Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon.
Thank you for welcoming me here today, particularly on this National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women.
First, I would like to acknowledge our presence on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe nation.
I wish to thank Kassandra Churcher, Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, and Sarah Davis, Executive Director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Ottawa, for asking me to appear on behalf of Ms. Churcher who is unfortunately unable to attend today.
I find myself in a liminal space, as I am not a member of the Elizabeth Fry Society, but before I became a nurse, I worked for the Parole Board of Canada as a record suspension officer from October 2012 until August 2016. I screened thousands of applications and investigated half as many summary level cases as, in general, the expectation was to screen 10 files per day and open five investigations.
From my experience as a record suspension officer, and as a nurse in a supervised consumption site, working with some of the most marginalized people in our society, I am well aware of the benefits of and barriers to record suspension. As was shared with you previously, 95% of the approximately 500,000 pardons and record suspensions that have been granted or ordered since 1970 are still in effect. Of course, I cannot break the confidentiality of my clients, past and present. However, I can speak generally of the experiences of clients who have applied or who are unable to apply for record suspensions.
To address the subject, I will ask that you do a thought experiment with me.
Recall a moment in your life when you made a social gaffe, something innocent but something you now regret. Let's call this X. If you have a spare bit of paper, feel free to make a big X on it. This X is your criminal record. In the now of social media, this gaffe will follow you wherever you go and be the first thing that comes up when anybody searches your name on the Internet. This is what my clients have faced whenever they have sought, for example, employment in the mainstream economy, to volunteer at their child's school, to gain admission to teacher's college or to travel to the United States. If they are able to apply for a record suspension, it's like being able to turn that page over. The X is still there, but they are able to pursue paths that were closed to them.
The palpable relief that I was so seldom able to hear from my clients when they received their record suspension was gratifying. I would often speak to my clients when they were seeking advice on their applications or when they were in the process of applying. The amount of distress that they were in was sometimes overwhelming. They were revisiting that X and all the circumstances that surrounded it, trying to navigate the justice system in the opposite direction, and trying to discern all of the very formal and legal language. They knew that they were going to be re-evaluated in the light of that X once again, and they wanted to get it right the first time.
Without going into specifics, I recall a client who was able to reach me who was waiting to have their file reviewed by a board member. There was quite a backlog at the time, and normally no exceptions were made. However, they told me that they had been accepted into a one-year professional program at a university on a full scholarship and that if they did not receive a record suspension that day, although they had applied with a lot of lead time—approximately six months in advance—their acceptance would be rescinded. I was able speak with a board member and I explained the circumstances. The board member agreed to look at the file and ordered a record suspension that day. Because this person received a record suspension, this person was able to go school and avoid losing the scholarship and having to go for four years.
Many of the people I work with now, especially women, would like to apply for a record suspension. However, because their income is so low and they live in precarious housing, even if they are eligible, they cannot even scratch together the approximately $85 to get fingerprinted and to request a copy of their criminal record. Indeed, the city of Ottawa is a place of privilege in comparison to others as these services are available in close proximity.
I would not want to be a single parent living in a rural area and attempting to apply, as the barriers to reach such necessary services as fingerprinting, courthouses, police and postal services would be prohibitively expensive and time consuming.
In my practice as a nurse, because of my background as a record suspension officer, I have been offering record suspension consultations to my clients. The most common barrier that I have encountered is that many of my clients have outstanding fines. They are shocked and saddened to realize that because they owe money, the five- or 10-year clock has not even started to tick for them.
On the other hand, when my clients have tried to research the process of applying for a record suspension, they've encountered unscrupulous agencies offering services that practically guarantee a record suspension at the end, only to be told that they must pay very high fees to even start the process. So there they remain at the margin, unable to pay their fines as they are on social assistance, unable to find a reasonably well-paying job to escape their precarious housing because of their criminal record, and unable to find a way to have a chance to apply for a record suspension.
I would like to thank the committee for its time today. I have provided copies of the record suspension application guide as a reference for your discernment. Should you have any questions, I would welcome them in English or in French.