This is the (true) story of a candidate and a youthful indiscretion. John (not his real name) was 16 years old on a very boring day at the end of the school year. He and his gang of buddies decided to wander around the mostly deserted streets of a small town in the Lower St. Lawrence (which could have been Montreal, the Eastern Townships or Beauce!). Herding spirit or the famous “groupthink”, adolescent male hormones in panic mode lead the joyous troop to assault a poor innocent telephone booth and remanufacture it, or rather simply trash it in the field.
Obviously, having committed a crime, the band was less joyous when the Police intercepted the two protagonists who appeared to be the leaders of the group (the others escaped and were never caught or reported! You can be a young criminal and still have a sense of honour…). In short, John found himself charged as a criminal. Since he was only 16 years old, his case was resolved quickly and it was all forgotten after a summer spent “green”, in the clear, in the countryside without any outside contact and registration for the following school year in a fashionable and strict boarding school.
Why am I telling you this story?
– Because you are also parents of teens or parents in authority and this could happen to you! (Admittedly, more telephone booths were attacked in our days but iTunes card distributors are potential targets…)
– Because this young man finally completed his studies in accounting brilliantly and obtained a recognized professional designation. He practised for 10 years in a large firm and served large companies across the province until the day when he happened on a company that conducted a thorough background check including his legal record (credit, criminal, civil, etc.).
– Because you are a recruiter and these situations arise more frequently than might be thought.
So there it is, I had the report in my hands along with the client’s offer (conditional on the background check**).
What to do? John, who was now 35 years old, had long since buried this history in his memory! Imagine his surprise when I asked him what he had against Bell Canada telephone booths? Awkward silence, I could easily imagine the visions of horror that immediately surfaced (in fact I hesitated between the face of his father on the day he was arrested, the police officer who arrested him or his summer spent in community work).
I gave him my standard spiel on transparency in the relationship between a candidate and his recruiter. Everything must be told to avoid unpleasant surprises and discovering skeletons in the closets. Recruiters hate that. The problem is that the John in question, and his parents, had so wanted to forget this terrible episode that they forgot to apply for a pardon!
Because pardons exist but it’s up to the individual to apply for it!
“A Canadian pardon leads to separating your criminal record from other judicial records along with any other information relating to your convictions, as well as the withdrawal of your criminal record from the Canadian Police Information Centre (CIPC). Once your pardon has been granted by the federal government, your criminal record will be filed separately and will therefore remain inaccessible without the authorisation of the Minister of Public Safety Canada. You will then be under no obligation to disclose that you have received a pardon.”
But you still have to apply for it! It takes about 5 years after the offense to be able to apply for it and it has the advantage of protecting the individual under the Canadian Human Rights Act which “prohibits any discrimination against persons who have been pardoned, whether in provision of services to such persons or their access to employment. Furthermore, granting of a pardon allows you to travel with confidence to the United States.” For more information or if you want to make an application, visit the Government of Canada website: http://pbc-clcc.gc.ca/prdons/pardon-eng.shtml .
Obviously, John submitted an Express version of his application, was pardoned and recruited with the blessing of HRD. Today he is an excellent CFO whose honesty passes all tests. In the end, this affair served to teach him two lessons. The first at age 16 and the second at age 35.
What about you? What skeletons could appear without warning from your closets?
**The Law is strict but it is common practice and I will return to the topic of references and the offer in a future column.