While the seal of a clean criminal record check puts many parents and volunteer organizations at ease, those who work with them frequently say they aren’t ironclad.
Cpl. Laurel Kading said it is important to remember that a criminal record check is a snapshot in time.
“It is accurate on the day it is done and for about that long.”
Kading said the RCMP’s counter staff is trained to identify what type of criminal record check a person requires. If they check for someone working with vulnerable groups, such as seniors or children, then a more expansive search is performed.
That more expansive search looks for criminal offences where the person may have received a pardon and is more detailed, but Kading said even it is not perfect.
“It only checks for convictions, so if a person has never been caught, they have never been charged with anything there will not be a conviction.”
She said sometimes people get the impression that a person is 100-per-cent safe if they have an up-to-date criminal record check, which the police simply cannot verify.
David Keohane, superintendent of Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools, said the board is aware of the limits of such checks and asks for a child welfare intervention check and insists that the criminal record check they ask for be current.
He said the board also does reference checks on potential employees, but there is a limit to how effective they can be.
“There tends to be rules in terms of what other parties will divulge, so there is always a restriction there.”
He said the school act requires teachers and principals to disclose if they are convicted of an indictable offence.
He said the school does everything it possibly can to deal with circumstances, which he points out are exceedingly rare, but there will always be exceptions to the rule.
“You can’t create enough laws or regulations to address every possible foreseeable circumstance.”
Pat Phelan, the director of volunteer services at the St. Albert Community Information Volunteer Centre said she advises groups on the limits of the checks. She said the expanded check for those working in the vulnerable sector is a very good search, but volunteer groups need to do more than that.
“I encourage volunteer groups to use every aspect of screening that is at their fingertips, particularly when they are dealing with the vulnerable sector.”
She said large groups find a way to do thorough checks on their volunteers and it is important for all groups working with vulnerable people to do the same.
“They are bringing 700 volunteers on board and Special Olympics Canada mandates that every volunteer coming on board for that five-day event will have a criminal record check and a vulnerable sector verification completed.”
