Police Background Check System Broken?
| 4/9/2010 | Posted by Patti under Canadian News |
The Toronto Star today is reporting that a little noticed move by the RCMP last December to comply with provisions of the Privacy laws has resulted in breaking the police check system. Anyone who has volunteered in the community, particularly in positions dealing with children, will be familiar with having a police check done.
The check is supposed to insure that the volunteer is free of any criminal past which would endanger the people the volunteer is working with and the organization they are volunteering for. In some instances volunteers undergo multiply checks as a single check can’t be shared with other agencies.
They are a routine nuisance for honest people in the belief that they will catch those who should not be anywhere near vulnerable clients, especially children. Not only are pedophiles who have been pardoned, some 887 sex offenders in 2009-10, shielded from discovery in these checks but now those who have been convicted are as well.
With the changes, a police check will return a report either there is no record or their ‘might’ be a record. That can leave organizations in a dilemma over how to respond. Either they take on a zero tolerance of any records, or possible records, policy or they attempt to get to the bottom of the situation.
The government needs to make provisions to the privacy laws which allows the police to report sexual offences, especially those against children. In view of the number of sexual offenders already granted pardons, the government needs to unseal those records as well.
An individual convicted of a sexual offence against a child should never ever be allowed to hide from that fact. I’m not advocating the public announcements of an offender’s presence but I’m most definitely advocating if they should attempt to get anywhere near programs involving children the leadership of those programs need to know without a doubt who they are dealing with.
No quarter for pedophiles, ever. They don’t change their ways. Society has to do everything in our power to keep them away from children. One abused child is too many.
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The Parole Board of Canada
So who grants these pardons?