The right to shoplift in Quebec

Apparently that is also part of our Quebec charter of rights, foolishness and no responsibilities. I guess honesty is not a perequisite for Quebec police.

Top court sides with woman rejected by Que. police
Meagan Fitzpatrick , Canwest News Service
Published: Friday, August 01, 2008
OTTAWA - A woman who was once convicted of shoplifting and who later tried to become a police officer but was rejected because of her past won her case at the Supreme Court of Canada Friday.

In a 6-2 decision, the court ruled the woman’s rights were violated under Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and that because the woman had received a pardon for her conviction, the police were not justified in using her past crime as a basis for rejection.
The woman - who is known in the case as S.N. because of a publication ban - was 21 when she pleaded guilty to stealing about $200 worth of goods from a department store and was given a conditional discharge for her offence.

Five years later, in 1995, she applied to join Montreal’s police force and was told her application was rejected because she did not satisfy the “good moral character" requirement for the job. The woman argued that she had received an automatic pardon for her crime because three years had passed since her offence.

The police force stood by its decision and the case was brought before Quebec’s human rights tribunal which ruled that S.N. had been discriminated against, and it ordered the City of Montreal to pay her $5,000 in damages. The Charter states that “no one may dismiss, refuse to hire or otherwise penalize a person in his employment owing to the mere fact that he was convicted of a penal or criminal offence, if the offence was in no way connected with the employment or if the person has obtained a pardon for the offence.”