Checkr Canada: FAQ

• What is an Standard Criminal Check?
• What is an Enhanced Criminal Check?
• Are Vulnerable Sector Checks available in Canada?
• What if the candidate fails to verify their identity?

What is an Standard Criminal Check?

The Standard Criminal Record Check is a search of adult convictions held within the RCMP National Repository of Criminal Records.

For more in-depth checks, please work with your Checkr Customer Success Manager to enable Enhanced Criminal Check, which may include the following information in addition to the Standard Criminal Record Check:

• Charges
• Warrants
• Peace Bonds
• Prohibition Orders
• Release Conditions
• Probation Orders
• Summary Convictions
• Recent Convictions not yet registered in the National Repository

What is an Enhanced Criminal Check?

The Enhanced Criminal Record Check searches the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) within the National Repository of Criminal Records, including Investigative, Identification and Ancillary banks plus local police records which includes the Police Information Portal (PIP) based on the candidate’s name and date of birth. The Enhanced Check will discover any Canadian Criminal Convictions that have not been pardoned or discharged, as well as identifiers that additional information may be present related to the candidate.

The Enhanced Criminal Check identifiers may include any of the following:

• Criminal conviction for which a pardon has not been granted, and conditional and absolute discharges which have not been removed from the CPIC system.
• Probation information
• Prohibited person information
• Wanted person information
• Accused person information
• Peacebonds
• Judicial orders
• Warrants
• If relevant, Absolute and Conditional Discharges, Criminal charges that have been withdrawn, dismissed or Stayed of Proceedings.
• Any negative contact with Police

Are Vulnerable Sector Checks available in Canada?

Due to the Criminal Record Check Act in Canada vulnerable sector checks are available only  to candidates directly from the RCMP or a local police station.

• People who volunteer or have jobs where they are in positions of trust or authority over children or vulnerable persons can be asked to obtain a vulnerable sector check. Accurately referred to as Vulnerable Sector Search/Check (VSS), federal policy prescribes that these checks can ONLY be initiated by the Canadian police service where the candidate lives.

If you do not require a vulnerable sector check then the Enhanced Criminal check will most likely cover what you need.

• In Canada, sexual offenses against a vulnerable person (such as a child) are no longer granted. Therefore the database is not considered active (not increasing) as no one can apply for this type of conviction pardon any longer. The law regarding record suspensions (formerly pardons) took effect March 13th, 2012, and in such pardons are no longer granted for the types of convictions that are included in the pardoned sex offender database.  The one component of the VSS that we are not able to provide are the pardons that relate to sexual crimes against children.

If you require a vulnerable sector check for new candidates, we recommend that you send the candidate to the police station following an Enhanced Criminal Record Check.

For more information, see the Royal Canadian Mounted Police document: Types of criminal background checks.

What if the candidate fails to verify their identity?

Checkr provides several means of automated candidate communication in the event of an EIDV failure:

• Robust templates for streamlining candidate communication.
• Distinct and easy workflows for laptop, iPhone, and Android devices.
• Schedule a time to come back later if you can’t video verify right now.
• Proactive email reminders for candidates that drop out of the funnel.

*Please note: Identity verification is conducted as part of the Checkr Canada background check process but is not conducted as part of US background checks.