Anti-Discrimination & Harassment Policy

This Digital Anti-Discrimination & Harassment Policy (“Policy”) applies to the northernartsconnection.ca website (“Website” or “Service”) and any of its related products and services (collectively, “Services”) and outlines how this Website operator (“Operator”, “we”, “us” or “our”) addresses anti-discrimination & harassment notifications and how you (“you” or “your”) may submit an infringement complaint.

Northern Arts Connection (“NAC” or “the Company”) is committed to providing a safe, ﬂexible and respectful environment for both staﬀ and users free from all forms of discrimination, bullying and all forms of harassment.

All members and users are required to treat others with dignity, courtesy and respect.

Scope

This policy applies to:

All staﬀ, including: managers and supervisors; full-time, part-time or casual, temporary or permanent staﬀ; job candidates; student placements, apprentices, contractors, sub-contractors and volunteers, session chairs, exhibitors, services, individuals hosting events, workshops, symposia, tours excetera;
All members, students, artists, arts organisations, arts councils, guests, NAC forums, online interactions as a whole.
How the Company provides services to clients and how it interacts with other members of the public;
On-site, oﬀ-site or after-hours work; work-related social functions; conferences – wherever and whenever staﬀ may be as a result of their duties;
Staﬀ treatment of other staff, of clients, and of other members of the public encountered in the course of their duties.

Staff Rights & Responsibilities

All staﬀ must:

Follow the standards of behaviour outlined in this policy;
Oﬀer support to people who experience discrimination, bullying or sexual harassment, including providing information about how to make a complaint;
Avoid gossip and respect the conﬁdentiality of complaint resolution procedures; Treat everyone with dignity, courtesy and respect.

Additional Responsibilities Of Site Managers, Moderators & Supervisors

Managers and supervisors must also:

Model appropriate standards of behaviour;
Take steps to educate and make staﬀ aware of their obligations under this policy and the law; Intervene quickly and appropriately when they become aware of inappropriate behaviour;
Act fairly to resolve issues and enforce workplace behavioural standards, making sure relevant parties are heard;
Help staﬀ and members resolve complaints informally;
Refer formal complaints about breaches of this policy to the appropriate complaint handling oﬃcer for investigation;
Ensure staﬀ who raise an issue or make a complaint are not victimised;
Ensure that recruitment decisions are based on merit and that no discriminatory requests for information are made;
Seriously consider requests for ﬂexible arrangements.

Member/User Rights & Responsibilites

All members & Users Must:

Follow the standards of behaviour outlined in this policy;
Oﬀer support to people who experience discrimination, bullying or sexual harassment, including providing information about how to make a complaint;
Avoid gossip and respect the conﬁdentiality of complaint resolution procedures; Treat everyone with dignity, courtesy and respect.

Unacceptable Conduct

We reserve the right to modify this Policy or its terms related to the Website and Services at any time at our discretion. When we do, we will revise the updated date at the bottom of this page, post a notification on the main page of the Website, send you an email to notify you. We may also provide notice to you in other ways at our discretion, such as through the contact information you have provided.

An updated version of this Policy will be effective immediately upon the posting of the revised Policy unless otherwise specified. Your continued use of the Website and Services after the effective date of the revised Policy (or such other act specified at that time) will constitute your consent to those changes.

Discrimination

Discrimination is treating, or proposing to treat, someone unfavourably because of a personal characteristic protected by the law, such as sex, age, race or disability.

Discrimination can occur:

Directly, when a person or group is treated less favourably than another person or group in a similar situation because of a personal characteristic protected by law.
Indirectly, when an unreasonable requirement, condition or practice is imposed that has, or is likely to have, the eﬀect of disadvantaging people with a personal characteristic protected by law.

Protected personal characteristics under Federal discrimination law include:

Parental status or status as a carer, for example, because they are responsible for caring for children or other family members;
Race, colour, descent, national origin, or ethnic background;
Age, whether young or old, or because of age in general;
Sex;
Industrial activity, including being a member of an organisation or taking part in activity, or deciding not to join a collective;
Religion;
Pregnancy and breastfeeding;
Sexual orientation, intersex status or gender identity, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, queer and heterosexual;
Marital status, whether married, divorced, unmarried or in a de facto relationship or same sex relationship; Political opinion;
Social origin; Medical record;
An association with someone who has, or is assumed to have, one of these characteristics, such as being the parent of a child with a disability.

It is also against the law to treat someone unfavourably because you assume they have a personal characteristic or may have it at some time in the future.

Bullying

If someone is being bullied because of a personal characteristic protected by equal opportunity law, it is a form of discrimination.

Bullying can take many forms, including jokes, teasing, nicknames, emails, pictures, text messages, social isolation or ignoring people, or unfair practices.

Under Federal law, this behaviour does not have to be repeated to be discrimination – it may be a one-oﬀ event.

Behaviours that may constitute bullying include;

Sarcasm and other forms of demeaning language; Threats, abuse or shouting;
Coercion; Isolation;
Inappropriate blaming; Ganging up;
Constant unconstructive criticism;
Deliberately withholding information or equipment that a person needs to do their job or access their entitlements;
Unreasonable refusal of requests for leave, training or other workplace beneﬁts.

Any form of bullying is unacceptable and will not be tolerated by Northern Arts Connection.

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is a speciﬁc and serious form of harassment. It is unwelcome sexual behaviour, which could be expected to make a person feel oﬀended, humiliated or intimidated. Sexual harassment can be physical, spoken or written.

It can include:

Comments about a person’s private life or the way they look; Sexually suggestive behaviour, such as leering or staring; Brushing up against someone, touching, fondling or hugging; Sexually suggestive comments or jokes;
Displaying oﬀensive screen savers, photos, calendars or objects; Repeated unwanted requests to go out;
Requests for sex;
Sexually explicit posts on social networking sites; Insults or taunts of a sexual nature;
Intrusive questions or statements about a person’s private life; Sending sexually explicit emails or text messages; Inappropriate advances on social networking sites;
Accessing sexually explicit internet sites;
Behaviour that may also be considered to be an oﬀence under criminal law, such as physical assault, indecent exposure, sexual assault, stalking or obscene communications.

Just because someone does not object to inappropriate behaviour at the time, it does not mean that they are consenting to the behaviour.

All staﬀ, members and volunteers have the same rights and responsibilities in relation to sexual harassment. A single incident is enough to constitute sexual harassment – it doesn’t have to be repeated.

All incidents of sexual harassment – no matter how large or small or who is involved – require staff to respond quickly and appropriately.

NAC recognises that comments and behaviour that do not oﬀend one person can oﬀend another. This policy requires all staﬀ and volunteers to respect other people’s limits.

Northern Arts Connection will not tolerate or accept any form of sexual harassment, in any context such as conferences, functions, exhibitons, services, events, workshops, symposia, tours, forums, comments, blog posts, excetera;

All individuals are responsible for their own behaviour, and under the law may be held personally liable if they engage in sexual harassment.

Victimisation

Victimisation is subjecting or threatening to subject someone to a detriment because they have asserted their rights under equal opportunity law, made a complaint, helped someone else make a complaint, or refused to do something because it would be discrimination, sexual harassment or victimisation. Victimisation is against the law.

It is also victimisation to threaten someone (such as a witness) who may be involved in investigating an equal opportunity concern or complaint.

Victimisation is a very serious breach of this policy and is likely (depending on the severity and circumstances) to result in formal discipline against the perpetrator.
NAC has a zero-tolerance approach to victimisation.

Viliﬁcation

Viliﬁcation is where a person commits a public act which is reasonably likely to oﬀend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person because of their race, sex, religion, sexuality or sexual identity. Hatred or viliﬁcation due to an attribute protected under equal opportunity laws is unlawful.

NAC will not tolerate or accept any form of hatred or viliﬁcation due to a protected attribute of another person.

Any conduct that can possibly be observed by the public or any sort of communication either verbal or in writing to the public can be considered a public act.

Conduct that may constitute viliﬁcation can include verbal or written statements, or even be the reproduction or distribution of already published information.

Examples include:

Oﬀensive material on the internet, including e-forums, blogs, social networking sites and video sharing sites;
Oﬀensive comments or images published in a publication such as a leaﬂet, ﬂyer, internal message board, email, etcetera.
Oﬀensive speeches at public events, functions, services, workshops, symposia, tours excetera;
Abusive comments in any public place, such northernartsconnection.ca or any other place attended in connection with NAC.

Conﬁdentiality

It is unacceptable for staﬀ of NAC to talk with other staﬀ members, clients or users about any complaint of discrimination or harassment without the claimants express permission.

Breaching the conﬁdentiality of a formal complaint investigation or inappropriately disclosing personal information obtained in a professional role (for example, as a manager) is a serious breach of this policy and may lead to formal discipline.

Decisions Based On Merit

All selection decisions of NAC will be based on merit – the skills and abilities of the candidate as measured against the inherent requirements of the position – regardless of personal characteristics.

It is unacceptable and may be against the law to ask job candidates questions, or to in any other way seek information, about their personal characteristics, unless this can be shown to be directly relevant to a genuine requirement of the position

Reporting Infringement

Northern Arts Connection encourages any staff, member, or user who believes they have been discriminated against, bullied, sexually harassed, viliﬁed or victimised to take appropriate action in accordance:

If you have any questions, concerns, or complaints regarding this Policy, the information we hold about you, or if you wish to exercise your rights, we encourage you to contact us via email:

[email protected]

We will attempt to resolve complaints and disputes and make every reasonable effort to honor your wish to exercise your rights as quickly as possible and in any event, within the timescales provided by applicable data protection laws.

Other Policies

All individuals are encouraged to read this policy in conjunction with other relevant policies, including:

This document was last updated on November 18, 2022