But on rare occasions, the government can exercise what Prime Minister Harper referred to this week as an “ancient power”: the Royal Prerogative of Mercy.
That’s exactly what it did in suspending the records of a group of farmers convicted years ago of taking their grain across the border to sell in the U.S. against the law.
Critics say the move politicizes the pardon process and worry that this sort of discretionary power could be open to abuse. After Wednesday’s announcement, interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae tweeted that the granting of pardons is not supposed to be partisan. “They’re corrupting the process,” he wrote.
The pardons were issued clearly for “symbolic purposes” as part of the government’s campaign against the Canadian Wheat Board, NDP critic Randall Garrison said in an interview. The pardon announcement coincided with federal legislation coming into effect that eliminates the wheat board’s decades-long monopoly on western wheat and barley sales.
Garrison said he hopes the use of royal prerogative “remains an exceptional use of power.”
But Harper spokesman Andrew MacDougall said the pardons were the “just” thing to do.
“The Liberals have always supported jailing farmers who resisted the old and unjust Wheat Board monopoly, so it’s no surprise they don’t approve of doing the decent and just thing now that the Wheat Board monopoly has been abolished,” he said in an email.
Jim Chatenay, one of the pardoned farmers, acknowledged Thursday that he had not sought out a pardon for himself; the government approached him.
But when he got the call a few days ago from the prime minister’s staff, he said he felt as if a “black cloud” had been lifted away.
“I had a piece of toast yesterday. It tasted pretty sweet without honey or jam on it,” said Chatenay, who served 23 days of a 64-day sentence in 2002.
Normally, in order for someone to have his or her criminal record suspended, that person has to apply to the parole board, meet a set of conditions and pay a fee.
But government officials said Thursday that, in rare cases, the government can initiate a pardon through royal prerogative. The pardon is granted by the Governor General on advice of the public safety minister.
According to the Parole Board of Canada website, royal prerogative is typically exercised in cases where the government recognizes that an individual was convicted in error — this form of clemency is known as a “free pardon” — or in cases where the government wishes to seal and set aside the criminal record of a person prior to pardon eligibility — this is known as a “conditional” pardon.
After an internal debate Thursday among government officials as to what type of pardon the farmers had actually received, MacDougall, Harper’s spokesman, said that they had received “ordinary” pardons, which are “similar to conditional pardons in that they result in same form of record suspension – the record is kept separate and apart from other records.”
The government has used royal prerogative to grant 17 free pardons since 1959 and 179 conditional pardons since 1981, officials said.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Douglas Quan
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