| New criminal record pardon centre opens
Calgarians with criminal records now have a place to go to get help clearing them.
A new non-profit National Pardon Centre has opened up in the city to help people apply for criminal record pardons.
Birgit Granberg, director of the centre, says criminal records can prevent people from entering the U.S. and from getting jobs, if their employers do a background check, as well as affect their ability to volunteer or to be bonded.Any Canadian is eligible to apply for a pardon as long as they weren’t given a life sentence for their crime. Granberg says the centre sends in an application to the federal parole board and the process usually takes about a year.
"A lot of people aren’t even aware this exists. We’re really lucky in Canada to have this program," says Granberg. "We guarantee our pardons, provided our clients served their sentence and didn’t get arrested again."
The most common crimes the centre deals with are drunk driving, bar fights and drug possession.
Sex offenders can receive pardons, but Granberg says their names remain in a special database which employers and organizations looking for volunteers can access.
New women’s centre to open at U of C
The University of Calgary (U of C) will likely have a women’s centre in place by this fall.
Sheila O’Brien, special advisor to the president on student life at the U of C, says it’s exciting news because it’s something that’s been lacking compared to other Canadian universities.
"We are one of the only major universities in Canada that doesn’t have a women’s centre."
An anonymous private donor has contributed $100,000 for the centre and the university will be paying for an executive director to run it. The centre will be located somewhere in MacEwan Hall, but the exact location hasn’t been determined.
O’Brien says the women’s centre will have a research component as well as being a gathering place for women, and a committee will be consulting with women on campus to find out what else they’d like it to include.
"We want to do it thoughtfully. We’ve lived for 40 years without one and we’re going to get one, but we want to make sure we get it right," she says.
She says a women’s centre is needed because "the reality is that women’s lives and needs are somewhat different than men’s."
"There is a biological component that makes us a little different and women really are under-represented at the most senior levels of business, academia, leadership in society," she says.
Friends of Medicare fights "third way"
Friends of Medicare has launched a new campaign to fight Premier Ralph Klein’s "third way" health reforms, which the government plans to introduce in the upcoming legislative session.
The group has started a new website, www.keepmedicarepublic.ca, and is collecting signatures on a province wide petition that calls on the provincial government not to increase private health care. |
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