Code of Conduct
As members of the Gamma Space community, including coop members, Slack members, and affiliated people, we commit to upholding this code of conduct and supporting those who help enforce it.
Expected behaviour
Be aware of your power and privilege in all interactions.
Include, support, and amplify voices from marginalized or underrepresented groups.
Honour boundaries.
Don't assume someone's identity, experiences, or pronouns.
Be mindful of the space you take up in discussions.
Graciously accept being corrected.
Remember that the effect of what you say matters more than what you meant.
Challenge all unacceptable behaviour. Take responsibility for your speech and behaviour and participate in reparative processes.
Not meeting every expectation perfectly doesn’t automatically trigger a complaint or formal process. Everyone is learning and growing. The complaint process is reserved for serious violations, not for honest mistakes and imperfect adherence to these guidelines. Do your best, it’s what we all expect of each other.
Unacceptable behaviour
We do not tolerate harassment, discrimination, and any behaviour that is destructive, oppressive, or exclusionary. Please see definitions below for more details on what these terms mean.
Enforcement
Under the Canadian Human Rights Act, we are obligated to take appropriate action against any community member who harasses or discriminates against someone else within our organization. The Conflict Resolution Committee must act immediately on observations or allegations of harassment or discrimination, and address potential problems before they become serious.
Anyone told to stop unacceptable behaviour must comply immediately.
Reporting a violation
If you witness or are subject to unacceptable behaviour by a member of our community (whether in our Slack or outside it), please contact the Conflict Resolution Committee at coc@gammaspace.ca. You may also report incidents anonymously.
It is our top priority to help you feel safe as quickly as possible, and the committee will hold your conversation in confidence. Next, we will meet to decide our response. Then, depending on the circumstances, we will warn or remove the offender, considering your and the community's safety.
See Code of Conduct Procedures for more details on reporting violations of this code of conduct.
Definitions
Understanding the following key terms helps clarify our expectations:
The Conflict Resolution Committee will use the following definitions in their interpretation of complaints.
Harassment is a course of comments or actions that are known (or should be known) to be unwelcome. It can involve words or actions that are offensive, embarrassing, humiliating, demeaning, or unwelcome based on protected grounds identified by this code of conduct. It includes deliberate intimidation, stalking, unwanted sexual attention, following, breaching assumed confidentiality by sharing screenshots,recordings, or conversations, disruption of events, aggressive, derogatory, or threatening comments, and unwanted private communication.
Discrimination means any form of unequal treatment based on protected grounds, whether imposing extra burdens or denying benefits. It may be intentional or unintentional. It may involve direct actions that are discriminatory on their face, or it may involve rules, practices or procedures that appear neutral, but disadvantage certain groups of people.
Oppressive behaviour is any conduct that demeans, marginalizes, rejects, threatens, or harms anyone based on protected grounds. This includes behaviour that is racist, misogynistic, homophobic, classist, transphobic, fatphobic, xenophobic, or ableist.
Destructive behaviour means deleting, defacing, or destroying shared digital files or records without the express consent of all owners.
Exclusionary behaviour is denying specific participants opportunities to share views, skills and other contributions, engaging in favouritism, and creating or reinforcing an inequitable environment.
Protected grounds
We recognize and protect against discrimination or harassment based on the following grounds, and any combination of these grounds:
Citizenship
Race
Place of origin
Ethnic origin
Colour
Ancestry
Disability
Age
Religion
Pregnancy
Family status
Marital status
Sexual orientation
Gender identity
Gender expression
Association or relationship with a person identified by one of the above grounds
The perception that one of the above grounds applies
Review
The coop will review this document on an annual basis (or as required) and will make necessary adjustments to ensure that it meets the needs of all community members, particularly the most vulnerable.
Questions and feedback
Concerns or questions about this code of conduct and related procedures can be made to coc@gammaspace.ca. We welcome feedback from anyone in the community.
Code of Conduct Procedures These procedures should be used to deal with reports of unacceptable behaviour where the complainant does not want or need to resolve the issue with the Respondent directly. The organization, however, needs to resolve it for the safety of the community. Reports can be anonymous.
Receiving reports
Document the initial incident report
Anyone can collect a written account or transcribe a verbal report and send it to the Conflict Resolution Committee (coc@gammaspace.ca), or any member of the committee directly. A Committee Member must then enter it in the Incident Log.
An Incident Log entry must include:
Participant Name
Name of the individual accused of violation
Violation
Brief description of the violating behavior
Date & Time
When the incident occurred
Circumstances
Context or situation surrounding the incident
Others Involved
Names of any witnesses or additional participants
Complainant Conversation
Summary of discussion with the complainant
Gather this information from the complainant – do not "interview" witnesses.
Support the complainant
Follow these steps to help the complainant feel safe:
Provide them with a private space or communication channel.
Allow them to decide if further action should be taken.
Explain the process and next steps.
Make sure they know their identity will not be disclosed to anyone else – including the offender.
Response procedures
The Conflict Resolution Committee is responsible for responding to CoC violations.
An interpersonal problem or dispute that is not a violation of the Code of Conduct (i.e., the offender has not engaged in any of the things listed under Code of Conduct: Unacceptable behaviour
Refer the complainant to the Conflict Resolution Policy and offer support in proceeding with a formal or informal report.
A first Code of Conduct violation has been observed or reported – but it is not severely disruptive
Warn the offender in writing and update the Incident Log.
A second Code of Conduct violation has been observed or reported; the violator exhibits a pattern of harassing behaviour, with or without warnings; the violator continues to harass after any "No" or "Stop" instruction
Immediately remove the offender from the space and indefinitely ban them. Update the Incident Log.
An offender is engaged in sustained or repeat violations of the Code of Conduct and has been warned, or the offence is severe
Immediately remove the offender from the space and permanently ban them. Update the Incident Log.
Anyone's physical safety is threatened
Immediately remove the offender from the space and permanently ban them. Inform Directors, stakeholders, members, and the public at your discretion, as long as it does not violate any victim's privacy. Update the Incident Log.
[!tip] Preventing retaliation The privacy and safety of the complainant is paramount. Be careful about the details you share about the incident and with whom. Do not share details of the people involved or the incident without express permission from the complainant.
Committee meeting process
Committee members should meet as soon as possible after a report – ideally within one week.
Before the meeting, let the alleged harasser know there is a complaint about them. Allow them to tell a committee member their side of the story, and if they do, have that person take it into the meeting.
Review the incident report and discuss the following:
What happened?
What are we doing about it?
Who is doing those things?
When are they doing them?
Neither the complainant nor the alleged offender should attend, even if they are a Board member.
After the meeting
Once it is decided what action will be taken, contact the violator. Convey the consequences without discussing details or rationale, and say: "If you'd like to discuss this further, please contact us again, but in the meantime, you must [x]."
DO NOT ask the complainant for advice on how to deal with the complaint. DO NOT offer the complainant input into penalties.
Once action has been taken, follow up with the complainant and let them know what has been done and that you are here to support them.
Final incident report
The final incident report is prepared for the board of directors. When an issue is reported, whether it is referred to the #Conflict Resolution Procedures or considered a Code of Conduct violation, the committee members should keep the original incident report up to date, covering:
If the offender has been warned, how did they respond?
Did they express remorse?
Did they immediately stop the behaviour?
Document every communication related to the incident, especially to third parties.
Document the date of the committee meetings and any decisions and follow-up communications related to the incident.
The Committee should follow up with the complainant, record the full details of how the incident was resolved, and prepare a report for the Board.
About apologies
Do not ask the offender to apologize to the complainant. The coop has no responsibility to enforce friendship, reconciliation, or anything beyond the safety and prevention of harassment between members.
We will try to facilitate an apology if the complainant wishes. Asking someone who has been harassed to acknowledge an apology from their harasser forces further contact with their harasser. It also creates a social expectation that they will accept the apology, forgive their harasser, and return their social connection to its previous status.
If the harasser offers to apologize to the complainant, strongly discourage it. If a member relays an apology to the complainant, it should be brief and not require a response.
If the harasser attempts to press an apology on someone who would prefer to avoid them or attempts to recruit others to relay messages on their behalf, this constitutes continued harassment and is grounds for permanent expulsion.
Data retention
All initial incident reports and logs should be retained permanently, regardless of the action taken against the offender.
Reports should be stored in a designated Google Drive folder , and access should be shared only with Board members and Conflict Resolution Committee members. The committee Chair should control access, removing and adding privileges as members turn over.
Providing access and information about the records should be part of the board member and committee onboarding process.
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