Terms and conditions

Copyright/Permission to Reproduce

Materials on this Web site were produced and/or compiled by the Department of Justice for the purpose of providing Canadians with direct access to information about the programs and services offered by the Government of Canada.

The material on this site is covered by the provisions of the Copyright Act, by Canadian laws, policies, regulations, and international agreements. Such provisions serve to identify the information source and, in specific instances, to prohibit reproduction of materials without written permission.

Non-commercial Reproduction

Information on this Web site has been posted with the intent that it be readily available for personal or public non-commercial use and may be reproduced, in part or in whole, and by any means, without charge or further permission, unless otherwise specified.

A reproduction means making a copy of information in the manner that it is originally published. The reproduction must remain as is, and must not contain any alterations whatsoever.

Users are required to:

Permission is always required when the work is being revised, adapted, altered or translated even if the purpose of the reproduction is non-commercial. To obtain permission, please complete the Reproduction Request Form (HTML) (PDF) and submit to:

Department of Justice Canada
Communications Branch
Copyright Administrator
284 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1A 0H8 or
copyright-droitdauteur@justice.gc.ca

Commercial Reproduction

Reproduction of multiple copies of materials on this site, in whole or in part, for the purposes of commercial redistribution is prohibited except with written permission from the Department of Justice Canada. Through the permission-granting process, the Department of Justice Canada helps to ensure that individuals/organizations wishing to reproduce the Department of Justice Canada materials for commercial purposes have access to the most accurate, up-to-date versions. To obtain permission to reproduce materials on this site for commercial purposes, please complete the Reproduction Request Form (HTML) (PDF) and submit to:

Department of Justice Canada
Communications Branch
Copyright Administrator
284 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1A 0H8 or
copyright-droitdauteur@justice.gc.ca

Reproduction of Federal Law Order

Anyone may, without charge or request for permission, reproduce enactments and consolidations of enactments of the Government of Canada, and decisions and reasons for decisions of federally constituted courts and administrative tribunals, provided due diligence is exercised in ensuring the accuracy of the materials reproduced and the reproduction is not represented as an official version.

The Reproduction of Federal Law Order does not apply to any materials that have been copyrighted privately or separately by a third party, and that happens to have been included with, added to, or referred to in the Government of Canada legislation, statute, regulation and/or decision. An example of this would extend to the reproduction of added-value features such as the captions of headnotes, footnotes, summaries and additional comments which are added to decisions handed down by federally constituted courts and tribunals. These added-value features are not included in the Order and therefore, reproduction is prohibited without having secured written authorization.

Reproduction of Government Symbols

The official symbols of the Government of Canada, including the "Canada" wordmark, the Arms of Canada, and the flag symbol may not be reproduced, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes, without written authorization. Request for authorization from the Treasury Board Secretariat may be addressed to:

information@fip-pcim.gc.ca
Federal Identity Program
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
300 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Canada K1A 0R5

Third-party Materials

Some of the materials and graphical elements found on Government of Canada Web sites are subject to copyrights held by other organizations. This is particularly true of sites that are jointly operated by a Government of Canada institution and an external organization as part of a collaborative arrangement. In such cases, some restrictions on the reproduction of materials or graphical elements may apply and it may be necessary to seek permission from the rights holder prior to reproducing the material.

Privacy Notice

The Government of Canada and the Department of Justice are committed to respecting the personal privacy of individuals who visit our Web sites. The following summarizes the privacy policy and practices of the Department of Justice's Web sites.

Questions or comments regarding this policy, or the administration of the Privacy Act at the Department of Justice may be directed

Telephone: 613-952-8361 Facsimile: 613-957-2303 Mail: Department of Justice, St. Andrews Tower, 275 Sparks Street, 9th Floor Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H8

If you are not satisfied, contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, by telephone at 1-800-282-1376 or visit the Office of the Privacy Commissioner website.

Third-Party Social Media

The Department of Justice Canada’s use of social media serves as an extension of its presence on the Web. Social media accounts are public and are not hosted on Government of Canada servers. Users who choose to interact with us via social media should read the terms of service and privacy policies of these third-party service providers and those of any applications you use to access them. The Department of Justice Canada uses Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.

Official Languages

The Department of Justice respects the Official Languages Act and the relevant Treasury Board policies, and is committed to ensuring all information and services on this site is available in both English and French. However, users should be aware that some information from external sources that are not subject to the Official Languages Act is only provided as a convenience and is available only in the language in which it was provided.

Universal Software Accessibility

The Department of Justice's Web sites have been modified to facilitate accessibility and to ensure that all users will benefit from its features. While these sites are designed to accommodate all types of Internet software and browsers, including earlier versions and hand-held devices, some viewing problems can occur when using older software. We are continually striving to correct such problems. Please contact us if you are experiencing technical difficulties.

Hyperlinking

Links to Web sites not under the control of the Department of Justice are provided solely for the convenience of users. The Department of Justice is not responsible for the accuracy, currency or the reliability of the content. The Department of Justice 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.

Visitors should also be aware that information offered by non-Government of Canada sites to which the Department of Justice links is not subject to the Privacy Act, the Official Languages Act and may not be accessible to persons with disabilities. The information offered may be available only in the language(s) used by the sites in question and visitors should research the privacy policies of the sites before providing personal information.

Last updated

Last updated refers to the date when the information on the Web page was either revised or when the page was modified for technical reasons. The date the document was originally posted to the site is located in the metadata section of the source code.

Interacting With Us on Social Media

These Terms of Use explain how the Department of Justice Canada communicates and interacts with the public on its official social media accounts.

Our social media accounts are extensions of Government of Canada websites, including canada.ca/justice. We use them to share information and connect with people across Canada and abroad.

By engaging with our content or participating in discussions on our accounts, you agree to these Terms of Use.

Privacy and third-party platforms

Please avoid sharing personal information about yourself or others in public comments or posts on our social media channels. If you have a specific concern, please contact us through a private message. For more information related to the management of personal information, please refer to our Privacy Notice.

Our social media accounts are hosted on third-party platforms and are subject to those platforms' terms of service, privacy policies and availability.

We encourage you to read the terms and policies for the platform(s) you are interested in:

We are not responsible for service interruptions, outages or changes to platform functionality.

Availability and post frequency

We update and monitor our accounts during regular business hours Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. During holidays, after hours and on weekends, posts may be limited or reserved for urgent communications.

Content

We share information about the Department's mandate, including legislation, programs and services, funding opportunities, judicial appointments, campaigns, consultations, ministerial activities, information related to litigation where appropriate, and other information relevant to Canadians.

We may also share content from other Government of Canada departments and agencies, provincial and territorial partners, stakeholders, and other organizations where it aligns with our mandate.

We may share links to external websites or content for informational purposes. This does not imply endorsement by us or the Government of Canada. We are not responsible for the content, accuracy, reliability, currency or privacy practices of external websites.

Engaging, following and subscribing

We selectively follow and engage with other accounts. Our decision to do so does not imply endorsement of any kind.

We may unfollow, block or report accounts that violate our Terms of Use.

Comments and interactions

We welcome diverse opinions in the form of respectful and relevant comments. Your engagement with our social media accounts and content is in part governed by the terms of the relevant third-party social media platform providers, as well as our Terms of Use.

We moderate during business hours and reserve the right to hide or remove comments, block or report users, or disable comments on individual posts when necessary to maintain a safe, respectful and productive environment.

Comments may be hidden or removed if they:

We are committed to creating a safe, positive and inclusive environment and actively monitor comments on our posts for compliance with these guidelines.

If you come across content that you believe violates the platform's Terms of Use or community standards, you can report it using the tools available on the platform.

Views expressed by users do not necessarily represent those of the Department or the Government of Canada.

Accessibility

Social media platforms are third-party service providers and are not bound by Government of Canada standards for web accessibility. That said, we strive to make our social media content as accessible as possible by using plain language and features such as alternative text for images and captions for videos where appropriate.

Official languages

Many social media platforms have multiple language options and provide instructions on how to set your preferences. The Government of Canada respects the Official Languages Act and is committed to ensuring that our information is available in both English and French and that both versions are equal quality.

We communicate in both English and French and respond in the official language in which we receive your message.

We reply to comments in the official language in which they are posted. If we think the response is a question of general public interest, we may respond in both official languages.

We may share links that direct users to sites of organizations or other entities that are not subject to the Official Languages Act and available only in the language(s) in which they are written. When content is available in only one language, we make an effort to provide similar content in the other official language.

Third-party social media monitoring

Justice may engage in social media monitoring with the use of third-party software designed for this purpose. Information that may be collected includes public correspondence via social media accounts and public information associated with the correspondence (metadata, profile information). The publicly available information is collected and will be used, disclosed and retained by Justice Canada under the authority of the Financial Administration Act (s. 29(2)), the Policy on Communications and Federal Identity (pursuant to section 7 of the Financial Administration Act), and the Directive on the Management of Communications and Federal Identity (s. 4.1.5).

The third-party software allows Justice to engage in more targeted and broad searches of social media content, and see the information presented in a more consolidated fashion. It allows the department to better understand current opinion, sentiment and overall conversation on specific topics and issues that relate to Justice, to identify trends and create communications products that resonate with target audiences.

For example, the department may wish to monitor the public environment or trends about a Bill proposal or upcoming announcement.

The tool would be used for activities such as assessing conversation trends on a per-issue basis (using keyword searches and filters): volume of conversation, language/terms used, sentiment (positive/negative), in what regions these conversations are happening and other aggregate media monitoring data.

The tool pulls from publicly available information provided by social media users: their public posts; their usernames; some data they have chosen to include in their social media profiles (e.g. name, city/country of residence); and some information associated with their profiles (e.g. profile photo, post engagement).

The tool merely retrieves the information and presents it through a user interface and uses it for analysis purposes (e.g. presenting information in aggregate). The third-party software provider accesses the publicly available information directly from the social media platforms in accordance with their service and privacy policies.

In most cases, your personal information will not be collected by Justice. In rare circumstances, Justice may use limited personal information to target messaging for particular audiences. Findings from the tool are not matched to Justice records. Your interactions with the Department can in no way be affected by Justice’s social media monitoring activities.

Personal information may also be used for purposes including statistics, program and policy evaluation, internal audit, strategy development and reporting.

If you are not satisfied with the way Justice handles your personal information, you may exercise your right to file a complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. The collection, use, disclosure and retention of your personal information is further described in the standard Personal Information Bank – Public Communications (PSU 914).

Updates

These Terms of Use may be updated periodically to reflect changes to departmental practices, Government of Canada policies or social media platforms. Users are encouraged to review them regularly.

For questions or concerns, please contact us at SM-MS@justice.gc.ca.

Media inquiries

Reporters are asked to send questions to Media Relations by visiting Contacts for the Media.