Terms of Use

Overview

Please add your comments to this site -- we’re very interested in what you have to say. Government wants discussion sections to be a good experience for everyone, so here are a few simple guidelines to keep in mind.

• be respectful -- no personal shots or defamatory statements.
• avoid partisan comments. This is a place to discuss policies and initiatives of the provincial government, not a political party. There are lots of other places to voice your political preferences
• express your own opinion
• treat others as you would treat a guest in your home, with courtesy All discussions are moderated, which means that inflammatory or otherwise inappropriate posts will be removed.

Definitions

For the purposes of these terms of use, the following definitions will apply:

content

means all information, data, text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, messages, or any other materials whatsoever

offensive

with reference to language, material, content or any other type of submission means obscene, indecent, defamatory, abusive, bullying, harassing, racist, hateful, or violent. It includes but is not limited to ethnic slurs, religious intolerance, and homophobic or personal attacks

government

means the Government of Nova Scotia

Monitoring

Government tries to provide a useful and positive online experience for users, so it makes reasonable efforts to monitor activity on the website in forums, blogs, wikis, etc., to encourage compliance with this Terms of Use. However, government does not make any warranties or guarantees that the website, or any portion thereof, will be constantly monitored for accuracy or unacceptable use; or that apparent statements of fact will be authenticated; or that you will never come across any offensive content. Please contact government if you come across offensive content.

Moderation

All submitted content is subject to moderation. Moderators may approve, edit, or reject content before it appears, sometimes causing a delay in the appearance of your submission/post/content. Moderators may edit or delete your submission/post/content after it has been posted if in our sole discretion it violates the Terms of use. This discretion includes a moderator’s determination of whether posted material is offensive. Moderators may close discussion on a given topic or on any area of the website if it is deemed off-topic or to be no longer useful. Moderators may choose to move a discussion to a more appropriate area if the discussion is off-topic in the area in which it is occurring.

Use of user ID and password

You are solely responsible for all usage or activity on your account. Government requires you to take reasonable efforts to ensure your ID and username are protected and not used without your knowledge or consent or on your behalf by others.

Use of the website by you

Each user 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.

Under no circumstances will government be liable in any way for any content, including, but not limited to, liability 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 or otherwise transmitted via government’s websites.

Government does not control user-supplied content posted to the websites and, as such, does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of such content. Content, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, is the sole responsibility of the person from whom such content originated. This means that the user, and not government, is entirely responsible for all content that he or she uploads, posts, emails or otherwise transmits via the website. No user shall transmit content or otherwise conduct or participate in any activities on government’s websites that, in the judgment of government, is likely to be prohibited by law in any applicable jurisdiction, including laws governing the encryption of software, the export of technology, the transmission of obscenity, or the permissible uses of intellectual property.

You may not provide to or post on or through the website any graphics, text, photographs, images, video, audio or other material that constitutes unsolicited junk mail, spam, advertising, commercial offers, or attempts at deception or fraud. You may not repeat the same posting multiple times in a day or week.

You agree not to use offensive language or to provide to or post on or through the website any graphics, text, photographs, images, video, audio or other material that is offensive when using the website.

You are responsible for ensuring that any graphics, text, photographs, images, video, audio or other material you provide to or post on the website, including without limitation in forums, blogs, wikis, and chats does not violate the copyright, trademark, trade secret or any other personal or proprietary rights of any third party or is provided or posted with the permission of the owner(s) of such rights.

Comments by others are not endorsed by government

Government does not endorse, support, sanction, encourage, verify, or agree with the comments, opinions, or statements posted on forums, blogs, wikis, chats, or otherwise contained in the website. Any information or material placed online, including advice and opinions, are the views and responsibility of those who post the statements and do not represent the views of government.

Use of material supplied by you

For information regarding use of information about you that you may supply or communicate to the website, please see our Privacy statement. Except as expressly provided otherwise in the Privacy statement, in this Terms of Use, or as stated on specific pages, you agree that by posting messages, uploading text, graphics, photographs, images, video or audio files, inputting data, or engaging in any other form of communication with or through the website, you grant government a royalty-free, perpetual, non- exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide licence to use and modify or adapt in order to reproduce any such communication in any medium now in existence or hereinafter developed. In addition, please be aware that information you disclose in publicly accessible portions of the website will be available to all users of the website, so you should be mindful of personal information and other content you may wish to post. Certain sites and pages may waive this grant and not claim any rights over material submitted by you. Such pages and sites will provide clear notice of this.

Government shall have the right (but not the obligation) in its sole discretion to refuse or delete any content that it reasonably considers to be offensive, that violates the Terms of Use, or that is otherwise illegal. Government, in its sole and absolute discretion, may preserve content and may also disclose content if required to do so by law or judicial or governmental mandate or as reasonably determined useful by government to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of government’s websites’ users and the public or as permitted by law.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify government and its employees, agents, representatives and third party service providers, and to defend and hold each of them harmless, from any and all claims and liabilities (including legal fees) which may arise from your submissions, from your unauthorized use of material obtained through the website, or from your breach of this Terms of Use, or from any other acts through your use of the website.

Editing and deletions

Government reserves the right, but undertakes no duty, to review, edit, move or delete any material provided for display or placed on the website or its forums, blogs, wikis, chats, etc., or otherwise, in its sole discretion, without notice.

External websites

Government's websites may link you to websites outside of our control. These links are solely for your convenience and information and do not constitute an endorsement of those websites, their contents, or the services provided on those sites. Government is not responsible for the accuracy, currency, or the reliability of the content.

Our privacy policy applies only when you are on Government of Nova Scotia websites. Once you go to another website, take care to read that website’s privacy policy before disclosing any personal information. The personal information you provide on these links may be stored outside of Canada. The subsequent use and disclosure of your personal information would not be subject to the protections or provisions of Nova Scotia privacy laws.