Pardon vs expungement vs sealing: what Canada actually offers.

Type "expunge my record Canada" into a search engine and you will mostly get answers written for Americans, wearing a Canadian flag. The United States has expungement, sealing, and set-asides that vary by state. Canada's menu is different, shorter, and federal — and using the wrong word can send you chasing a remedy that does not exist here.

Here is the actual Canadian menu, what each item does, what it costs, and which one fits your situation.

The Canadian menu at a glance

Now the details, because the differences matter.

Record suspension: the workhorse (what "pardon" means here)

For the great majority of ordinary convictions, Canada's remedy is the record suspension under the Criminal Records Act — the process still universally called a pardon.

• Effect: your record is kept separate and apart from other criminal records. Routine employment and volunteer checks come back clear. Federally, discriminating against you for the suspended conviction is prohibited.
• Not destruction: the record still exists and a suspension can be revoked if you are convicted of a new indictable offence. It is "set aside," not "erased" — the honest description matters.
• Eligibility: a waiting period of five years (summary) or ten years (indictable) after full sentence completion — including every fine — plus no permanent disqualifiers. Our eligibility guide covers the details, and what disqualifies you covers the hard exits.
• Cost: a government filing fee paid directly to the Parole Board, plus whatever you spend on preparation — from nothing (DIY) to four figures (typical firms). The cost guide itemises it.

Expungement: powerful, free, and deliberately narrow

Canadian expungement exists under the Expungement of Historically Unjust Convictions Act — and it means what Americans mean: the record is permanently destroyed, and you are treated as never having been convicted.

The catch is scope. Expungement applies only to a specific schedule of historically unjust convictions — offences that would be lawful today, such as certain past convictions for consensual same-sex activity, with related bawdy-house and abortion-related offences added in 2023. It is free, and posthumous applications are allowed.

If your conviction is on that list, stop reading sales pages (including ours): use the free government process. Our expungement vs record suspension guide helps you tell which side you're on.

"Sealing": the closest Canadian equivalents are automatic

Canada has no general court-ordered sealing for adult convictions. What it has instead are a few automatic set-apart mechanisms:

• Discharges. If you received an absolute discharge, it stops being disclosable one year after; a conditional discharge, three years after — automatically, under section 6.1 of the Criminal Records Act. No application, no fee. (Very old discharges, before mid-1992, may need a written request to the RCMP.)
• Simple drug possession. Under the 2022 Bill C-5 amendments, records of simple drug-possession convictions are to be kept separate and apart automatically within two years of sentence completion. This is newer machinery; check the current official guidance for how it has been implemented before relying on it.
• Youth records are governed by their own access-period scheme under youth justice legislation and generally close on their own timelines.

If someone offers to sell you a "record sealing service" for one of these, they are charging for something the law does on its own.

Decoding the American terms you actually googled

Because search results blur the border, here is the translation table between the US vocabulary and the Canadian reality:

• US "expungement" — a court order erasing or destroying a record, available in many states for many offence types. Canadian near-equivalent: expungement under EHUCA, but only for the historically-unjust list. For ordinary convictions, Canada's answer is the record suspension, which conceals rather than destroys.
• US "record sealing" — the record survives but is hidden from most queries, often automatic for juvenile matters. Canadian near-equivalent: the record suspension's "separate and apart" mechanism, plus the automatic discharge and drug-possession rules above.
• US "certificate of rehabilitation" / "set-aside" — state-specific relief documents. Canadian near-equivalent: none by that name; the record suspension is the general rehabilitation remedy, and for entering the US the relevant tool is an entirely different document (the I-192 waiver — a common confusion worth its own article).

The practical warning inside all this: if a Canadian website sells you an "expungement" for an ordinary conviction, the word is doing marketing work, not legal work. The product they can actually deliver is record suspension preparation — same as everyone else, including us.

Charges that never became convictions

Withdrawn, dismissed, stayed, or acquitted charges are not convictions and should not appear on a criminal record check as such. Police services keep non-conviction information under their own retention policies, and many accept destruction requests for fingerprints and photographs from non-convictions. That is a local-police process, not a Parole Board one — and it costs little or nothing.

Three myths this vocabulary confusion creates

"My record clears itself after seven years." No. Adult convictions in Canada stay on the national repository indefinitely until a record suspension is ordered. The seven-year folklore likely migrated from credit reporting, where debts do age off.

"A pardon erases my record." No — it sets the record apart. That is almost always enough for the practical goal (clean routine checks, human-rights protection federally), but "erased" is the incumbents' overpromise, not the statute's. The one process that truly destroys a record, EHUCA expungement, is narrow and free.

"I can pay extra for the stronger option." There is no stronger paid option. Expungement cannot be bought for an ineligible conviction at any price, and every record suspension — DIY, through us, or through a $1,600 firm — is the identical remedy under the identical statute. What you are choosing between is preparation help, nothing else.

Choosing your lane

1. Conviction on the historically-unjust list? Free expungement. Full stop.
2. A discharge, not a conviction? Likely nothing to do — check the dates.
3. Simple drug possession only? Check the current status of the automatic set-apart rules; there is also a fee-waived, wait-free stream for cannabis-possession-only records.
4. An ordinary conviction? A record suspension is your remedy, once the wait period is done.

Our free eligibility check runs exactly this routing on your answers — including telling you when the answer is a free government route and ending the conversation there.