I see a difference. I think what had the hair on the back of everybody's necks standing up when they heard that Graham James received a pardon was the word “pardon”. It seems like he was excused for what he had done, with that word, to me. That's my opinion.
The way that I understand it, “record suspension” seems to sit a lot better with me than the word “pardon” in these situations. When I look at sex offenders, it's never really wiped away. There is that red flag. So their record really is suspended. It's not pardoned.