Our Community Policy

We are striving to bring about a more green and peaceful world and a really important tool which helps us to do that is simple, open and honest communication.

We believe everyone deserves a chance to express their opinion in the hope that we can find common ground. We search for ways that let us all move forward together towards a brighter future.

This is why the comments on our [website, stories, posts, tweets etc] are such an important space where all of us, including those who don’t share our vision, can have conversations and exchange ideas with one another.

We welcome debate and discussion, as we believe that is often where the best ideas come from. We love to see people passionately standing up for what they believe in and having the opportunity to listen to new ideas or new ways of looking at a problem. However, we firmly believe these conversations must be both honest and respectful if they are to be productive.

With this in mind, we ask everyone who wishes to contribute to the conversations happening on this website and our social media channels – and that includes all of those posting on behalf of Greenpeace – to follow these simple rules:

• Tell the truth. Be honest about who you are and why you are here. If you represent corporate or government interests, if you are being paid for the views you are expressing or have a conflict of interest, you are welcome to contribute to the conversation. However, please let everyone know that is the case, so they have the context behind what you are saying.
• Be civil and respectful in what you say. If you would not want it said to you, do not say it to someone else. That means no discriminatory comments, no personal attacks, no foul language, no defamatory statements and no incitement to violence.
• Give everyone the chance to participate. We may remove posts if you unnecessarily make multiple posts one after another, so don’t hog the conversation.
• Stay focused on the topic being discussed as this helps all of the other people who want to be involved in the conversation.
• Talk don’t sell. This is a space to debate important issues so please refrain from commercial activity or mass promotion. We have a zero tolerance policy for spam.

If you follow these rules, we will not ban you or delete your comments simply because we disagree with what you are saying.

We believe that free speech and the open exchange of ideas is incredibly important, and we actively work to defend it. That means if we identify that you are simply here as a troll or are misrepresenting yourself, we will take steps to protect the spirit of this community. These steps may include deleting your commentor closing threads or even banning accounts. We may also turn off commenting for specific posts, or site-wide, should we believe there is a concerted attack being made.

We encourage any community members who believe someone has acted in the way we have just described to report such activity to our Webmaster.

We try to ensure that everything on our website is accurate and consistent with our views and values. However, the content and the comments left by community members are written by ordinary people just like you. We hope you will understand that they do not necessarily represent the views of Greenpeace Canada, Greenpeace International or any Greenpeace national/regional organisation. If you are looking for the official word from Greenpeace Canada, please see our press releases, publications and issue pages or contact our Press Centre.