Quick Overview
- Being charged isn’t the same as being found guilty, but the practical fallout can start immediately anyway
- Employers can’t fire someone just for being charged, though they can suspend them under certain conditions, and usually have to keep paying them while they do
- Some regulated professions (law, medicine, nursing, teaching) require members to report a charge to their regulator right away, long before any trial happens
- Ontario’s background check rules generally keep pending charges off standard record checks, though a few exceptions apply
- Crossing into the U.S. is where things get genuinely risky, since American border officers can see Canadian charge information and may deny entry over it
- More than half of all criminal cases in Canada now end without a conviction, whether stayed, withdrawn, dismissed, or acquitted
A Charge Isn’t Proof, Legally Speaking
Section 11(d) of the Charter guarantees the presumption of innocence, everyone charged with an offence stays innocent in the eyes of the law until a court says otherwise. That protection points at the state though. Courts and tribunals, not private employers or landlords or anyone else making their own decisions. A charge remains, technically, just an unproven allegation. That constitutional principle doesn’t stop other people from reacting to it anyway.
Ontario’s human rights protections leave a real gap here too. The Human Rights Code only covers a “record of offences,” an actual provincial conviction, or a federal one that’s been pardoned. Pending charges sit outside that entirely, so a lot of what happens next comes down to ordinary employment law rather than any explicit anti-discrimination rule.
Getting Fired Just for Being Charged
This generally does not hold up legally. Courts have been fairly consistent on this: terminating someone purely because they got charged with a crime falls short of just cause. A charge is an allegation the state is making, not something an employer gets to rely on as settled fact. Wanting to fire someone over the underlying conduct means running an independent investigation first, one that shows the conduct actually happened and that it genuinely disrupted the workplace somehow, reputational damage, coworkers refusing to work alongside the person, things along those lines.
Merritt v. Tigercat Industries Inc. shows what happens when an employer skips that step. A worker got arrested and charged with off-duty offences, and the company fired him for cause without doing any internal investigation of its own. The Ontario court found the company had basically treated the charge itself as proof of guilt, which the court found insufficient to establish just cause. Ten months’ pay in lieu of notice was awarded to the employee as a result.
Suspending Instead of Firing, and Why Pay Doesn’t Just Stop
There’s a middle option employers can reach for: a temporary administrative suspension while a criminal case works through the system. The Supreme Court laid out the rules for this in Cabiakman v. Industrial Alliance Life Insurance Co., involving a sales manager charged with attempted extortion who got suspended without pay for two years before an eventual acquittal and reinstatement.
Four conditions have to hold for a suspension like this to be lawful. A real business justification behind it. Good faith throughout. A reasonably short, defined timeframe. And, except in exceptional circumstances, the suspension must be with pay. Here’s where a lot of employers get tripped up though, unless the contract says otherwise, that suspension needs to come with pay attached. The employee’s still willing and able to work, and the whole point of the suspension is protecting the employer’s interests, not punishing proven wrongdoing, so cutting off pay generally amounts to breaching the contract. The Supreme Court later confirmed these same principles apply in common law provinces like Ontario in Potter v. New Brunswick (Legal Aid Services Commission), so this isn’t limited to Quebec’s civil law system where Cabiakman originated.
Some Jobs Require Self-Reporting a Charge Immediately
For regulated professions, none of this employer-versus-employee dynamic plays out quite the same way, because the regulator gets involved directly. Lawyers and paralegals in Ontario must now report to the Law Society, as soon as reasonably practicable, any charge under the Criminal Code and several other statutes, regardless of whether it relates to their practice. Physicians, nurses, and teachers face nearly identical duties through their own colleges, and several of these bodies post information about outstanding charges publicly while things remain unresolved, well before any trial even happens.
Getting proper guidance early matters a great deal here. An experienced Criminal Lawyer in Ottawa understands how tight these reporting windows can be, and missing one creates a whole separate professional conduct problem stacked on top of the original charge.
What Actually Shows Up on a Background Check
Ontario’s Police Record Checks Reform Act decides what gets disclosed, and it hinges entirely on the legal status of the matter, not simply whether a charge was ever laid. A pending charge typically stays off a basic criminal record check altogether. It might show up as an outstanding entry on the more detailed check types, including those used for roles involving vulnerable people. Charges that were withdrawn, stayed, or ended in acquittal generally get kept off background checks entirely too.
Peace bonds work a little differently. A peace bond isn’t a conviction, usually it’s a resolution where the original charge gets withdrawn in exchange for agreeing to keep the peace for a set period. While that bond stays active, it can appear as a judicial order on the more detailed check levels, even with no finding of guilt behind it at all.
Where the Real Risk Actually Sits
Employment concerns and licensing obligations are significant, but they are not where the greatest risk lies. That distinction belongs to the border. This is where the consequences of a pending charge get genuinely serious, and Canadian privacy law has nothing to do with it. Charge information and outstanding judicial orders land in a shared database, one Canadian authorities give U.S. border officials direct access to. A border officer can see an active Canadian charge in real time, and American immigration law lets them deny entry if admissibility can’t be confirmed, which an unresolved charge makes genuinely murky by design.
Peace bonds cause their own headache at the border too. The U.S. system has no real equivalent concept, so a bond showing up as a judicial order tied to allegations of violence or harassment tends to draw heavy scrutiny, even after the underlying charge was formally withdrawn to make room for the bond in the first place.
Why the Numbers Actually Back This Up
Statistics Canada data puts real weight behind treating a charge so differently from a conviction. Just over half of all adult criminal court cases nationally, in the most recent reporting year, ended without a finding of guilt, whether stayed, withdrawn, dismissed, or acquitted. Only a minority actually resulted in a conviction. That gap explains a lot of why the legal system, and increasingly employment law right alongside it, refuses to treat a charge as equivalent to proof of anything. Anyone dealing with a job, a licence, or a trip across the border while a charge sits open is usually better off working with an experienced criminal defence lawyer in Ottawa, someone who actually understands how employment rules, professional regulation, and border enforcement collide with each other in practice.
FAQs
Can my employer fire me just because I’ve been charged with a crime?
Not lawfully, on its own. An employer needs to show the underlying conduct actually happened and genuinely affected the workplace, not just point to the charge itself.
Can I be suspended without pay while my case is ongoing?
Generally no, unless your contract specifically allows it. Courts have ruled that administrative suspensions tied to pending charges usually have to be paid.
Will a pending charge show up on a background check?
Usually not on a standard criminal record check. It may appear as an outstanding entry on more detailed checks used for certain sensitive roles.
Does a withdrawn charge disappear from my record?
For most background check purposes, yes. Withdrawn, stayed, or acquitted matters are generally kept off standard checks.
Can a pending charge stop me from crossing into the United States?
Yes, this is a real risk. U.S. border officers can see active Canadian charges and have discretion to deny entry if your admissibility can’t be confirmed.
Summary
A pending criminal charge sits in a strange legal space. It isn’t proof of guilt, but real consequences can still show up before anything gets resolved in court. Employers can’t fire someone for a charge alone, though a paid, temporary suspension is often allowed. Several regulated professions require immediate self-reporting, regardless of guilt or innocence. Background checks generally shield pending or withdrawn charges from disclosure, but the U.S. border tells a different story, one where a charge alone can be enough to complicate entry. With more than half of all court cases in Canada ultimately ending without a conviction, the gap between being charged and being guilty carries real, practical weight, one worth understanding well before a case ever reaches trial.
This article is intended for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. It does not create a lawyer-client relationship between LMS Lawyers and the reader. For advice specific to your situation, please consult a licensed lawyer.
