Emigration

[SJC07]

Does having a criminal record preclude a person from emigrating to Australia / Canada or New Zealand?

[vehelpfulguy]

Having a criminal record was the ONLY way of getting to Australia at one time  :-)

[Golem]

Citizenship and Immigration Canada has excellent information about all aspects of moving to Canada. With regard to your specific question, this is what they say,

Determining inadmissibility.

In general, temporary residents and applicants applying for permanent residence are considered to be criminally inadmissible if the person:

was convicted of an offence in Canada;
was convicted of an offence outside of Canada that is considered a crime in Canada; and/or
committed an act outside of Canada that is considered a crime under the laws of the country where it occurred and would be punishable under Canadian law.
Note: In order to determine inadmissibility, foreign convictions and laws are equated to Canadian law as if they had occurred in Canada.

This is the link; http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/applications/guides/5312E2.html

which also provides information about applying for a pardon.

The CIC site is here; http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/index.html