Pardons Canada Pardons Canada fraudulently Violates The Privacy Act With No Regard For Entrapment Laws Says Unlicenced Private Investigator Toronto, Ontario

I would like to bring to your attention that many people lives are being effected by the business practices of these so called Federal Non- Profit Pardons Organizations, namely Pardons Canada in my case that did not make good on their promise to me and many others I am to understand.

To my mind they are in violation of the Privacy Act and they have violated my right to privacy by not informing me before hand that they have no direct affiliation with the Government or the Pardons Board for that matter or that you are volunteering personal information to a third party to assist you in an action you can clearly do yourself without their help. 

Instead, they try to appear as an arm of the Government, as they gave me two options when I had my in person interview. The representative told me that for $500.00 they would clear my criminal record in two years or for $650 they could clear my record in one year and they wanted full payment up front. Does this sound like there are any hidden fees to you? It sounded like a done deal to me and to many others, who blog about them, labelling them as nothing but a fraud and a scam, so I take it I am not alone.

Under The Privacy Act, this also brings up another issue I have, of just how Pardons Canada handles your personal criminal record information, meaning since they are not Government regulated in any which way, just how secure is this sensitive information that you have provided to them, under false pretences.

Even their company name and logo is somewhat questionable, as it tends to lend itself to the Government, in its initial presentation that also overall advances them in their marketing schemes, with their intent to get your complete trust, along with your business, with no questions asked.

I understand the term Buyer beware in any business dealings, with the exception of a few, this being one of them when you are lead to believe they are something like the independently owned Drivers Licence Offices that are in fact recognized by the Provincial Government, to conduct business on their behalf, while sharing secured data with the Province that are linked to their system. Who would ever think that a body extending themselves to the point of making you believe they have the power to remove your criminal record and grant United States entry waivers, would somehow not be an extension of the Pardons Board process and share the same kind of secured computer data with them, as the Licence Bureau does.

Even though they have to comply with The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, also known as PIPEDA., they unlawfully asked me to disclose what I thought the RCMP may find on my criminal record before hand, only to find in the end that the RCMP only found one charge against me, after revealing other charges that I thought may also be present, when I signed their statement, claiming the above to be true to the best of my knowledge. To my mind this is incriminating evidence that was given to the RCMP, with my consent no less, under false pretences that is now possibly on file, meaning how am I to know how this information is being dealt with that I now consider, Pardons Canada obtained by means of entrapment, although they are not Government Agents or the police they are acting in a sense, knowingly or unknowingly, as Confidential Informents for the RCMP.

To further state my complaint against Pardons Canada, the following is my personal experience with this organization, after they got my credit card payment of $500.00, plus tax, to wait for two years to get my Pardon, since I planned on going back to school in the meantime.

I then received a phone call just a few weeks later, to go and get my electronic finger prints and head shot done for $75.00, plus tax, to send to the RCMP, for my record check. To my surprise, I was upset with the fact they did not tell me about this hidden cost upfront, since I had little funds to cover it except to also put it on my already stressed out credit card. Pardons Canada rudely told me I should have read the fine print on my contract and that I had to pay for it, end of story.

It got even better, when they informed me one year later that they had lost my prints and head shot and told me I had to go and get them done again at my expense, so their went another $75.00, plus tax.  At the two year mark and a year later I got a letter saying I would be pardoned.

Then also to my surprise, now thinking it was before the Pardons Board, they then threw me another curve ball, when they then informed me that I now had to go to the O.P.P. Police Station, close to where I lived in Wasaga Beach, Ontario, to get a police report at my own expense and I informed them that I did not have the funds and felt they should be paying for this out of the so called non-profit $500.00 they so lead me to believe I was paying fore up front in the first place. Now being a total of $650.00, plus tax, in debt, I absolutely refused to pay anymore, so we played the waiting game to see who would eventually fold first.

We are now close to year four and they send me another letter asking for my O.P.P record check to finally get to the Pardons Board, so I gave in when they said this would be my final cost. Even though it was only $25.00, that is besides the point and more about the principle of the matter. In the meantime I had moved to Penatanguishene, Ontario, so I went to the O.P.P, as instructed and I explained my situation to the officer on duty that said she hates to see people being taken for a ride, being also convinced that it is a scam, explained that I could have done this all myself on the internet at the same costs that I had incurred over there fee, in less than a year.

At this point I was absolutely furious and I let Pardons Canada know in no uncertain terms that they had mislead me right from the beginning, with all of their false promises. To add insult to injury, I then get a call from them asking for the Pardons Board fee, claiming that would be another $150.00, so I asked to speak to the manager and threatened to sue for my money back that they say they guarantee and with that money I would then further sue them for two years, now three years of lost wages and the fact that they violated my right to privacy by not disclosing their third party involvement.

Mentioning The Privacy Act, seemed to get their attention, since I then received a phone call from the manager, Mr. Andrew Tanenbaum, who informed me that he would see what he could do about waiving the $150.00 fee and I have herd nothing more from him since, thinking maybe it was now before the board and that was over a year ago. They have also now changed their website that will not let you get a hold of anyone personally like they did before and they have gone to a fully automated system now. I can see why with all of the people out there that feel they have been scammed, going so far as to call it, out and out fraud and I totally agree.

So here I am, five years later still waiting and I am out $675.00, plus tax, thanks to Pardons Canada. The reason I needed my criminal record removed was to be licenced, as you now need a licence to work as a Private Investigator. I took the approved Private Investigator, Ministry Course, with the Canadian School of Private Investigation and Security and passed, although I do not want to write my final Ministry Test before my record is totally removed, since the Ministry wants to know what charges you had against you, which defeats the entire purpose of having your record removed in the first place, being that it is still on the Ministry Records permanently, by divulging your criminal record during the pardons process.

I believe Government intervention is the mandate needed here to resolve these fraudulent issues in question. I personally would like to see that Pardons Canada and other organizations that offer the same services, to be Government regulated, with a full investigation into their business practices, past and present, to see just how many pardons they have actually had granted in the time frame they promised or even at all. I think it is high time to put an end to this unfair business practice that can ultimately ruin others lives in the process that personally left me unemployed in my field, for over three years now, due to their lack of integrity.