How to get a pardon in Canada - Step 4

In my last article on how to get your pardon in Canada, I discussed the difficulties in obtaining your local police records checks. By now you should have made the necessary requests to obtain a local police check for each and every city in which you have lived during the last five years.

The next step in the pardon process is only necessary if you have served in the Canadian Forces at some point. If you have, then you will need to obtain a copy of your military conduct sheet, or a letter from your commanding officer.

Why do you need to obtain a Military Conduct Sheet? Military conduct records contain both civil criminal convictions and military misconduct. Civilian-type convictions occasionally occur within the military, but are not processed through the civilian courts, so the record may not be on a standard criminal record. For this reason, you must obtain the military conduct document for your pardon application. Likewise, the National Parole Board wants to know about any military misconduct when reviewing your pardon file. By submitting the conduct sheet with your pardon for consideration, any records on the conduct sheet become subject to the pardon, just like those convictions on your criminal record.

In order to know what you need, you need to figure out which of the following applies to you:

1. You are a current Regular or Reserve member of the Canadian Forces.

In this case you will need to go to your commanding officer and request a signed and certified copy of your Military Conduct Sheet. If you do not have a conduct sheet, you will need to obtain a letter confirming this from your commanding officer.

2. You are a former member of the Reserve, having left the reserve within the last 3 years.

Likewise, in this case you will need to go to your former commanding officer and request a signed and certified copy of your Military Conduct Sheet. If there is no conduct sheet, you will need to obtain a letter confirming this from your former commanding officer.

3. You are a former Regular, having left the military within the last 5 years.

In this case, your Military Conduct Sheet is held by the Department of National Defence, until after 5 years, it is transferred to the National Archives of Canada. You will need to obtain and complete a Military Conduct Record Request form. Complete the form and sent it along with a signed authorization to the Department of National Defence to obtain a copy of your conduct sheet. Be prepared to wait up to 6 months if you do not have contacts within the DND. If you do not have a conduct sheet on record, you will receive a letter confirming such in its place. Be sure to include this with your pardon.

4. You are a former Regular, having left the military more than 5 years ago, or you are a former Reserve, having left the military more than 3 years ago.

In this case, your Military Conduct Sheet is held within the National Archives of Canada. You will need to obtain and complete a Military Conduct Record Request form. Complete the form and sent it along with a signed authorization to the National Archives to obtain a copy of your conduct sheet. Be prepared to wait up to 6 months if you do not have contacts at the National Archives. If you do not have

a conduct sheet on record, you will receive a letter confirming such instead. Be sure to include either with your pardon.

Dealing with the National Defence or National Archives can be difficult to do on your own. You may find it much easier to simply have your pardon application professionally managed. Several pardon service providers have established connections which allow them to obtain your records for you, and usually in a faster time frame. They also already have the forms required on hand.

In my next article, I will discuss the next stage in obtaining your pardon: preparing and filing your application with the National Parole Board. In the meantime, if you would like more information relating to this article or others, feel free to visit my blog.