Honourable senators, I rise today to speak in support of Bill S-214, An Act to amend the Criminal Records Act, to make consequential amendments to other Acts and to repeal a regulation. Again, I would like to thank my colleague Senator Pate for this bill and for her impressive and tireless advocacy for criminalized Canadians.

Bill S-214 is an honourable amendment to the Criminal Records Act. It takes meaningful steps towards removing systemic barriers related to criminal record suspensions. Removing these barriers will help criminalized Canadians build towards a successful reintegration into the community and positive contributions to our society as a whole.

When Canadians finish serving their time in prison, what kinds of opportunities do we as a society want to offer? It should be a just and humane offer. It should be an offer that creates positive outcomes for the community, the criminalized individual and their families.

We should have a system that promotes successful reintegration. If we want to reduce crime, recidivism and promote safe and healthy communities, we must be honourable and humane partners in supporting reintegration.

Our current record suspension system is not just, nor is it efficient. Application fees for record suspensions have risen from $50 to over $630 in the past 25 years under the guise of “cost recovery.” But $630 is not the final cost. One must factor in the price of extra costs such as fingerprinting and obtaining certain records. After accounting for all costs, it is estimated that the cost of applying for a record suspension could rise to over $1,500. We levy a financial barrier on a criminalized individual who has paid their debt to society in the name of cost savings when doing so decreases their chance of successful reintegration and increases our chance of there being a less than optimal outcome for our communities.

A solution is presented in Bill S-214 in the form of an automatic record expiry. An automatic record expiry conditional on lawful behaviour serves as a just and efficient mechanism to reduce barriers to successful reintegration. In the past decade, 95% of those who had received a pardon or record suspension did not reoffend.

Having a criminal record is usually a barrier to employment, volunteering, housing, education and reintegration into families and communities. If we as a society have agreed that people are able to suspend their criminal record, why do we allow for a system that creates a significant barrier to establishing a life with stable housing, community participation and employment? Are these not the components of our own lives that we value and need?

I urge us to reconsider the priorities implicit in the current record suspension system. The high cost reduces the likelihood that criminalized Canadians can contribute to their communities from a stable foundation of housing and employment. Can we justify this discrimination in the name of saving money?

If we let the current system chug along, we are demonstrating our collective comfort with placing disproportionate financial burdens on criminalized Canadians that will reduce their success of community reintegration resulting in a collective loss for us all. Thank you. Meegwetch.