An Act to amend the Criminal Records Act, to make consequential amendments to other Acts and to repeal a regulation

This bill changes how criminal records are cleared in Canada. Right now, people with a criminal record must actively apply for a "record suspension" (formerly called a pardon) and, in many cases, pay a fee, wait out a set period, and have the Parole Board decide whether to grant it. This bill replaces that system with automatic "record expiry": once the waiting period after a sentence ends (five years for indictable offences, two years for summary ones, and no waiting period at all for young people), the record automatically expires and is treated as no longer reflecting on the person's character, with no application or fee required.

There are safeguards built in. If police databases show the person was convicted of a new offence during the waiting period, or had outstanding charges or was under investigation, the automatic expiry is put on hold and the person is notified that they can apply to the Parole Board to have their record expire anyway. The Board must grant that if satisfied it would support the person's rehabilitation and not harm public confidence in justice. Certain more serious listed offences remain subject to closer scrutiny, and the Board keeps the power to revoke an expiry or cancel its effect if someone lied on an application or wasn't actually eligible. People can no longer be charged any fee for these applications.

The bill also updates related laws to swap out the old "pardon"/"record suspension" language for "record expiry," including the Criminal Code, the Canadian Human Rights Act, the National Defence Act, the Income Tax Act, the DNA Identification Act, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, and the Youth Criminal Justice Act, so these other laws work consistently with the new system. It repeals the old regulation that set fees for pardon services, since no fees will be charged anymore. Finally, transitional rules say that all previously granted record suspensions become record expiries automatically, and pending applications will be processed under whichever new set of rules fits the applicant's situation.

This bill replaces the current discretionary "record suspension" (pardon) system under the Criminal Records Act with an automatic "record expiry" process, and gives the Parole Board of Canada and the Governor in Council new powers to administer, review, and adjust that system.

• Automatic expiry mechanism — records now expire on their own after a five-year wait for indictable offences and two-year wait for summary offences (with no waiting period for offences committed as a child), rather than requiring a person to apply for a discretionary pardon.
• Parole Board's review powers — where the RCMP's automated records system shows a new conviction, outstanding charges, or an ongoing investigation, the Board has "exclusive jurisdiction and absolute discretion" to order, refuse, revoke, or nullify a record expiry, applying an undefined standard of what "would bring the administration of justice into disrepute."
• Governor in Council's regulatory powers — Cabinet may, by order, add or delete offences from Schedules 1 and 2 (which govern which offences face extra scrutiny or notation), and may prescribe by regulation additional factors the Board considers and additional circumstances for police disclosure, without further parliamentary vote.
• Minister's disclosure approval power — the Minister must approve disclosure of an expired record or its existence, based on a discretionary determination that disclosure is "desirable in the interests of the administration of justice" or Canada's security, with no fee chargeable to applicants under the new process.
• RCMP Commissioner's record-handling duties — the Commissioner must keep expired records separate, remove decriminalized-offence records and discharges from the automated database, and maintain notations for police on offences listed in the Schedules.
• Oversight — the Board must report annually to the Minister on expiry applications and outcomes, and may publicly disclose its decisions provided no identifying information is released without consent; there is no sunset clause on any of these powers.