CTV news, Live at Five, had a short blurb tonight about how the new rules are affecting an artist in St, John, New Brunswick. He needs the VSS to get a job teaching art. Because the check will take 3-4 months he may lose out on the job. After they told his story they talked to the MP for his area. He put out the standard BS answer about better to have to go through the check instead of letting an offender go undiscovered. While I can agree with that it doesn't address why the check takes so long. It was typical glib answer from a politician looking to make a sound byte for the evening news while ignoring the issue.
I actually have no problem with doing any check but there are some problems with the process. Problems the politician didn't mention.
1) It takes 3-4 months to clear your name. That is a ridiculous amount of time in this day and age. It took the RCMP 3 bloody months to do my check last year and then tell me that they couldn't do the VSS.
3-4 months to run a fingerprint check just strikes me as insane. Some government agencies actually bypass the RCMP check and have their own security people run the check and it is supposed to take 2 weeks. According to what I was told the finger prints are digitized and then a check is done by computer. Which leads to 2 questions a) why can't the RCMP do it in 2 weeks and b) why the does it take THAT long if they can just be run through a computer data base? Is there a commonality between data of birth and sex offenders that means there are hundreds or thousands of them with the same birthday so the search is huge? It just doesn't compute. (Pun intended.)
2) Unless it is for a Federal government job or SOME volunteer jobs you must pay to have the police clear your name.
Yes, you have to PAY to clear your name. Why the hell should I have to pay the police to prove I am innocent? Aren't they supposed to prove we are guilty? Isn't it the job of the police to gather evidence of our innocence or guilt? That is what they are PAID to do already right?
3) They do NOT do the VSS for jobs outside Canada.
They don't do the VSS for jobs outside of Canada? That just doesn't make sense, unless they are trying to lower their workload so they have less VSS checks to do. We should be making sure that we DON'T export sex offenders to other countries. Not doing this check for people seeking work outside the country just doesn't make sense. Hell, we have to pay for the bloody check anyway so why does it matter if it is a job inside or outside of Canada?
Will these problems be addressed? Probably not. People just continue to be screwed over by teh process.
I am currently applying for a Canada Census job, and i was told that because I was fingerprinted in the past (charge was later dropped in court), that it would take over 120 days for my digital prints, which i payed 75 to get. By that time, that job will no longer be available to me.
ReplyDeleteI do not have a criminal record, and i do not see why being fingerprinted in the past, (without being convicted or charged) should hold me back from getting that job. I see this as some sort of a malicious/incompetent/discriminatory action from our government.
And now that i think about it, i will be extremely difficult for me to find work. It seems that all i can do now is crime, what a shame.
plz contact me if you have any suggestions.
mamaie123ca@yahoo.com
I have lost a couple of jobs because of the length of the search myself. They needed someone in a month and it takes the RCMP 3-4 months.
ReplyDeleteAnd we don't seem to have any recourse.
I have been waiting for my criminal record check so I can apply for my real estate license for almost 120 days now. The long wait is affecting my financial life. Thanks to the RCMP I am getting into debt.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am about to lose yet another job because of how long it takes for this check. :( mind you the RCMP doesn't set the rules, the government does.
ReplyDeleteI'm a nursing student who now lost one whole year because of the 4 month delay. It's been more than 4 months now and now I'm losing my patience. I need to start repaying my loans now and OSAP won't understand it that it wasn't me who put me into this desperate situation. I don't even have the option of paying extra in order to use an express service! This is a sign of a third-world country that is still standing in 1920's. What a shame, RCMP really put Canadians backwards and back into the stone age.
ReplyDeleteThat really sucks. :( I am starting to come to the conclusion that it is time to leave Canada. To work in the field I want I need the CBC but the delay is killing me for getting a job.
ReplyDeleteI don't blame the RCMP. I blame the Federal Government who changed the rules without making sure their was a proper mechanism in place to do it in a timely manner.
I need this CRC for my Australian citizenship. But because they are taking an outrages amount of time, I'm missing the start of their school year and will have to postpone my schooling (and life) in Australia for a year.
ReplyDeleteIt took my gf (Australian) 7 days to receive hers. It took 3 days for Taiwan and 8 days for Japan (b/c resided for over a year). WHY DOES IT TAKE CANADA OVER 90 DAYS BEFORE THEY"LL EVEN CONSIDER AN INQUIRY ABOUT ITS PROGRESS!!
F' the politicians and police. . . If there's ever a violent revolution, I know where I'll be headed.
It is because when the Government decided on the new rules they NEVER alloted any increase in funding or manpower for the police to do it. Which means that when an RCMP officer is needed to take your prints or check them they are pulled off an active case. Which means we are the LOWEST priority for them.
ReplyDeleteIf the Government had actually put a proper mechanism in place this could be done in a matter of days.
You are all wrong man !!!
ReplyDeleteThis is another Municipal/Federal cash grab !!!
They looked at the numbers of people and said " HEY !!! 90% of these people all have these common factors...if we charged them an extra $25... we get richer !!!
The time is just how long it takes to bury the money and crunch up the numbers.
I think that takes too long how come they cannot do it on time.
ReplyDeleteThey can't do it quicker because it isn't a priority to them. They weren't allocated any funds or personnel to do the check when the government changed the rules.
ReplyDeleteWhen officer's are dedicated to do the check it can actually be done in less than 24 hours.
RCMP is so obsessed with criminal prosecution that it makes every innocent Canadian citizen guilty.
ReplyDeleteI hate Canada's British Common Law.
I hate the long procedures in the Canadian government.
I absolutely hate Canada's 'stone age' bureaucracy.
How come they take too long to have a criminal background checks to the applicant. It's very confusing how they do it.
ReplyDeleteThey take so long because we (the people submitting them) are not a priority. It isn't anything to do with a criminal case so they don't want to pull an officer off of an active case to do the check. According to the officers I talked with about it the Harper Government gave them the responsibility for doing the check without any additional funding or manpower to get it done.
DeleteWhy in the world didn't they just make it illegal for a sex offender to change their legal name?
ReplyDeleteIs common sense really that hard to find or is this a plot to register the fingerprints of everyone possible?
"Your fingerprints will be destroyed" my A~~!
I think they are more worried about an offender using a fake name. Not legally changing it. At least I hope that is the reason or it is more fucked up than I thought.
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