For the many Canadians convicted of cannabis possession before 2018, the federal government’s legalization of the recreational use of marijuana did not automatically eliminate their criminal records. And those records can still have a negative impact on their lives.

A simple pot possession conviction from the past can lead to numerous problems today. They can impact the ability to work in certain professions, the chance to go to school, the opportunity to become a volunteer, or the ability to access housing.

But according to the co-ordinator of Sarnia-Lambton’s Community Law School, people whose lives have been negatively affected by simple pot possession convictions prior to 2018 can remove that burden by completing a short, simple and free application available on the Parole Board of Canada website.

Margaret Capes, a retired legal aid lawyer, said she wants more people to know about the relatively simple tool.

Yet many people are unaware that the process to obtain a pardon even exists, she said.

The downsides of having a past simple cannabis possession conviction can be numerous, Capes said.

“The main way of having a conviction of any kind can affect someone if when they’re applying for work, but it can also impact your ability to go to school,” she said. “There are certain professions that look at whether you have a conviction on your record or not and travel can be restricted if you have a conviction.”

Last year, the federal government introduced an amnesty of sorts for those with simple possession convictions, allowing them to apply for a free, speedy and streamlined version of a record suspension.

Capes said while the process is easy and the advantages of applying for the record suspension are many, the government didn’t do a good job in promoting the measure. That means that many of the people who could benefit the most still don’t know the process exists.

“My sense is that most people are not aware of it,” she said. “I can’t say the federal government did a great job promoting it, but it is definitely there. The party that is involved in granting a record suspension is the Parole Board of Canada. So if you go to their website, you can see the link to cannabis record suspensions.

“I’m a big believer in the fact that people make mistakes,” Capes continued. “And if you have a simple possession conviction on your record, you should at least have the chance to get a record suspension/pardon for it so you can make your life a little bit easier.

“A pardon or a record suspension doesn’t wipe out your record, though. What it does is it basically takes it out of the reporting mechanism. So if somebody was to do a record check on you when you apply for a job, your record wouldn’t show up. It doesn’t go away, it’s just put on a shelf is what I say.”

While obtaining record suspensions for other criminal offences is a process open to all Canadians, the process to receive a pardon for pre-2018 possession of cannabis convictions is simplified and fairly quick, Capes added.

“There are record suspension applications for simple cannabis possession and then there are record suspension applications for everything else,” she said.

“The cannabis application is much fewer pages long to begin with. Interestingly enough, it costs $644.88 just to apply for a regular record suspension, but for a cannabis record suspension application, there’s no charge. And that’s a big thing,” she added. “You do have to collect some records from your local police department to attach to the application but if I had to compare the two applications, one is like kindergarten and the other is like getting your PhD.”

The application does not require the services of a lawyer or a paralegal, Capes said. Forms can be obtained on the Parole Board of Canada website and sent in.

“And there’s no waiting period for these – if you were applying for a pardon for any other type of conviction, there’s a five or 10-year waiting period before you can apply. For these, there’s no waiting period at all.”

As with many other things in life, when filling in the application honesty is generally the best policy, Capes said.

”It’s also very important to know that if you’re not honest on the application forms, if you don’t tell the truth about the details of your conviction and what happened, it can be revoked after it is granted. So I always tell people to be straight forward and honest,” she said.

For more information, visit www.canada.ca/en/parole-board/services/record-suspensions.html.