MONTREAL -- At a time when many employers are complaining about the consequences of a labour shortage, a group is launching a campaign to encourage hiring workers with a criminal record and to fight against prejudice.

The campaign launched during Social Rehabilitation Week aims to make Quebec employers aware that these people are available to meet their needs.

And they are numerous.

According to Le Comité consultatif pour la clientèle judiciarisée adulte (CCCJA), 14 per cent of Quebec adults - about 950,000 people - have a criminal record, the vast majority being male.

"Behind the criminal record, there is a human who has served his sentence," said CCCJA coordinator Yan Chantrel.

Chantrel believes that it is necessary for these people to rehabilitate themselves and reintegrate into society. He points out that those looking for a job have the desire to find their place in the community.

Studies show that employers are reluctant to hire people with criminal records. For example, the CCCJA found only 40 of the 100 employers surveyed in the Outaouais on behalf of the the Centre de placement spécialisé du Portage (CPSP) were open to hiring those with a criminal record.

Chantrel is against this "discrimination" since the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms specifically notes that it is forbidden to refuse to hire a person with a criminal record if there is no link between the desired job and the facts for which there was a conviction.

The organization is trying to make access to this information more difficult for employers, as is the case in Ontario.

"From the moment a person has served their sentence, they should not be given a new sentence by making that person someone who is marginalized and rejected by society," said Chantrel, who added preventing a person from reintegrating into the job market could even generate crime.

"Work is an important value in our society for social recognition of others and for full consideration," he said. "From the moment this access is more complicated, it makes things more difficult and it can impact people at the level of poverty or a whole lot of other problems."

An advertising campaign to spread the message will be deployed on social networks until the end of November.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 12, 2019.