Who Writes Our Content
Our guides are written and reviewed by the Instant Record Check team. Most carry a named byline; where an article was worked on by several people, it appears under Instant Record Check Editorial. Named contributors have a profile linking to their professional background, so you can see who wrote what you are reading.
Instant Record Check is a Canadian-owned company accredited by Canadian Criminal Real Time Identification Services (CCRTIS). We process criminal record checks every day, and most of what we write comes from that work: the questions applicants actually ask us, and what police services actually require. More about the company.
What We Source
Criminal record checks are governed by federal and provincial rules, and the detail differs by police service. Where we state a requirement, a fee, a processing time or a legal position, we take it from the body responsible for it:
- The RCMP, for national criminal record checks and certified checks
- CPIC, the Canadian Police Information Centre, which is the database our name-based checks search
- Individual municipal and provincial police services, for their own local requirements and fees
- Federal and provincial legislation, including the Criminal Records Act and PIPEDA
Where a fact comes from one of these, we link to it so you can check it yourself. Where something varies by province or police service, we say so rather than giving a single national answer that would be wrong for most readers.
What We Do Not Do
We are not lawyers, and nothing we publish is legal advice. Criminal records affect employment, immigration, travel and volunteering in ways that depend on your circumstances. If a decision turns on your specific record, speak to a lawyer or to the organisation asking for the check.
We do not publish anyone's criminal record information, and we do not use customer data in our content. How we handle personal information is set out in our privacy policy.
Keeping Guides Current
Police service fees, processing times and requirements change. Every guide shows the date it was last updated, and we revise pages when the underlying rules change or when we find something out of date. A date on a page is a claim about that page, not a site-wide refresh.
Corrections
If we have published something inaccurate, tell us and we will fix it. Email support@instantrecordcheck.ca or use the contact page, and point us at the specific page and claim. If a correction changes the substance of a guide, we update the last-updated date on it.
Where We Have A Commercial Interest
We sell criminal record checks, so we have an obvious interest in you using our service. We try to be straight about it: our guides cover the in-person and police-service routes as well as ours, including where those are cheaper or the only option. Vulnerable sector checks, for example, cannot be completed online and must go through your local police service, and we say so on every page where it is relevant. See how our process works and our pricing.