4. Understand the impact on getting a job

Ontario’s Human Rights Code does not allow an employer to discriminate against you because you’ve been convicted of a provincial offence. Speeding and careless driving are provincial offences.

This doesn’t mean that an employer can’t ask you if you have a conviction. But it does mean that, in most cases, an employer can’t refuse to hire you because of your traffic tickets.

Sometimes an employer can refuse to hire you because of your traffic tickets. This can happen when driving is an essential part of the job. For example, if you’re required to drive a company vehicle for the job, an employer can probably refuse to hire you if you have speeding tickets that make you look like a risky driver. But, if you will be working at a desk and you don’t need to drive as part of the job, it may not matter how many tickets you have.

An employer can check your driver’s record for the last 3 years by contacting Service Ontario. If you get a speeding ticket in another province, in most cases, it will show up on your record as an out-of-province (OOP) speeding ticket.

Other police record checks

A speeding ticket is not a criminal charge. This means if your employer requires a police record check, a speeding conviction will not show up.