Published: October 2026
You apply to the Parole Board of Canada for a record suspension, which is what a pardon has been called since 2012. To qualify, you must have finished every part of every sentence, including fines, probation and restitution, and then waited five years for a summary conviction offence or ten years for an indictable offence. The application fee is $50. A record suspension does not erase the conviction. It removes it from the main Canadian Police Information Centre database so that it does not show up on a standard criminal record check.
That is the short answer. The details decide whether it will work for you.
What does a record suspension actually do?
A record suspension sets your criminal record apart from other records. Once granted, the conviction is kept separate and apart in the national database, and a routine police check for employment, volunteering or housing will no longer disclose it. Federal departments and agencies cannot disclose it without the approval of the Minister of Public Safety.
It does not delete anything. Court records still exist, and a record suspension can be revoked if you are convicted of a new offence. It also does not bind other countries. The United States does not recognize Canadian record suspensions, so if you have been refused entry before, a suspension on its own will not fix that.
Who is eligible and how long do you wait?
The eligibility rules are set out on the Parole Board of Canada’s record suspension pages. For offences committed on or after March 13, 2012, the waiting periods are:
- five years for an offence prosecuted by summary conviction; and
- ten years for an offence prosecuted by indictment.
The clock does not start at sentencing. It starts after you have completed all of your sentences, which includes paying every fine, surcharge and restitution order, finishing any jail or conditional sentence, and completing parole, statutory release and probation. People are often surprised to learn that an unpaid victim surcharge from years ago has kept their waiting period from ever starting.
Some people are not eligible at all. You cannot apply if you have been convicted of an offence listed in Schedule 1 of the Criminal Records Act, which covers sexual offences involving children, unless you meet narrow exceptions. You are also ineligible if you have more than three indictable offences, each with a sentence of two years or more.
What does the application involve?
The Parole Board publishes a step by step guide, and the process is slow but not complicated. You will need:
- your certified criminal record from the RCMP, obtained through fingerprinting;
- court information forms completed by each court where you were sentenced, with proof that fines and surcharges were paid;
- local police record checks for where you live now and everywhere you have lived in the past five years, each valid for 12 months;
- a copy of your identification, a military conduct sheet if applicable, and the Measurable Benefit and Sustained Rehabilitation form, in which you explain how the suspension would help you and what has changed since the offence; and
- the $50 processing fee, paid by credit card, certified cheque, money order or bank draft.
You can do this yourself. Companies that advertise pardon services charge for doing the same paperwork. Where a lawyer earns their fee is in the harder situations: a sentence that was never fully completed, a conviction in another province with lost court records, or a record that includes an offence you believe should not have resulted in a conviction at all.
What if you were discharged rather than convicted?
If you received an absolute or conditional discharge, you do not need a record suspension. Under the Criminal Records Act, an absolute discharge is removed from the national database automatically one year after the date of the discharge, and a conditional discharge three years after. If an old discharge is still showing on a check, that is a records problem to fix with the RCMP, not a reason to apply for a suspension.
What if the conviction itself was wrong?
A record suspension forgives a conviction. It does not undo one. If you believe you were wrongly convicted, the routes are different and the clock runs differently. The first is an appeal, which must usually be started within 30 days of sentencing. Where appeals are exhausted and new evidence has come to light, there are post conviction applications such as an application for ministerial review under the Criminal Code, which asks the federal Minister of Justice to consider whether a miscarriage of justice likely occurred. These applications involve extensive investigation and document review, and lawyers who handle them generally recommend starting one to two years before you expect to file.
Liberty Law LLP is a criminal defence firm with offices in Edmonton, Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray, Alberta. Which route applies depends on the history of your case.
Frequently asked questions
Is a pardon the same thing as a record suspension?
Yes, in practical terms. The Criminal Records Act replaced the word pardon with record suspension in 2012 and lengthened the waiting periods. Pardons granted before then remain valid. Anyone applying today applies for a record suspension.
Can a record suspension be taken away?
Yes. The Parole Board can revoke a suspension if you are convicted of a new summary offence, if it finds you are no longer of good conduct, or if it learns the application contained a false statement. A conviction for a new indictable offence cancels the suspension automatically.
Will a record suspension let me travel to the United States?
Not on its own. The United States applies its own law and does not recognize Canadian record suspensions. If your conviction makes you inadmissible to the United States, you need a U.S. entry waiver, which is a separate application to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
If you are unsure whether your sentence is complete or whether your record qualifies, get your RCMP certified record first. It tells you exactly what the system sees, and everything else follows from that.