Reducing Barriers to Reintegration Act

An Act to amend the Criminal Records Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts

This bill is from the 43rd Parliament, 2nd session, which ended in August 2021.

Sponsor

Bill Blair  Liberal

Status

Second reading (House), as of June 10, 2021
(This bill did not become law.)

Summary

This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament has also written a full legislative summary of the bill.

This enactment amends the Criminal Records Act to, among other things,
(a) replace the expression “record suspension” with the term “pardon”;
(b) reduce the applicable waiting period before a person may apply for a pardon from 10 years to five years if the person is convicted of an offence that is prosecuted by indictment, and from five years to three years if the person is convicted only of an offence punishable on summary conviction;
(c) provide that Parole Board of Canada employees may exercise certain powers and perform certain duties and functions of the Board;
(d) remove the pardon ineligibility of persons who have been convicted of more than three offences prosecuted by indictment for each of which a sentence of two years or more was imposed;
(e) make persons who were convicted of a terrorism offence for which a sentence of 10 years or more was imposed ineligible for a pardon;
(f) amend the factors to be considered by the Board when deciding whether to grant a pardon;
(g) allow for identification following a DNA match in the same manner as following a fingerprint match; and
(h) remove the exception to automatic cessation of effect of a pardon for those convicted of an offence under subsection 320.‍14(1) or 320.‍15(1) of the Criminal Code.
The enactment also makes consequential amendments to other Acts.

Elsewhere

All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.

Bill numbers are reused for different bills each new session. Perhaps you were looking for one of these other C-31s:

C-31 (2022) Law Cost of Living Relief Act, No. 2 (Targeted Support for Households)
C-31 (2016) Law Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act
C-31 (2014) Law Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1
C-31 (2012) Law Protecting Canada's Immigration System Act
C-31 (2010) Law Eliminating Entitlements for Prisoners Act
C-31 (2009) An Act to amend the Criminal Code, the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act and the Identification of Criminals Act and to make a consequential amendment to another Act