Last week, the federal government introduced legislation to provide pardons to people convicted of simple cannabis possession with no application fee and no wait time. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says the legislation will allow people to shed the stigma of a record, eliminating barriers to job opportunities, education, housing, and even the ability to volunteer for a charity in their community.
We chat to criminal lawyer Kyla Lee…who says the legislation isn’t as good as it sounds…
…
“A pardon simply takes the record of your conviction or something and puts it separate and apart from other records that you might have. So all of the information is still available in a database. It’s just nobody can access it.”
“It can still cause trouble for people at the border. If anyone who has been previously denied entry due to a cannabis-related conviction and then they get a pardon, the pardon does no eliminate their inability to enter the U.S. It doesn’t clear any historical ban where an expungement would. Similarly, if you have a pardon and you try to cross the border, you can still be denied entry if your records were all downloaded into their system before you got the pardon.”
To listen to the full podcast, click here.