Disclaimer and Terms of Use

The National Newcomer Navigation Network website, newcomernavigation.ca henceforth referred to as the “N4 site or the Site or N4", is provided by the National Newcomer Navigation Network, henceforth referred to as “We or Us”” . Any interaction with the Site is subject to acceptance of the following "Terms of Use". Those interacting or using the Site will be henceforth referred to as “Users”.

Terms of Use

Please read these Terms of Use carefully. By continuing to use the N4 site and its related and associated digital forums and websites, on-line community forum/community of practice, social media platforms (including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube) you, the user of the N4 site agree that you have accepted these Terms of Use. For clarity, any of our related landing pages and affiliated sites will be accessible from the N4 site by a hyperlink. Users who access the Site or affiliated links are referred to as “users” throughout these Terms of Use.

We provide information to the general public and an opportunity for our network members and users to post and share information as well. Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information of the content of this website. Users and members are advised to post culturally safe, accurate and respectful material, and to avoid the use of offensive and hateful content. The administration of this website reserves the right to edit and remove any content that may be viewed or reported as hateful and offensive.

Links to websites not under the control of N4 are provided solely for the convenience of users. N4 is not responsible for the accuracy, currency or the reliability of the content of links to and/or from other websites. N4 does not offer any guarantee in that regard and is not responsible for the information found through these links, nor does it endorse the sites and their content.

The views and opinions expressed by users and members of the N4 website do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Site administration / owner. Certain information posted on the Site may reflect either forward-thinking statements or conversely, data or information that was available at the time of the posting. It is also important to note that certain elements of digital information, particularly across different language platforms, may not be recognized by all browsers, especially older browsers.

Notice for Updates/Changes to Terms of Use

While N4 strives to achieve accuracy of information appearing on our site, we assume no obligation to update the content or advise on further developments concerning the topics mentioned in the content. As the N4 site and our Community of Practice, affiliated websites and digital resources evolve, we may update the Terms of Use at any time. We encourage you to review the Terms of Use regularly. Your continued use of the Site following any such changes will mean you accept the changes. If any change to the Terms is unacceptable to you, you should cease using the Site.

Information appearing in special or private groups such as the N4 Advisory Committee, Meeting Place groups, CoP groups, is private and cannot be shared with non N4 members or external parties unless stated otherwise or direct consent from N4 has been obtained.

Ownership, Permission and Restriction of Use

Unless otherwise indicated, all information on this N4 site is copyright protected. The copyrights are owned by N4 or the original creator of the material. However, you are free to view, copy, print and distribute material from this N4 site, as long as: 

1. The material is for personal informational use only,
2. The material is used for non-commercial purposes only, and
3. Use includes proper attribution and copyright notice of the material's creator
4. It respects the copyrights of the original creator

Your use of the Site does not transfer to you any ownership or other rights in the Site or its Content. You may not otherwise copy, publish, reproduce, modify, upload, post, transmit or distribute any of the Content in any manner or form without the prior consent of an authorized representative of N4. Certain words, phrases, names, designs or logos used on the Site may constitute trademarks, service marks or trade names or other entities. No rights are granted to Users of this Site in or to such trademarks, service marks or trade names.

User Conduct Agreement

You acknowledge and agree that all information, text, images, audio, video, designs, names, logos, trademarks, data or content submitted by any user including yourself, whether publicly or privately posted, emailed, transmitted, uploaded or otherwise submitted to us via this Site or one of our social media channels (collectively referred to as “Submitted Content”) is the sole responsibility of the person submitting such content.

Under no circumstances will we be liable in any way for any loss, damage or injury related to, or arising as a result of, any use of any Submitted Content, including but not limited to, any errors or omissions in any Submitted Content, or any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Submitted Content posted, e-mailed, transmitted, uploaded or otherwise submitted via a Service.

Please be aware that what is posted online can retain a digital imprint for many years to come. Be aware that Public comments posted on the Site or posted on our public social media pages may be used by anyone having access to them. Users and members are advised to post culturally safe and sensitive material, and to avoid the use of offensive and hateful content. The administration of this website reserves the right to edit and remove any content that may be viewed or reported as hateful and offensive.

The views and opinions expressed by users and members of this website and affiliated social and digital media platforms reflect the thoughts of on-line users and not necessarily those of the N4 site and administrators. Any personal information that you submit to post on the Community Forum will be treated in accordance with our Community Forum policy.

You agree not to post, email, transmit, upload or otherwise submit any Submitted Content that:

• violates the law

• discusses illegal activities with the intent to commit them
• is or promotes information that is false, misleading, illegal, libelous, abusive, obscene. defamatory or threatens others
• is confidential personal identifying information about patients, newcomers and other persons
• is offensive, hate speech, content that promotes racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual;
• harasses or advocates harassment of or harm to another person;
• involves the transmission of "junk mail", "chain letters", or unsolicited mass mailing or "spamming";     
• infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party including, without limitation, promoting an illegal or unauthorized copy of another person's copyrighted work, such as providing pirated computer programs or links to them, providing information to circumvent manufacture-installed copy-protect devices, or providing pirated music or links to pirated music files;
• contains restricted or password only access pages, or hidden pages or images (those not linked to or from another accessible page);
• displays obscene pornographic or sexually explicit material of any kind;
• provides material that exploits people, including those under the age of 18 in a sexual or violent manner, or solicits personal information from anyone under the age of 18;
• provides instructional information about illegal activities such as making or buying illegal weapons, violating someone's privacy, or providing or creating computer viruses;
• solicits passwords or personal identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes from other users;
• engages in commercial activities and/or sales, such as contests, advertising, and pyramid schemes, without our prior written consent; and
• contains or will contain any disabling mechanism or protection feature designed to prevent its use, including any clock, timer, counter, computer virus, worm, software lock, drop dead device, Trojan horse routine, trap door, time bomb or any other codes, designs, routines or instructions that may be used to access, modify, replicate, distort, delete, damage or disable the Content, any Services or this Site and any world wide web pages or any operating system software or hardware on which such Content, Service or site is operated or displayed except as specifically designed into the Content.
• Unauthorized copyrighted material or material that infringes another's intellectual property
• Content that is confidential or subject to a non-disclosure agreement
• Advertising or any form of commercial solicitation
• Communications that could be confused with official communications of another source or community member

By submitting a post to our Community Forum and/or social media platforms, you are granting consent for the content of that post, along with your name, photo and institutional affiliation, to be shared publicly on the Internet.

You agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks associated with, the use of any Content, including any reliance on the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of such Content. You acknowledge and agree that we may preserve Content and may also disclose Content if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with legal process, enforce these Terms, respond to claims that any Content violates the rights of third-parties, or protect our rights, property, or personal safety and those of our users and/or the public.

An online Community of Practice Guide has been provided for your convenience. The N4 site is committed to encouraging that information and services on this Site are available in both English and French. However, visitors should be aware that some information on the Site may come from external sources that are not subject to the Official Languages Act.

N4 Community Forum and Social Media Platforms Community of Practice Guide

You may use the N4 Community of Practice and social media platforms for the sole purpose of sharing and exchanging ideas with community members and other users. Any information posted in the Community of Practice (CoP) will become public information. You agree to use the CoP and social media platforms in accordance with all applicable laws. You shall not upload or transmit any material that infringes or misappropriates any person's copyright, patent, trademark, or trade secret, nor should you disclose in any manner, any information the disclosure of which would constitute a violation of any confidentiality obligations you may have, including, but not limited to, personal information, information about patients, newcomers and other persons, and obligations contained in a non-disclosure agreement.

You are expressly prohibited from compiling and using community members' or other users' personal information that may appear in the forum and / or social media platforms for the purpose of creating marketing lists or using such information for commercial solicitation purposes.

You agree that you will abide by the policy indicated in our User Conduct Agreement.

“Use” of the Site collectively includes:

• Visiting or using the Site to use, access, or download, text, data, images, PDFs, videos, certain free or public learning modules, newsletters, articles, illustrations, animations, games, views, opinions or other materials, including materials submitted by you or other users/members; and/or
• Visiting or using the Site to submit, post or upload your images, text, data, illustrations, animations or other Submitted Content to the Site.

• Social media channels are accessible and operational 24/7, 365 days a year, however, monitoring and editing of them will be done only during regular N4 business hours.

Content Moderation

Volunteer moderators may, but are not obligated to, monitor or review the content of any communications that are posted to the Community Forum. Moderators are not necessarily employees or contractors of N4 but are serving as moderators in their capacities as N4 community members. Moderators may edit or remove content from the Community Forum at their discretion and consistent with this Terms of Use, at any time. N4 and the moderators shall have no liability whatsoever related to the content of communications posted to the forum, whether arising under the laws of copyright, libel, privacy, obscenity, or otherwise.

Language of content

The N4 site is committed to encouraging that information and services on this Site are available in both English and French. However, visitors should be aware that some information on the Site may come from external sources that are not subject to the Official Languages Act. Information or resources provided by external sources, that is submitted content, is available only in the language and form in which it was provided.

Given the themes of cultural diversity that are associated with N4 and newcomer navigation, some material, submitted content, may also be provided by external sources in a variety of languages other than English or French. Discussions in the N4 external community platforms such as social media, community of practice, blog spot and any exchanges or contributions from external sources and partners to the N4 site, are posted in the language (s) as submitted and are not subject to translation by the N4 site or its administrators. N4 assumes no responsibility for the translation of material, information, comments or submissions provided by external sources. It is also important to note that certain elements of digital information, particularly across different language platforms, may not be recognized by all browsers, especially older browsers.

Data

N4 is committed to supporting you by using your feedback from surveys to get a better understanding of you, your organizations and your overall experience with the various activities involved in newcomer navigation, ultimately to improve the health and settlement trajectory of newcomers to Canada.    Your feedback will remain anonymous and no identifying individual information will be presented in reports, publications, or presentations.

All surveys are optional. If you choose to complete a survey, note that some questions may be optional. The more information you provide, the more helpful it is. We thank you in advance for your feedback. N4 surveys also gather data from organizations through designated data entry personnel authorized by each organization. N4 is not responsible for the accuracy of the data provided by individuals, or external organizations and their associates.

Privacy

We are committed to maintaining the privacy of all individuals who use the “Site." We value your trust and understanding. The following information addresses privacy as it relates to users of the Site.

Personal Information

No personally-identifiable information such as: name, street address, telephone number and email address about you is collected from use of this Site unless specifically and clearly requested, and only when you provide it voluntarily. It is our policy that personal information of the users of our site is private and confidential. In order to prevent unauthorized access and ensure proper use of your personal information, we have developed electronic and managerial procedures to secure information provided online (see below for more details on how we protect your information). Any personal information you provide is stored in a secure location accessible only by designated staff.

The N4 site provides you with the opportunity to receive communications from us in the form of newsletters or event information. You can sign up for a free email newsletter. You can unsubscribe from this newsletter at any time. Personal information that has been provided by users is only used for the express purpose for which it was collected unless the user specifically agrees to the use of the personal information for additional purposes. For example, if you choose to sign up for newsletters or an event, you are voluntarily providing us with personal information and will be agreeing to our use of that information for those purposes at the time of registering.

Email communications that you send to us via the email links on our Site may be shared with the appropriate N4 staff to address your inquiry. We make every effort to respond in a timely fashion once communications are received. Once we have responded to your communication, it is discarded or archived, depending on the nature of the inquiry. Unfortunately, however, no data transmission over the internet is 100 per cent secure. While we strive to protect your information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of such information during transmission. Other than is set out in these Terms of Use (see event registration section below), personal information will not be shared with any third party unless permitted or required by law.

IP Addresses

The web servers we use automatically collect information of the IP addresses of computers that access our website in aggregate form to understand how our Site is used and how we can better serve visitors. The IP address is not truly personally identifiable information because many different individuals can access the internet via the same computer.

Cookies and Analytics

As is the practice with many websites, the Site uses digital cookies to gather trend data concerning traffic on the Site for statistical analysis. The data we collect is used for website research to continuously improve the experience for the users of this site.

This Site uses Google Analytics and Cludo web analytics services to help us analyze how visitors use the Site. This information is for the purposes of compiling reports on our site activity, evaluating your use of the Site and providing other services to us related to internet usage and website activity. By using this Site you agree to the use of these analytic tools.

Event Registration

Our Site includes online forms that allow users to register for N4 events or events associated with our affiliated partners. By voluntarily providing us with personal information for event registration including events related to donation activities, you are deemed to have consented to our collection, use and disclosure of such information for processing your donation or for registering you. You are also deemed to consent to being added to our contact database to receive news of our activities and to solicit further donations and participation in events. You are given an opportunity to request that we no longer send you information or further requests for donations. If you do not wish to receive any email communications from us regarding our activities, you may unsubscribe at any point or contact us.

Donations

Our Site includes online forms that allow users to make a donation to N4 and/or register for our affiliated events. By voluntarily providing us with personal information in connection with donations or event registration, you are deemed to have consented to our collection, use and disclosure of such information for processing your donation or for registering you. You are also deemed to consent to being added to our contact database to receive news of our activities and to solicit further donations and participation in events. You are given an opportunity to request that we no longer send you information or further requests for donations. If you do not wish to receive any email communications from us regarding our activities, you may unsubscribe at any point. If you do not wish to receive any communications regarding our activities and/or to solicit further donations, you may let us know at any point by contacting us.

Online donations to N4 and some event registrations held by N4 are processed through a third party. When you register for events that are processed through a third party, we provide your personal information to the third party that is organizing this event to facilitate your registration. The third party will use your personal information only as required for event purposes. When making a donation, we will also add your name to our public list of donors unless you opt to be anonymous.

Commerce Platform: Products, Courses and Services

Our Site includes an online boutique that allows the general public and users to purchase a selection of products, courses or services through an external commerce platform, Shopify. By voluntarily providing your personal information in connection with such purchases, you are deemed to have consented to the collection, use and disclosure of such information for processing your purchase through the commerce platform, Shopify.

Protecting Your Information

All information provided to N4 over the Site is transmitted using security encryption that lets your browser automatically encrypt or scramble data before you send it to us. While we strive to protect your information through the use of password protocols and digital security measures, unfortunately, no data transmission over the internet is 100 per cent secure. Questions or concerns regarding the handling of personal information may be directed to us via contact page.

Forms

Some of the forms used in capturing information on the N4 platform assume the masculine gender, simply due to limited space in the data field. This is applied mainly to lists of professions such as manager, head of department, for example. N4 reserves the right to use the masculine form of the noun and pronoun. This is to ensure that the documentation remains comprehensible and fits in allotted space.

Links

This Site may contain links to other websites that are not under the ownership or operation of N4. N4 is not responsible for the accuracy, currency or the reliability of the content of links to and/or from other websites. N4 does not offer any guarantee in that regard and is not responsible for the information found through these links, nor does it endorse the sites and their content.

If you use these sites, you do so at your own risk. Downloading material from certain sites may risk infringement of intellectual property rights or introduction of viruses into your computer system. You should take notice when you leave this Site and read the privacy policies and terms of these other sites. You should also independently assess the authenticity of any website which appears or claims that it is one of our sites (including those linked to through an email).

Agreement

By accepting these Terms of Use, You agree to assume liability for your actions on the N4 website; You will indemnify N4, The National Newcomer Navigation Network, its' funders and supporting partners and N4 Foundation (and their officers, directors, employees, physicians, agents and all third parties mentioned on the Site) for any and all claims, demands or actions and losses or damages relating to and/or arising from the operation of the Site or your use of the Site.

You will abide by all policies for the Site, as well as all applicable laws (including provincial and federal laws of Canada); You will limit N4's liability by agreeing that N4 will not be responsible for any specific level of service, but, rather will provide service on an "as is” basis; and You acknowledge that N4 may suspend provision of the Website without prior notice. The laws of the Province of Ontario shall govern this agreement and any dispute or claim based on your use of the Site or the Information and Content. You agree that any action or proceeding related to this agreement or your use of the Site shall only be brought by you in the courts of the Province of Ontario.

Accessibility

The National Newcomer Navigation Network (N4) website has been designed by eSolutions, a web development company that complies with the 2021 standards of the AODA AA legislation and validates their sites according to the WC3, WCAG standards.

All N4 website applications have been thoroughly tested by our web developer to ensure that accessibility is built in to the design of our website in compliance with the above standards. N4 values the feedback of our website users and members on matters of accessibility to ensure that our site meets your needs. Please contact us with your comments or suggestions.

NOTICE FOR UPDATES AND CHANGES TO TERMS OF USE

As N4 and our Community Forum and affiliated websites for courses, events, newsletters and purchasing evolve, we may update the Terms of Use as needed. We encourage you to review the Terms of Use regularly.

If you choose not to accept these Terms of Use, you may close this window now and leave the N4 website.

Community of Practice Guide

Online conduct and netiquette are matters of great importance to the N4 network. N4 provides the following guidelines to encourage socioculturally safe and respectful interaction in an on-line community.

• Respect the privacy and confidentiality of each member of our community
• Respect the sociocultural diversity of each member of our community
• Participate in the conversations: be clear, concise, explain your point of view and/ or answer and invite a response where appropriate
• Before you post your comment in a community forum, verify the content of your post to be sure you are saying or conveying the message or impression you wish to convey
• Be mindful of others' points of view. If in doubt, ask for clarification, do not make assumptions. If you disagree, be kind and considerate with your comments.
• Avoid using the CAPs feature as this may be interpreted as yelling.
• Avoid the use of humor and sarcasm as both can be easily misinterpreted in an online exchange.