On June 3, 2015, the Ontario government introduced Bill 113, the Police Record Checks Reform Act, 2015. If passed, the Act would implement a new statutory regime in Ontario governing police checks, which generally describe searches of the Canadian Police Information Centre (“CPIC”) and other applicable police databases to screen an individual for employment, volunteer or other purposes. Changes arising from Bill 113 would include the following:
- Standardization of the police checks that can be requested by individuals, as well as standardization of the information authorized for disclosure for each type of police check. The three types of police checks described in Bill 113 are: criminal record checks, criminal record and judicial matters checks, and vulnerable sector checks. At the present time, police checks are not standardized across Ontario and are instead governed by different procedures established by each respective regional police service.
- Restrictions placed on the release of non-conviction records and mental health information. Non-conviction information would only be disclosed in the context of vulnerable sector checks where individuals are applying to work or volunteer with vulnerable individuals as described in Bill 113. An individual would also be able to request reconsideration of the release of non-criminal/non-conviction records as outlined in Bill 113.
- Police record checks will always be sent to the individual for review before any disclosure of the check to an employer or other organization that requested the police check. After receiving the results of the police check on himself/herself an individual may provide written consent allowing the disclosure of the police check results to another person or individual.
- Authorization to third-party background screening companies to conduct certain types of police checks.
- Bill 113 is modeled on the Ontario Association of the Chiefs of Police’s LEARN Guideline for Police Record Checks, an initiative to standardize the procedures that apply to obtain police checks. The LEARN Guidelines were first introduced in March 2011 and updated in June 2014.