IMPORTANT NOTICES

This website has been produced for the purpose of providing Canadians and visitors with direct access to information about the Senate of Canada.

Site Management

The Senate of Canada website is managed jointly by the Communications Directorate and the Information Services Directorate of the Senate.

The content contained in this website is updated on an ongoing basis, but may not be complete or current at all times. Access to the website and its contents are provided on an as is basis.

This website is best viewed on Internet Explorer 9 or higher, a current version of Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Chrome, or equivalent software. If your browser is older, you may have trouble viewing many of the website’s features properly.

Parliamentary Privilege

As provided by the Constitution Act, 1867 and the Parliament of Canada Act, the general and public law of Canada includes parliamentary privilege, which consists of the privileges, immunities and powers held, enjoyed and exercised by the Senate and Senators. (The same parliamentary privilege is held, enjoyed and exercised by the House of Commons and its Members.)

Parliamentary privilege enables the Senate and Senators to perform their constitutional functions free from external interference. Parliamentary privilege is one of the safeguards of the constitutional separation of powers.

This website contains parliamentary proceedings, papers, reports and research, which are protected by parliamentary privilege. Their publication on this website has been authorized by the Senate. You should be aware that if you reproduce or republish privileged materials, you are not protected by parliamentary privilege.

Privacy Statement

The Senate respects your privacy. Personal information that you directly provide to the Senate is used for the purpose for which it is provided. Such information, as well as information that may be collected due to the browsing of this website by you, is kept in accordance with information management practices, and may be used for security or other internal purposes.

Privacy and the Internet

Web servers automatically collect certain information about a visit to a website, including the user’s Internet Protocol (IP) address. IP addresses are unique numbers assigned by Internet service providers (ISP) to all devices used to access the Internet. Web servers automatically log the IP addresses of visitors to their sites. The IP address, on its own, does not identify an individual. However, in certain circumstances, such as with the co-operation of an ISP, it could be used to identify an individual using the site. For this reason, the Senate considers the IP address to be personal information, particularly when combined with other data automatically collected when visitor requests a Web page such as the page or pages visited and date and time of the visit.

Unless otherwise noted, this website does not gather any specific personal information from you, such as your name, telephone number or email address. This information is obtained only if you provide it to us.

Communicating with the Senate of Canada

If you communicate with us, we will use your personal information and any information you provide in order to respond to your inquiry. We do not use the information to create individual profiles. We also do not disclose the information to a third-party unless the inquiry relates to the third-party or a third-party needs to be consulted to provide you with a response. We do not disclose the information without your consent to anyone other than to those in the Senate who need to provide you with a response unless doing so is permitted or required by law.

We recommended that you not send sensitive personal information, such as you Social Insurance Number or date of birth, through non-secure electronic means, including email. Information received and generated by the Senate is managed in accordance with Senate policies, guidelines and best practices on information management and information security.

Digital Markers (or “Cookies”)

A digital marker is a computer file created by a visitor’s Web browser in order to remember certain pieces of information for a Web server to reference during the same or subsequent visits to the website. Examples of digital markers are “cookies” or HTML 5 web storage.

You may adjust your browser settings to reject digital markers, including cookies. However, this may affect your experience on this website.

Web Analytics

Web analytics is the collection, analysis, measurement, and reporting of data about Web traffic and visits for purposes of understanding and optimizing Web usage. Information in digital markers may be used for the purpose of Web analytics to remember your online interactions with this website.

We use Google Analytics, a Web analytics service provided by Google Inc. to help measure traffic patterns to, from, and within this website. This analytics measurement tool uses “session” and “persistent” cookies to collect standard Internet log information and to track visitor behaviour information in an anonymous form. Persistent cookies are stored on your computer and expire two years after your last visit to a website. The information generated by the cookies about your visit to our website (including your truncated IP address) is transmitted to Google. No personal identifying information is recorded or provided to Google. This anonymous information is then used to evaluate visitors’ use of our website and to compile statistical reports on website activity. The aggregate data and statistical reports are only used to help us make our site more useful to visitors and are only made available to Web managers and other designated staff who require this information to perform their duties.

For further information, consult Google Analytics and its privacy policy.

Disabling Digital Markers

If you wish, you may opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics by disabling or refusing the digital markers, by disabling JavaScript within your browser or by using the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On. Disabling Google Analytics or JavaScript will still permit you to access comparable information or services from our websites. However, if you change the settings on your browser so that digital markers will be denied or so that you will be warned before a digital marker is saved on your computer, navigating on our website may be a much slower process. It may also have an impact on your user experience of this website. To disable digital markers, please refer to your vendor’s browser instruction guide.

Third-Party Social Media

The Senate of Canada’s social media accounts —Facebook, Instagram and Twitter — are public and are not hosted on Senate of Canada servers. If you choose to interact with us via social media, it is recommended that you read the terms of service and privacy policies of these third-party service providers and those of any applications used to access them.

Personal information provided via social media may be collected to capture conversations (e.g. comments, “likes”, retweets) between you and the Senate of Canada’s social media accounts. It may be used to respond to inquiries, or for statistical, evaluation and reporting purposes. Comments posted that violate Canadian law will be deleted and disclosed to the appropriate authorities. Comments that violate our rules of engagement will also be deleted.

Ownership and Usage of Content Provided on the Senate of Canada website

Material on the Senate of Canada website are produced and/or compiled by the Senate for the purpose of providing Canadians with access to the latest news, information and activities of the Senate and Senators on Parliament Hill and in the community.

This material is covered by the provisions of Copyright Act, its regulations and international agreements. Such provisions serve to identify the information source and, in specific instances, to prohibit reproduction of materials without written permission.

Reproduction of Proceedings of the Senate and its Committees

For information regarding the reproduction of the proceedings of the Senate and its committees (“parliamentary documents”), please consult the Permission Regarding the Reproduction of the Proceedings. For all other permissions to reproduce materials on this website, in whole or in part, please contact us.

Non-Commercial Reproduction of Other Content

Unless otherwise specified, non-parliamentary documents on this website are made available with the intent that they be readily available for personal and public non-commercial use. Such documents or other content may be reproduced, in part or in whole and by any means, without charge or further permission from the Senate of Canada, provided that:

due diligence is exercised in ensuring the accuracy of the material reproduced;
the Senate of Canada is identified as the author, and the complete title is included (where available);
it is indicated that the reproduction is a copy of the version available on the Senate of Canada website;
the reproduction is not represented as an official version of the material reproduced, nor as having been made, in affiliation with or with the endorsement of the Senate of Canada or the Senator(s) concerned, if applicable; and
the material is not modified or presented in a way that would compromise its accuracy and integrity, or undermine the dignity of the Senate of Canada, its Committees or Senators.

Commercial Reproduction

Unless otherwise specified, reproduction of materials on this website, in whole or in part, for the purposes of commercial redistribution is prohibited except with written permission from the Senate of Canada.

The permission granting process helps us ensure that individuals or organizations wishing to reproduce Senate of Canada materials for commercial purposes have access to the most accurate and up-to-date versions. To obtain permission to reproduce materials on this website for commercial purposes or to obtain additional information concerning copyright ownership and restrictions, please contact us.

Third-Party Materials

This website may include material subject to copyright held by third parties, such as audio recordings. You should therefore be aware that you may need to seek permission from the third party to reproduce or otherwise use such material.

Social Media Materials

Trademark Notice

The Senate Emblem—the official symbol of the Senate of Canada—cannot be reproduced, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

Official Languages

The Senate of Canada respects the Official Languages Act and is committed to ensuring all information on this site is available in both French and English. Information provided in a language other than English or French is only for the convenience of our website visitors.

The Senate of Canada may share links that direct visitors 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.

Disclaimer

Links to websites not under our control are provided solely for your convenience. We are not responsible for the accuracy, reliability or currency of the information provided by external sources. We do not offer any guarantee in that regard and are not responsible for the information found through these links, nor do we endorse the sites and their content unless otherwise specified.

You should also be aware that information offered by external sites to which our website links is not subject to 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. You should research the privacy policies of these websites before providing personal information.

Disclaimer of Liability

The Senate is not responsible for any damages that may result from the use of the contents of this website or from any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, communication line failure, theft or destruction, or unauthorized access to, alteration of, or use of information under any cause of action.

Comments and Inquiries

If you experience glitches, catch any typos or broken links while navigating this website, or if you have comments or inquiries about these Important Notices, please send contact us.

The Senate of Canada’s Social Media Use

This notice explains how we use social media platforms.

Content and Frequency

We use our social media accounts as an alternative method of sharing the content posted on the Senate of Canada website. By following our social media accounts (by “following,” “liking” or “subscribing”), you can expect to see information, news and announcements from the Senate and Senators, subject to the terms of use of those social media providers.

Because the servers of social media platforms are managed by a third-party, our social media accounts are subject to downtime that may be out of our control. As such, we accept no responsibility for third-party platforms.

Links to Other Websites

Our social media accounts may post or display links for websites that are not under our control. These links are provided solely for your convenience or for information only. We are not responsible for the information found through these links or ads, nor do we endorse the sites or their content, unless otherwise specified.

Copyright

Privacy

Our social media accounts are not hosted by us and represent only the Senate of Canada’s presence on third-party service providers.

Official Languages

Our social media accounts are not hosted by us. In certain cases, we will have separate social media accounts in each official language; other times we will have a bilingual account. The Senate respects the Official Languages Act and is committed to ensuring that its information is available in French and English and are of equal quality.

Many social media platforms have multiple language options and provide instructions on how to set user preferences.

We may share links that direct you 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. These links are provided solely for your convenience or for information only.

“Following,” “Favouriting” and “Subscribing”

If our social media accounts “follow”, “favourite” or “subscribe” to another social media account, channel, page or site, it does not imply that the Senate endorses it. Similarly, if we share, re-tweet, repost or link to content from another user, it does not imply that we endorse that user.

Accessibility of Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms are third-party service providers. If you have problems accessing content on our social media accounts, please contact us. We will do our best to solve the problem and, if we cannot, will provide you with the information in a different format.

Comments and Interaction

We welcome your comments on our social media content. We expect conversations to be respectful. You are responsible for everything that you submit, and all posted comments are in the public domain. Please keep your submissions relevant. We will edit or remove any comments that:

do not respect the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms;
are racist, hateful, sexist, homophobic, slanderous, insulting, or life-threatening;
make serious, unproven, unsupported, or inaccurate accusations against individuals or organizations;
are abusive, aggressive, coarse, explicit, vulgar, violent, obscene, or pornographic;
make personal attacks and/or are defamatory;
encourage illegal activity;
are solicitations, advertisements, or endorsements of any financial, commercial or non-governmental agency;
are announcements from labour or political organizations;
are not sent by the author;
aim to cause nuisance to the page administrator or other users (e.g. spam); and/or
do not contribute to the flow of discussion or are unintelligible.

A few other important notes:

We review comments daily but do not generally reply to them; we engage in conversations only when appropriate.
We generally moderate and reply Monday through Friday during regular business hours (9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time).
We cannot engage in issues of party politics nor answer questions that break the rules of our Important Notices. The views of participants commenting on these pages do not represent the views of the Senate of Canada.
You participate at your own risk, taking personal responsibility for your comments, your username and any information provided. To protect your own privacy and the privacy of others, please do not include personal information (e.g. phone numbers or email addresses) in the body of your comment.

If you have any questions about this commenting policy or how we apply it, please contact us.

How to Contact Us

You can contact us by e-mail, mail or telephone and we will address your concerns as quickly as possible.

Email: webcomms@sen.parl.gc.ca

Mailing Address:

Senate of Canada
Communications Directorate
Parliament of Canada
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0A4