Canadian Criminal Records & Everyday Criminal Law

Clearing a Canadian criminal record, getting a record check, defending yourself, or figuring out what a peace bond actually means all come down to a handful of distinct federal legal tools, and Canada uses different rules than the United States for nearly all of them.

Record Suspension, Expungement, Discharge, or Peace Bond: Which One Applies

People searching for help with a Canadian criminal record are usually dealing with one of four very different legal tools. They get confused with each other constantly, and mixing them up leads to wasted time or, worse, a wrong assumption about what a background check will show.

A record suspension sets a conviction aside and keeps it separate from other records, but it does not erase anything and it can be revoked. Expungement, by contrast, physically destroys a record, but Parliament limited it to a short list of historically unjust offences. A discharge is a sentencing outcome decided at trial, not something applied for afterward. A peace bond is not a conviction at all.

The table below compares them directly.

For the full application process, current wait times, and how to check the status of an application, see record suspension and pardon in Canada. For a deeper comparison of expungement and record suspension, including exactly which offences qualify for expungement, see expungement vs record suspension.

Record Suspensions: The Path Most People Actually Use

The legal term has been "record suspension" since 2012, though most people still call it a pardon and both terms describe the same thing. The Parole Board of Canada, a federal tribunal, decides every application; no court is involved.

The application fee is $50, effective January 1, 2022, a large reduction from the previous $657.77 fee. That reduction was a deliberate policy change to remove cost as a barrier, and any source citing a higher current fee is out of date.

Eligibility depends on waiting out a period after the full sentence, including any fine, probation, or restitution order, has been completed: five years for a summary conviction offence, ten years for an indictable offence. Some offences are ineligible altogether, including certain sexual offences against minors and cases involving more than three convictions prosecuted by indictment (four or more) each carrying a sentence of two years or more.

A record suspension is not automatic once the waiting period passes. An application has to be filed with supporting documents, and the Parole Board can refuse it if the person has since been charged or convicted again, or if granting it would bring the administration of justice into disrepute.

Expungement: A Narrow Remedy, Not a General One

Expungement is the strongest possible outcome for a criminal record because it physically destroys it, rather than sealing it. Parliament created this remedy through the Expungement of Historically Unjust Convictions Act in 2018, and it applies only to a specific, listed set of convictions that reflect conduct which is not a crime today and never should have been one.

The best-known example is a conviction for consensual sexual activity between same-sex adults, criminalized in Canada until 1969 and only fully repealed decades later. The Act lists the exact offences that qualify, and a conviction outside that list, no matter how sympathetic the circumstances, is not eligible for expungement.

Anyone hoping to erase an unrelated conviction should expect to use a record suspension instead. Expungement should never be described as a general alternative to a record suspension. It is a narrow remedy for a specific historical wrong.

Criminal Record Checks Come in Three Tiers

Employers, volunteer organizations, landlords, and licensing bodies in Canada ask for one of three different products, and they are not interchangeable. A name-based criminal record check, sometimes called a CPIC check, searches the RCMP's Canadian Police Information Centre database by name and date of birth and returns only convictions that have not been suspended or otherwise sealed.

A criminal record and judicial matters check goes further, adding outstanding charges, warrants, judicial orders, and some peace bonds to the search. A vulnerable sector check is the most thorough of the three and the only one legally permitted to disclose a record-suspended sexual offence conviction, along with certain other information that would not appear on the other two checks.

A vulnerable sector check is only available to organizations working with children, the elderly, or other vulnerable people, and it is not something a person can simply request on their own to hand to a general employer. For a full walkthrough of which check applies in which situation and how to request one, see criminal record check in Canada. For the vulnerable sector check specifically, including the federal rules on who may request one and what a record suspension does and does not hide from it, see our vulnerable sector check guide, and for Ontario's standardized check regime see police record checks in Ontario.

Background Checks and Employment

A pardoned or record-suspended conviction is treated differently from an open conviction under human rights law in several provinces. Ontario's Human Rights Code, for example, protects job applicants and employees from discrimination based on a record of offences, which the Code defines to include a conviction that has been pardoned.

That protection does not mean an employer can never ask about criminal history, and it works differently province by province and job by job, particularly for positions involving vulnerable people, finance, or security clearance. See background checks and employment in Canada for how this plays out in practice, including what an employer can and cannot ask.

Self-Defence in Canada: No Stand Your Ground, No Castle Doctrine

Canada rewrote its self-defence law in 2013 through the Citizen's Arrest and Self-defence Act, replacing a confusing patchwork of older sections with two provisions: Criminal Code section 34 for defence of a person and section 35 for defence of property. Both require that the act taken be reasonable in the circumstances, not merely that the person felt threatened.

Section 34 requires a reasonable belief that force or a threat of force is being used against the person or someone else, that the response was for the purpose of defending against it, and that the response was reasonable given a list of factors in section 34(2), including the nature of the threat, whether other options existed, and the proportionality of the response. Section 35 works the same way for property.

Canada has no stand your ground rule that removes any duty to consider retreating or de-escalating where reasonably possible, and no castle doctrine granting automatic legal authority to use lethal force against an intruder in the home. Reasonableness is always assessed after the fact, against the specific circumstances. See self-defence laws in Canada for a full breakdown of how courts apply the section 34(2) factors.

Citizen's Arrest: Legal, but Genuinely Risky

Criminal Code section 494 allows a private citizen to arrest someone found committing an indictable offence, or, for a property owner or someone in lawful possession of property, to arrest a person found committing an offence on or in relation to that property within a reasonable time afterward, where calling police is not feasible. The person arrested must be handed over to a peace officer as soon as possible.

Getting any part of this wrong carries real legal exposure. Using excessive force, holding someone who turns out to be innocent, or acting outside the narrow time and property limits can expose the person making the arrest to charges of assault or forcible confinement, along with civil liability. This is a narrow legal power, not a general invitation to act as security, and it should never be treated as a first response. See citizen's arrest in Canada for the specific limits and the safer alternative of calling police.

Peace Bonds: Not a Conviction, Not a Criminal Record

A peace bond, formally a recognizance under Criminal Code section 810, is a court order requiring someone to keep the peace and follow specific conditions, typically for up to twelve months. It is available where a person has reasonable grounds to fear that another person will cause personal injury to them or a family member, or damage their property, and it does not require that anyone be charged with or convicted of a crime.

Because no conviction is entered, a peace bond is not a criminal record in the ordinary sense. It can, however, still appear on a vulnerable sector check, and breaching its conditions is itself a separate criminal offence.

A peace bond is distinct from a restraining order, which is typically a family law or civil remedy, and from the specialized section 810.1 and 810.2 peace bonds aimed specifically at fears of a sexual offence or a serious personal injury offence. Peace bonds also come up often in domestic situations; see domestic violence laws in Canada for how they interact with charges and protection orders in that context, and peace bonds in Canada for the full application process.

Knives and Weapons: No Blade-Length Limit, but Purpose Matters

A common myth holds that Canada bans knives over a certain blade length. There is no such general rule. Instead, the Criminal Code and the federal Regulations Prescribing Certain Firearms and Other Weapons name specific prohibited weapons outright, including automatic-opening knives such as switchblades, along with butterfly knives and push daggers.

For an ordinary folding or fixed-blade knife that is not on the prohibited list, the offence usually turns on why it is being carried and how. Section 90 makes it an offence to carry a weapon concealed without authorization, and carrying any knife for a purpose dangerous to the public peace is a separate offence regardless of blade length. Provinces and municipalities can add further restrictions on top of the federal baseline, for example around schools or transit. See knife and weapons laws in Canada for the specific prohibited list and how concealment and purpose are assessed.

Jury Duty Is a Provincial Matter

Unlike most of the topics on this page, jury duty is not governed by a single federal statute. Each province runs its own Juries Act, and eligibility rules, the list of exempt occupations, and the daily pay a juror receives, which is often very low compared to lost wages, all differ from one province to the next.

Anyone who receives a jury summons should check the specific Juries Act for the province where the summons was issued rather than assume the rules match a neighbouring province. See jury duty in Canada for a province-by-province breakdown of eligibility, exemptions, and pay.

Travelling With a Record, Including to the United States

A Canadian record suspension only binds Canadian federal agencies. It does not bind the United States, and US border officials can still deny entry based on a conviction that has been suspended or even discharged years earlier, since US immigration law looks at the underlying conviction rather than Canada's later treatment of it.

Anyone with a past conviction who needs to travel to the United States may need a separate US entry waiver, a distinct process from a Canadian record suspension and handled by US Customs and Border Protection, not the Parole Board of Canada. This mismatch surprises a lot of people who assume that once a record is suspended in Canada, the issue is fully behind them. See travelling with a criminal record for how this plays out at the US border specifically and what a waiver application involves.

Where to Start

The right starting point depends on what is actually being asked. Someone trying to move past an old conviction should start with the record suspension and expungement comparison above. Someone facing a background check for a new job or volunteer role should read the record check breakdown. Someone dealing with a threat, a neighbour dispute, or a family situation involving fear of violence should look at self-defence, citizen's arrest, and peace bonds together, since these situations often overlap.

For the full set of Canadian legal topics covered on this site, including family law, tenant rights, employment, and driving law by province, see Canadian law by province.

US Legal Terms, Translated for Canada

Canadians often search US legal terms that do not map one-to-one onto Canadian law. These guides translate the concept and explain what Canada actually has instead:

• Is there a statute of limitations in Canada?
• Miranda rights in Canada (and "pleading the fifth")
• Is there such a thing as a felony in Canada?

Disclaimer: This article provides general information about Canadian criminal law and record-clearing options and is not legal advice. Rules, fees, and eligibility periods can change, and individual cases vary widely. Consult the Parole Board of Canada, a licensed lawyer, or a paralegal for advice about a specific situation.