Terms of Use

Welcome to SettleNet.org/Réseau-Etab.Org at https://settlenet.org/en (“Services” or “Service”, or “Site”), a website platform created by the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (“OCASI”, “we”, “us”, “our”) for practitioners in the Immigrant and Refugee serving sector and other related stakeholders to connect, learn, share and collaborate; thereby building their knowledge and skills capacity with a focus on improving settlement services.

Before registering to use the Site, please review the following Terms of Use (“Terms of Use”) carefully and indicate you have done so by checking the box that indicates that you agree to these Terms of Use. In order to create an account on the site, you must review and agree to the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and User Guidelines, which are incorporated herein by reference.

By creating a “User Account” and/or otherwise accessing the Site in any way or using our Services, you represent and warrant that you have read, understand, and agree to be bound by these Terms of Use (“User”).

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF USE CAREFULLY. THIS IS A LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU AND OCASI FOR THE USE OF THE SITE AND SERVICES. MOREOVER, THIS LEGAL AGREEMENT CONTAINS IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS, REMEDIES, AND OBLIGATIONS. IN PARTICULAR, PLEASE NOTE THAT BY AGREEING TO THESE TERMS OF USE, YOU UNDERSTAND HOW YOUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (IP) RIGHTS WILL BE TREATED.

1. Changes to Terms of Use

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change, modify, add, or delete portions of these Terms of Use (a “Revision”) at any time without further notice. If we do this, we will post the Revision to these Terms of Use on this page and will indicate at the bottom of this page the date these terms were last revised.

If you have a User Account prior to any such change, you will be prompted to review and accept the revised Terms of Use prior to logging in to your User Account. If we consider a Revision to be material, we will make reasonable efforts to post a prominent notice on the Site and notify those of you with a current User Account via email.

All Revisions take effect immediately and apply to your use of the Site and our Services from that date forward, except that material Revisions will take effect 30 days after the Revision is made and identified as material. Your continued use of the Site or Services after any such Revision constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms of Use. If you do not agree to abide by these or any future Terms of Use, do not use or access (or continue to use or access) the Site or the Services. It is your responsibility to regularly check the Site to determine if there have been changes to these Terms of Use and to review such changes.

2. Control of the Site and Services

You acknowledge that OCASI has created the Site to allow Users to interact, via the Site, with each other, OCASI personnel, and/or third parties authorized by OCASI to participate on the Site or in the Services. You further acknowledge that Users can present and alter information presented on the Site on a real-time basis.

OCASI generally does not regulate the content of communications between Users or Users' interactions with the Services. As a result, OCASI has very little control, if any, over the quality, safety, morality, legality, truthfulness, or accuracy of User Content provided by Users. Nonetheless, OCASI reserves the right to monitor (but not the obligation) and/or limit any User Content posted by a User to the Site.

Community Features (defined below) of the Service may include user profiles, events listings, and discussion forums for your access and use solely in relation to the purpose. Discussion forums include both public forums, open to all Users, and groups (open or closed) to group members only. You acknowledge that groups are created, administered, and operated by Users and that the group leader User(s), and not OCASI, are responsible for the administration or operation of any such Group.

3. Other Parties’ Rights in Content

You acknowledge that by using the Site, you will have access to User Content (defined in Section 9 below) provided by other Users and Site Content provided by OCASI. OCASI may or may not pre-screen User Content submitted by Users to the Site. You acknowledge that OCASI and other Users have rights in their respective Site Content and User Content under copyright and other applicable laws and treaty provisions, and that except as described in these Terms of Use, such rights are not licensed or otherwise transferred to you by mere use of the Services or posting on the Site. You accept full responsibility and liability for your use of any Site Content or User Content in violation of any such rights. You agree that your creation or submission of any User Content is not in any way based upon any expectation of compensation from OCASI or any other User.

4. Availability and Termination of Our Services

OCASI reserves the right to interrupt the Site with or without prior notice for any reason or no reason. You agree that OCASI will not be liable for any interruption of the Site, any delay, or any failure to perform. OCASI has the right at any time for any reason or no reason to change and/or eliminate any aspect(s) of the Site and/or the Services as it sees fit in its sole discretion. You are responsible for backing up your Content and data.

We may modify, suspend, or terminate your access to or use of our Services or Site anytime for any reason, such as if you violate the letter or spirit of our Terms of Use or create harm, risk, or possible legal exposure for us, our users, or others.
OCASI reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Site or Services (or any part thereof) with or without notice. You agree that OCASI shall not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification, suspension or discontinuance of the Site or Services.

5. Termination of User Account

We retain all rights to terminate any User Account at any time for any reason whatsoever.
Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, we may suspend or terminate your User Account and your ability to use our Site or Services or any portion thereof for failure to comply with these Terms of Use or any special items related to a particular service and for infringing copyright.

6. Eligibility

Users are professionals that work directly or indirectly with newcomers to Canada (such as: core users – settlement practitioners; secondary – student placements, funders, health service providers, housing sector Board members, community legal clinics, etc.; tertiary -  academic researchers, teachers, consultants, national organizations (e.g., Canada Council for Refugees). Subject to any specific exception expressly granted by its Service administrators, OCASI reserves the right to limit and restrict registration and use of the Service from locations outside of Canada, including through the use of technical means to do so.

7. Registration Data and Account Security

You will have to create a User Account to access the Service including the community-related features (“Community Features”) of the Services. In consideration of your use of the Site, you agree to (a) provide accurate, current, and complete information about yourself, as may be prompted by any registration form on the Site (“Registration Data”), including, but not limited to, your full legal name, name of organization you are affiliated with, city, province, and country of residence; (b) maintain the security of your password and identification; (c) maintain and promptly update the Registration Data and any other information you provide to OCASI, and keep it accurate, current and complete; and (d) be fully responsible for all use of your User Account and for any actions that take place using your User Account.

You shall not impersonate any person or entity or misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person or entity, including using another person’s username, password or other account information, or another person’s name, likeness, voice, image or photograph.

Your User Account is personal to you, and you may not share your account information with, or allow access to your account by, any third party. As you will be responsible for all activity that occurs under your User Account, you agree to use reasonable efforts to prevent unauthorized access to or use of the Site and Services and to preserve the confidentiality of your username and password, and any device that you use to access our Site and Services. You also agree to promptly notify us at info@settlenet.org of any unauthorized use of your username, password, other account information, or any other compromise of your credentials or account that you become aware of involving or relating to our Site or Services.

8. Third Party Sites

The Site and Services may include links to sites and information created and maintained by third parties (“Third Party Sites”) for the convenience of Users. OCASI does not endorse or recommend any specific sites for any particular purposes and is not responsible for the Content or operation of Third Party Sites. OCASI recommends that You carefully read the terms and conditions and privacy policy of any Third Party Sites that You visit.

9. User Generated Content and Other Content

"Content" is all information, data, text, comments, content ratings, graphics, messages, visual, written or audible communications, or other materials, including, where applicable, materials from third party sites that are displayed and/or accessible on the Site. Content includes (a) User-generated and uploaded Content; (b) links to sites and information created and maintained by third parties; and (c) Content that is posted by OCASI.  All Content is protected under the copyright details indicated on the Content if applicable, and as indicated in these Terms of Use.

By agreeing to the Terms of Use, you acknowledge and agree to abide by all copyright licenses in effect. You also agree to use our Site and Services in compliance with all privacy, data protection, intellectual property and other applicable laws of your jurisdiction.

You also understand that all Content that is not posted by OCASI, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, are the sole responsibility of the person from whom such Content originated. Such Content does not represent the views of OCASI. This means that you, and not OCASI, are entirely responsible for all Content that you upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available via the Site and its Services.

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. In this regard, you acknowledge that you should not rely on any Content created by or submitted to the Service by OCASI or any third party, including without limitation information in comments, and in all other parts of the Service.

We are not responsible for, and we do not endorse, or represent or guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of the opinions, advice, information, content, or recommendations posted or sent by Users on any of our Services. You understand that by using the Site and our Services, including Community Features, there is a risk that you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent or objectionable. Under no circumstances will OCASI be liable in any way for any Content, including, but not limited to, for any errors or omissions in any Content, or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the Use of any Content posted, emailed, transmitted or otherwise made available via the Site or Services.

You acknowledge that OCASI may or may not pre-screen Content, but that OCASI and its designees shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to pre-screen, refuse, move, or remove any Content that is available via the Service. You and other Users may report any Content such as comments and other posts as inappropriate to us through our contact form.

10. Ownership of User Content and Rules of Conduct

a) User Rights

Subject to the rights, including intellectual property rights, of OCASI and its licensors in the Service and Service related systems and technology, OCASI does not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Site and Services (“Your Content”).

However, in order to provide and maintain the Site and Services, with respect to Your Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Site or Services, including without limitation page content and comments you post to the Site or Services, you grant OCASI and the Users of the Site or Services a license to Your Content under the following Creative Commons license:

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada (CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 CA)

or the following alternative Creative Commons license (but only to the extent to which this alternative license has been indicated by you on the applicable material comprising such Content):

Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivs 2.5 Canada (CC BY-NC-ND 2.5 CA)

Except to the extent some other form of license to such Content has been expressly agreed to in writing between you and OCASI prior to the posting of such Content and such license has been indicated on the applicable material comprising such Content.

b) Representations and Warranties

By making Your Content available on the Site and Services, you represent and warrant that:

  1. Your posting of Your Content to the Service, and the downloading, copying and use of the Your Content by Users of the Service, will not breach the intellectual property rights, including but not limited to, the copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret rights, of any third party; OR
  2. You are the owner of the rights, including intellectual property rights, in Your Content and that You have fully complied with any third-party licenses relating to Your Content; AND
  3. Your Content does not contain or install any viruses, worms, malware, or other harmful or destructive content; OR
  4. Your Content is not spam, is not machine- or randomly-generated, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing).

c) Rules of Conduct

You agree to not use the Site or Services to:

  1. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
  2. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements);
  3. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other intellectual property or other proprietary rights of any party;
  4. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that is plainly irrelevant, off-topic, or repetitive (“flooding”) or unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation;
  5. harm minors in any way;
  6. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
  7. interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers or networks connected to the Service, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Service;
  8. attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to the Service, through password mining or any other means.

OCASI reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to determine whether or not a User's conduct is consistent with the letter and spirit of these Terms of Use and may suspend or terminate the User Account if found to be inconsistent with the Terms of Use.

11. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless OCASI and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, suppliers, co-branders or other partners, and employees, from any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses of any kind (including reasonable legal fees and costs) relating to, arising out of, or in any way in connection with any of the following: (a) arising out of Content you submit, post, transmit or make available through the Service; (b) your Use of or conduct with respect to the Site or Services, your connection to the Site or Services or  your violation of these Terms of Use; and (c) your violation of any rights of another User. You will cooperate as fully as required by us in the defense or settlement of any claim.

12. Disclaimer of Warranties

YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT:

  1. YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS. OCASI EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, REPRESENTATIONS, AND CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
  2. OCASI MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT (i) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS; (ii) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE; (iii) THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICE WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE; (iv) THE QUALITY OF ANY PRODUCTS, SERVICES, INFORMATION, OR OTHER MATERIAL PURCHASED OR OBTAINED BY YOU THROUGH THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS; (v) ANY ERRORS IN THE SOFTWARE WILL BE CORRECTED; (vi) OR THAT THIS SITE, ITS CONTENT AND CONFERENCING, AND THE SERVERS ON WHICH THE WEB SITE AND CONTENT AND CONFERENCING ARE AVAILABLE ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS.
  3. ANY MATERIAL DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICE IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK AND THAT YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL.
  4. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM OCASI OR THROUGH OR FROM THE SERVICE SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY, REPRESENTATION, OR CONDITION NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THE TERMS OF SERVICE.
  5. INFORMATION CREATED BY THIRD PARTIES THAT YOU MAY ACCESS ON THE SITE OR THROUGH LINKS IS NOT ADOPTED OR ENDORSED BY OCASI AND REMAINS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF SUCH THIRD PARTIES.

13. Limitation of Liability

YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT OCASI SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF OCASI HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM: (i) THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE; (ii) THE COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS AND SERVICES RESULTING FROM ANY GOODS, DATA, INFORMATION OR SERVICES PURCHASED OR OBTAINED OR MESSAGES RECEIVED OR TRANSACTIONS ENTERED INTO THROUGH OR FROM THE SERVICE; (iii) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA; (iv) STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY ON THE SERVICE; OR (v) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE SERVICE.

SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. ACCORDINGLY, SOME OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

14. General Conditions

a) Assignment

These Terms of Use, and any rights and licenses granted hereunder, may not be transferred or assigned by you, but may be assigned or transferred by OCASI without restriction.

b) Severability

If any provision of these Terms of Use is deemed unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from our Terms of Use and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions.

c) Waiver

Any amendment to or waiver of our Terms of Use requires our express consent.

d) Headings

The section titles in the Terms of Use are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect.

e) Entire Agreement

Unless a mutually executed agreement between you and us states otherwise, our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy make up the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Site and our Services, and supersede any prior agreements.

f) Choice of Law and Forum

The Terms of Use will be governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of laws. Any dispute arising from the Terms of Use or breach of the Terms of Use will be governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of the government of Canada and you agree to personal jurisdiction by your provincial and federal courts sitting where you reside in Canada. The parties hereby expressly waive trial by jury in any action, proceeding or counterclaim brought by either of the parties against the other on any matters whatsoever arising out of or in any way connected with these Terms of Use.

g) Language

It is the express wish of the parties that these Terms of Use and all related documents be drawn up in English. C’est la volonté expresse des parties que la présente convention ainsi que tous les documents qui s’y rattachent soient rédigés en anglais.

h) Copyright - Notice and Take Down

It is OCASI’s policy to respond to applicable notices of alleged infringement that comply with the notice and take down provisions and processes according to the Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy.

i) Disclosure of Content and Personal Information

You acknowledge, consent and agree that OCASI may access, preserve, and disclose your Content and any personal information if required to do so by law or in a good faith belief that such access preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal process; (b) enforce the Terms of Use; (c) respond to claims that any Content violates the rights of third-parties; (d) respond to your requests for customer service; or (e) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of OCASI, the users of the Site and Services and the public.

15. Privacy Notice

Certain information about you is subject to our Privacy Policy. For more information, visit our Privacy Policy.

OCASI’S ADDRESS
OCASI - Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants
110 Eglinton Avenue West, Suite 200
Toronto, ON, CANADA
M4R 1A3

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