WHEN IS DEBT TO SOCIETY PAID IN FULL?

If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

In other words, actions have consequences so think twice before you
break the law.

Wise words. In theory, such words should weigh heavily on the minds of
Canadians who would all be deterred from taking the risk of carrying
an illicit drug or weapon or acting on an impulse of violence or greed.

But as we all know, many crimes are carried out without thinking of
consequence, which only sinks in after the fact.

So the question is whether the criminal should be haunted by his
actions even after he/she has repaid a debt to society.

That debt may involve time behind bars, community service, fines or
restitution.

But as some convicted men and women discover, having a criminal past
- -- even a single conviction decades earlier -- can be a lifelong debt
on its own, costing them jobs and opportunities because potential
employers discover they have a record and turn them away as damaged
goods.

Whether those records are the minor drug convictions that speak to a
misspent youth or violent crimes, even murder or pedophilia, is left
to the imagination. Most standard background checks will reveal a
criminal record, but not details of the crime.

For those who commit crimes in their youth, learn from their mistakes
and lead exemplary lives from there on, a criminal record can be a
penalty for life.

Of course, there is always the potential for a pardon.

Since 1970, 330,000 Canadians have been pardoned, meaning their
criminal records are removed from the Canadian Police Information
Centre and may not be disclosed without permission from the federal
Solicitor General. Applicants must have fulfilled their sentence
obligatioins and have been clean for at least three years for summary
convictions and five years for indictable offences.

It does not wipe the record clean, but it can keep it from hanging
over a person's life. A pardon also won't guarantee entry or visa
privileges to another country. With heightened security concerns to
the United States post-9/11, a record can put quite a crimp into a
Canadian's travel plans.

And sex offenders' records may be accessible despite a pardon if they
apply to work with children or other vulnerable groups. As well, a
pardon isn't forever. It can be revoked if the person is convicted
again.

According to a Canadian Press story, one in 10 Canadians has a
criminal record and about 20,000 a year apply for pardon. It costs a
$50 processing fee.

In 2002-03 the National Parole Board processed 17,000 pardon
applications and accepted 90 per cent of them.

Perhaps the federal government should reconsider this process,
streamlining pardons for minor offences followed by decades of clean
living, which theoretically would free up resources for the tougher
task of determining who deserves early release and keeping tabs on
those convicts heading back into society.

If nothing else, the process of pardoning people for past misdeeds
should make us think twice about just how much stock we put in police
record checks and just how fair it is to forever judge the individual
for activities in the past for which they have already paid a price.