News Service
He’s been out of prison for 20 years, but Byron’s criminal past still defines him. Jobs are hard to find and even harder to keep.
"They (employers) all do criminal checks . . . if you sign the piece of paper," says the 57-year-old Toronto resident, whose last sentence was a six-year stretch in Kingston Penitentiary following a series of robbery and related convictions. Because of his past he’s lost jobs driving a forklift and working in a warehouse.
"I’ve been at places where five or six people – the personnel, head of personnel, my foreman – (all said) `no problem,’ but somebody else would step in and you’d be gone."
Byron, who asked that his last name not be used, is not alone in getting tripped up by police background checks.
For decades, few employers besides law enforcement agencies and some government offices delved into past conduct. Now it is standard practice. Companies, volunteer organizations – particularly those that work with children, the elderly or disabled – regulators, landlords and schools are all asking applicants to agree to police checks.
"Ever since Sept. 11 it seems like paranoia is creeping in," says Ian Levine of Pardons Canada, a not-for-profit company that, for $460 plus tax, handles all the paperwork for people seeking to expunge their criminal record. "Pretty soon . . . you’re not going to get any job, you’re not going to be a dog walker."
More than 2.9 million people have records in the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC), according to a one-day snapshot of the database from 2005 obtained by the Star in a freedom of information request. Included were some 500,000 records for people without convictions, including instances where charges were stayed, withdrawn or for which the individual was found not guilty.
Police can view these "non-conviction dispositions" but the RCMP does not "generally" release that information to employers or border guards, said a spokesperson for RCMP, which maintains the database. The federal Criminal Records Act prohibits police from disclosing convictions for which a pardon has been granted.
But there are ways employers – and others – can check if you’ve been charged but not convicted.
"Private investigation agencies are often hired to check the backgrounds of new employees in relation to charges for which someone may not have been convicted," says retired Toronto police detective Al Duncan, who operates Toronto P.I. "Everyone who is charged at some point has information sworn against them in court. That information is a public record if you know how to track it down."
In addition, employers can check local police records. In doing such a background check, the local force may contact other police departments in Canada and the United States.
"The range of information in police databases may vary considerably," says an Ontario Information and Privacy Commission backgrounder posted on the agency’s website.
Toronto police, for instance, keep fingerprints, photographs and records for non-convictions even though the Commission has argued those records should be destroyed. That is impractical as there are 140,000 charges brought before Toronto courts annually, of which 45 per cent result in non-conviction, Police Chief Bill Blair said in a report to the police services board last fall, the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition reported in its September 2007 bulletin.
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