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O<\/span><\/p><\/p>\n h my God, this is actually happening,\u201d Tina Regalbuto says as she watches the snow fall through the window of the downtown service where she is getting her fingerprints digitally scanned. Regalbuto\u2019s been a convicted criminal for 25 years. The digital fingerprints are the start of her pardon process, and what she hopes will be a new life.<\/p>\n Because of a simple cannabis possession charge, she\u2019s struggled to find work, go to school and travel. \u201cIt\u2019s been hard to get a job above minimum wage,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Regalbuto getting her fingerprints digitally scanned. Sending those scans to the RCMP is the start of the pardon process.<\/p><\/div>\n Like the tens of thousands of Canadians with records like hers, she\u2019s ready to start fresh.<\/p>\n October\u2019s legalization of marijuana saw Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale announce that the government would move to pardon possession under 30 grams with \u201cno further waiting period and no fee.\u201d<\/p>\n Even though she\u2019s long past the waiting period\u2014anywhere from five to 10 years after the sentence is complete, depending on the conviction\u2014she never thought about a pardon before. The application for a pardon normally carries a $631 fee when it\u2019s filed with the Parole Board of Canada, and today\u2019s fingerprinting costs her $84. With her struggle for work, she\u2019s never had the funds before.<\/p>\n Regalbuto jumped at this new opportunity. Even though the pardon legislation hasn\u2019t materialized yet, it can take months for the multi-step process to move forward before filing the actual application for record suspension with the Parole Board. She hopes by the time she\u2019s done with the paperwork, the new law will be ready to go. If not, then she\u2019s finally ready to pay for it herself. The recreational marijuana legislation convinced her it\u2019s worth it either way.<\/p>\n Some areas, mainly in northern Canada, are heavily affected by pot arrests. The ones convicted of simple possession will soon be eligible for immediate free pardons, according to the Liberals’ promise. Source: Department of Justice JustFacts, 2016<\/p><\/div>\n Regalbuto\u2019s arrest happened just after her 18th birthday. \u201cI really didn\u2019t know what police were before then,\u201d she says. \u201cI met a guy who was a drug dealer and just lived the life. I was young and stupid. He was nine years older than me.\u201d<\/p>\n One morning she woke up to a gun pointed at her by police searching her apartment. There was a gym bag with weed, magic mushrooms and a little bit of cocaine in it. There were 28 grams of weed on her dresser. The gym bag belonged to her boyfriend, she says, but the pot on the dresser and the apartment were hers. And she had cash on her, split up into two stacks. That, the police said, was proof of her dealing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was split up because I\u2019d set my rent aside,\u201d Regalbuto says.<\/p>\n Her lawyer convinced her to plea to possession of the pot that was on her dresser. In exchange, the Crown dropped the trafficking charges. The judge gave her a summary conviction and a $75 fine with no jail time.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t understand the greatness of it until I was older and needed to get a job that paid more than $12 an hour,\u201d Regalbuto says.<\/p>\n An opportunity for housekeeping at $21 an hour came up at the Montfort Hospital, where she worked catering. It meant working around narcotics, and that meant a record check for her application. \u201cSo, I went down to the police station,\u201d Regalbuto says.<\/p>\n That\u2019s when she discovered the \u201cgreatness\u201d of a conviction.<\/p>\n The officer handed her back her record sheet. He pointed out the conviction and expressed sympathy for Regalbuto, as what she was charged with wasn\u2019t the law anymore. \u201cI asked him if it could just go away,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Instead, the job opportunity went away.<\/p>\n Regalbuto fills out her pardon forms. The lengthy paperwork can be a barrier to completing the process, Jade Kulla of the John Howard Society says.<\/p><\/div>\n The pardon process is long. It starts with the prints, then the RCMP mails back the record associated with them. After that, it\u2019s paperwork with the court, then more paperwork with every police jurisdiction she\u2019s lived in for more than three months and then a form that asks her to make a statement on how her life would be better with a pardon. When Regalbuto sees that question, her eyes widen. \u201cDuh!\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Only then can she file the pardon application itself with the Parole Board of Canada. It was daunting and hard for her to understand.<\/p>\n She\u2019s not alone. Jade Kulla, a spokesperson for the John Howard Society of Canada, a criminal justice reform group, says when people applying for a pardon find out it\u2019s going to take time, \u201cit usually breaks them a little, especially if they’re so eager to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey become helpless or no longer hopeful and they stop the process halfway through,\u201d Kulla adds.<\/p>\n Kulla describes Regalbuto\u2019s story as being typical of those who\u2019ve tangled with the criminal legal system. \u201cA simple charge or something that wasn’t necessarily a big deal has major effects throughout their life,\u201d Kulla says.<\/p>\n Kulla says that jobs can be difficult to find, \u201ceven a cleaner at a grocery store.\u201d Housing can be hard to find with more and more landlords needing record checks, and school can be a vicious circle with them trying to find the funds without jobs. \u201cStuff kind of piles up and it becomes difficult for them to continue on a normal path.\u201d<\/p>\n Regalbuto has experienced every one of those issues for most of her life. \u201cYou grow up, you have kids, you try and go back to school, but to go back to school you need to get this job, you can\u2019t get this career because it needs a clear record, you can\u2019t get that career.\u201d<\/p>\n Goodale\u2019s announcement a month ago saw the government recognize that, calling it \u201ca matter of basic fairness\u201d that the government move forward with pardons when laws are changed.<\/p>\n Regalbuto doesn\u2019t hold a grudge against the state that burdened her with what Goodale called a \u201cstigma.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey can give me my life back,\u201d Regalbuto says.<\/p>\n She already knows what she wants to do when the pardon comes through. \u201cI want to go to Myrtle Beach with my parents and the rest of my family,\u201d she says, describing the yearly frustration she\u2019s felt as her parents take her children to South Carolina, while she can only go as far south as the border.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to be excluded anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mosaic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/TIna-Fingerprint-Scan-300x191.jpg\")
The mindset of a teenager, the consequences of an adult<\/h2>\n
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A matter of basic fairness<\/h2>\n
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