Community Accountability Programs Information ... - Ministry of Justice

• What criteria will be used to determine whether the presence of acriminal record is relevant to the position being applied for?• Who will be responsible for assessing the relevance of a criminal record?• What criteria will be used to determine whether the presence of acriminal record should disqualify an applicant?• Who will be responsible for determining whether an applicant shouldbe disqualified?• Will an appeal mechanism be in place for disqualified applicants?• Will applicants be required to cover the cost of their own criminal recordcheck? (Note that the RCMP may be willing to provide the service at nocost as one aspect of their partnership with your program.)Be aware that there are limitations to criminal record checks. Not allconvictions will be on record. A search may reveal some convictions, peacebonds, conditional discharges, and dispositions, but will not provideinformation about investigations, pardons, pending charges, or criminalconvictions in other countries. Hence, criminal record checks are just onestep in the screening process. You can supplement these checks withcareful interviews and thorough reference checks.A number of volunteer organizations have policies on conducting criminalrecord checks. It may be helpful for you to review these. You should alsocontact your local police to find out how criminal record checks are done inyour community and if there are any costs involved.REFERENCE CHECKSIt would be prudent to conduct reference checks in addition to criminalrecord checks for your volunteers. This will allow you to assess thecharacter and suitability of each volunteer and provide you withinformation on work experience, skills, knowledge, and abilities. As aguideline, request a minimum of three references from each applicant.Reference questions may include the following:• Does the applicant work well with people?• Does the applicant have good listening and communication skills?• Does the applicant have experience and abilities relevant to the position?• What strengths will the applicant bring to the program?Getting Started 40