Does The Canadian Criminal Record Check Really Work?

If you have any kind of criminal record you are assured of probably never getting a good job. Most Canadian companies perform a Canadian criminal record check, and if anything of any significance turns up on the Canadian criminal record check then your application is generally rejected, no matter what your qualifications are.

Application after application will request a waiver to be able to do a Canadian criminal record check. Why is this a requirement? In the last 10 to 20 years employers have had to become more aware of the criminal problem. Their main focus is to keep the employees the do have safe. Today with the advent of the internet and world globalization, the need has arisen to keep criminals out of large corporation. Understand their reasoning. They don't want to find themselves in a hostage situation, or a kidnapping situation. Not to mention that since 9/11 people are terrified of terrorist activities happening anywhere.

What Comes Up in a Canadian Record Check?

A Canadian record check will display any criminal dealings you have had in the past. It will show when and where you were arrested, and for what reason. It will also show whether the case was thrown out of court (this may or may not help you in your current situation). It will show what the judgments were and your prison term, if there was a prison term.

Even if you have a criminal record because you happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, you will still be affected by it, when you apply for employment. A future employer is not going to stop and find out that you were arrested for being in your boyfriend's car, when it was full of drugs.

They are only going to solicit a Canadian criminal record check, and if anything bad is on it they are probably going to eliminate you as a candidate.

Is this fair? Of course it is not. There are supposed to be certain regulations to reviewing the Canadian criminal record check. For instance, if you make a certain amount criminal activity that is more than 7 years old cannot be taken into account.

If there was not a conviction, or the case was dropped, they are not supposed to take the record into account. But do you think this really happens. People are very judgmental, and most companies see even a hint of a criminal record, and they will eliminate you as a candidate.

What Can Be Done?

There are no simple solutions to the problem unfortunately. You can understand and reason with the companies' point of view. And yet the applicant is also correct in wanting to have a chance at a better way of life.

Government needs to come up with a better way of dealing with this type of situation. Otherwise we are leaving out a great deal of today's population, and not allowing them to get ahead. Isn't this a form of discrimination in itself. Haven't we already seen societies that separated a percentage of their own society and left them to fend for themselves. This did not work before, so why should it work now.

Criminal Record