These Are The Ways Peel Police Can Check Your Background

It should not a surprise to anyone that when you’re applying for certain jobs or even signing up for volunteer roles, one of the first things that is asked of you is a background check.

This is especially important if the role happens to involve working with children or other vulnerable people, so such background checks are quite crucial.

According to Peel Regional Police, they utilize three types of record checks: a criminal record check (Level 1), a criminal record and judicial matters check (Level 2) and vulnerable sector check (Level 3).

Criminal Record Check (Level 1)

These are for people who require a basic criminal records check, showing the following:

• Every criminal offence of which the individual has been convicted for which a pardon has not been issued or granted.

• Every summary conviction if the request is made within five years after the date of the summary conviction.

• Every finding of guilt under the Youth Criminal Justice Act (Canada) in respect of the individual during the applicable period of access under that Act.

But there are a number of things that this check will NOT show, chief among which is outstanding entries, such as charges or warrants.

Criminal Record and Judicial Matters Check (Level 2)

This check is intended for people who require a criminal records check along with a search of outstanding entries and charges, for such needs like border crossings, immigration and taxi licenses.

Unlike Level 1, this check is more extensive and will show things like:

• Any conviction for which a pardon has been granted if disclosure is authorized under the Criminal Records Act of Canada.

• Every criminal offence of which the individual has been found guilty and received an absolute discharge within a year after the date of the absolute discharge.

• Every criminal offence of which the individual has been found guilty and received an conditional discharge within three years after the date of the conditional discharge.

• Every criminal offence for which there is an outstanding charge or warrant to arrest in respect of the individual.

• Every court order made against the individual except: court orders made under the Mental Health Act or under Part XX.1 of the Criminal Code (Canada), court orders made in relation to a charge that has been withdrawn, restraining orders made against the individual under the Family Law Act, the Children’s Law Reform Act or the Child and Family Services Act.

Vulnerable Sector Check (Level 3)

This check is needed for those who work or volunteer with vulnerable people, such as school teachers, coaches and parent volunteers. A vulnerable person can be a child under 18 years old, elderly or disabled.

Level 3 checks pull up things mentioned in the other two checks, plus the following:

• Every criminal offence with which the individual has been charged that resulted in a finding of not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder if the request is made within five years after the date of finding.

• Any non-conviction information authorized for exceptional disclosure in accordance with section 10 of the LEARN Guidelines.

Fees for all three checks are standard: $33 can be made either by cash, debit, Mastercard or VISA. No refunds will be issued for any level record check.

For the vulnerable sector check, additional information such as fingerprinting fees for both Peel police and the RCMP, $27 and $25 each respectively. But if you bring in a volunteer letter from your agency, those fees will not apply.

The police also provided information about record suspensions, which were previously known as pardons, which has a non-refundable fee of $92.

For records services, residents in Brampton and Mississauga can go to:

Brampton: Sir Robert Peel Centre, 7750 Hurontario Street 

Hours of operation:
Monday to Friday from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm
Saturday from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm

Mississauga: Square One Community Station, 100 City Centre Drive

(This location will be closing at the end of 2018; the new location will be at 3300 Erin Mills Parkway, opening date yet to be announced by Peel Regional Police)

Hours of operation:
Monday to Friday from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.
Saturday – 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

For more information on the ways police can check your record, click here.