Discussions

Graham James has negatively changed the lives of many across the country who he has never even met and in a completely different way than one might expect. If you want to apply for a job or volunteer and are asked to provide a criminal record check, you could be in for an unpleasant surprise. If your gender and birthdate match any person whose name appears on the pardoned sex offender list, you will have to go through a completely random screening process that could take up to 120 days to complete. Your money order or certified cheque for $25 goes to the Receiver General of Canada (waived in the instance of volunteering) and a non-negotiable fee of $52.50 goes to the Brandon City Police for the service they provide in getting you through the fingerprinting process and paperwork required. That fee will go up every year according to Fee Schedule By-law 6852. In the meantime, you cannot work or volunteer. There are no other screening methods used whatsoever. It doesn't matter that you haven't even lived in Canada long enough to have committed a crime, been caught, sentenced, served time and waited the five-year period before you can apply for a pardon. If your gender and birthdate match, you pay and suffer the consequences of waiting for the results, not to mention the humilation of being lumped in with pardoned sex offenders like Graham James. Now, tell me: Who would hold a job for someone for four months while they awaited for these results to prove they are not a pardoned sex offender? By the way, this check will have to be completed even if you have a criminal record check if it is not up to date: and you will have to go through this process every time you apply for a job requiring a criminal record check because the results are not stored. Two to three people in Brandon a day are going through this process and it is not fair and doesn't seem to make sense to me.  
 
The RCMP do not store SINs, passport information, or I suppose even photo I.D. such as driver's licenses and apparently there is no way to get this information to them?  
 
I agree that a person like Graham James is an abomination to the human race and the way that he was able to obtain a pardon and leave the country was a terrible mistake, but why do so many more have to suffer because of him? This is not a good method of correcting the mistake.  
 
I e-mailed the The Call Center of CFSS RCMP - Forensic Science and Identification Services GRC Canadian Criminal Real Time Identification Services Civil Fingerprint Screening Services and said, "I’d like to know how many of these checks are being performed daily across the country. I’d also like to know how many of these checks resulted in a 'hit,' a person who was actually a pardoned sex offender from the database." Three weeks' later, I received a response:  
 
"Good day,  
 
Please refer to the following website:  
 
http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/apropos-about/fi-fs/aiprp-atip-eng.html  
 
Thank you for contacting us."  
 
This site takes me to Public Works and Government Services Canada - Access to Information and Privacy Acts and has absolutely nothing to do with what I was trying to find out and certainly didn't answer my questions, though I did look at that site as well.  
 
This change to the screening process came quickly and quietly into effect in July of this year. I've read nothing about it in the news but I personally know of three people in Brandon since September who have had to go through this.  
 
Vic Toews, Minister of Public Safety, receives 15 calls a day complaining about this. I know Merv Tweed in Brandon has had some communication as well from his constituents and will probably have more to come. I don't expect, though, that change will come as quickly as it did to launch the verification fingerprinting.  
 
To inform yourself of this new screening process, please go to http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cr-cj/vulner/index-eng.htm for more information and then to the site's FAQs.  
 
I welcome comments and feedback about this. I appreciate what the RCMP are trying to accomplish, but they are going about it all wrong.