Today Ontario’s Police Records Check Reform Act passed its third reading in the legislature, meaning that some much-needed regulation is coming to the criminal background check process in the province. There are many reasons why this is a necessary step. In recent years, people have reported having mental health incidents and information about cases in which they were found not guilty (or never even charged!) interfering with their ability to travel, get employment, or volunteer in the community.

While the new provincial regulations won’t affect what’s contained in the RCMP’s Canadian Police Information Centre database (which is shared with US border authorities and other government agencies), they will set specific, uniform, province-wide standards for what can and cannot be disclosed when a person is required to go to their local police service to get a records check done. This is important because local police services were previously allowed to decide for themselves, not just about what they would keep records of, but which of those records should or shouldn’t be disclosed when an individual was trying to get a job or get a visa to go on vacation etc. etc. Going forward, mental health incidents, investigations that never led to charges and other miscellany will not longer fair game for police.

Under the new rules, this is the framework all Ontario police services will be required to follow: