Background check: Can an employer see withdrawn, dismissed, acquitted or stayed charges?

Background check: Can an employer see withdrawn, dismissed, acquitted or stayed charges?

• Can your employer see charges that were withdrawn, dismissed, acquitted or stayed?
• That’s what I am going to cover in this article.
• Most people don’t know this, but an employer will see on a background check that you were charged even if your charges were withdrawn, dismissed, acquitted or stayed.  
• Let me explain.

1/  What’s the difference between a conviction and a non-conviction?

• When removing traces of your criminal activity from your background check, you need to understand the difference between a conviction and a non-conviction.
• A conviction is when you are charged by the police, found guilty in a court, and a conviction is registered.  
• At that point, your criminal record, which details your conviction, is stored in CPIC, the criminal record database managed by the RCMP.
• If you get a Pardon, now called a Record Suspension, the Parole Board of Canada will order the RCMP to remove your criminal record from the CPIC criminal records database.
• So when an employer does a background check on you, they will not see your conviction record.  Your background check will come back clean.

2/  How do you clear your non-conviction record?

• But this is not the case with a non-conviction.
• A non-conviction is where you had interactions with the police which led to charges but ultimately, there was no conviction.  
• Records of your non-conviction, including your charges, police notes, photographs and fingerprints, are stored in a few different places, including the databases at the Police station where you were charged and the Court where your case was processed.
• You can’t remove those records with a Pardon because a Pardon only applies to convictions.
• For non-convictions, you need to get a File Destruction which will destroy traces of your non-conviction.
• You need to make a File Destruction request to the Police service where you were charged.  
• However, here is what most people don’t know.
• The decision on whether to destroy your non-conviction record lies with the police.
• If the Police refuse your request for a File Destruction, your non-conviction charges will be a permanent part of your record and will be disclosed on any background check conducted by an employer.