05/16/2016
Hi everyone! We have had a lot of new people join the group this week so I just wanted to post of copy of the guidelines again for their reference. Thanks!
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This page is meant to support local businesses and provide an opportunity for our community to share experiences we've had with these businesses. It will also be a great reference to find businesses in the area and to seek advice from other community members about them.
Business owners are welcome to use the page to promote your business and may post to their own business photo as much as they like but are asked to post to the wall no more than once per week.
We would like to make it very clear that this page is not meant to give people an outlet to vent and rage against businesses that they feel have wronged them in some way. It is meant to first and foremost support the amazing local businesses that we are lucky enough to have in Wilmot Township.
That said, sometimes we do have bad experiences and sometimes it is good to share them so that other people do not have to endure the same unfortunate experiences. Please be very careful with what you do say, especially if it is negative. The opinions expressed by members on this page are theirs alone and in no way reflect the opinions of the page admin(s) or other page members.
If you are posting a review please include a detailed description of your interaction with the business. If your experience with them was negative please describe why and what they did or did not do to attempt to remedy the situation.
If you are a business owner and you feel that someone has posted a review that is untrue you are welcome to add you own comments in order to refute the opinion of the member review. We will not remove a bad review just because the business owner has requested it. That would contradict the purpose of this page.
If you wish to have a business added to the group please add a photo under the appropriate album category. If you need a new category added please send us a message.
In general the rules of this page are simple:
-Think before you speak (or in this case, type)
-Do not use vulgar language
-No personal attacks
The page admin(s) have the right to remove anyone from the page at any time if that person is not able to abide by these simple rules.
Before commenting on or sharing your own bad experience please read the following information about Canadian Law that we have provided for easy reference. We are not giving legal advice, we are directing you to legal resources.
CANADIAN CHARTER OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law:
Guarantee of Rights and Freedoms
Rights and freedoms in Canada
1. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.
Fundamental freedoms
2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
(d) freedom of association.
DEFAMATION/LIBEL/SLANDER
Defamation is defined in Black's Law Dictionary as: “The act of harming the reputation of another by making a false statement to a third person…A false written or oral statement that damages another's reputation.”
More specifically, a defamatory statement is defined as: “A statement that tends to injure the reputation of a person referred to in it. The statement is likely to lower that person in the estimation of reasonable people and in particular to cause that person to be regarded with feelings of hatred, contempt, ridicule, fear, or dislike.”
Defamation is comprised of two subcategories which are libel and slander. There are four main defences to an action for libel or slander, which are as follows:
a) Truth
The first defence is the defence of truth, meaning that if a statement made is attacked as being defamatory, the defence can be made that the statement was truthful and therefore there was nothing false about the statement, meaning therefore, that the statement was not defamatory.
b) Fair Comment
The second defence to an allegation of libellous statement is that the statements made were made as a fair comment. The defence of fair comment would be considered by the Court in situations where, by looking at the statement made, the facts and the situation, a conclusion can be made that the statements made were in actuality a fair commentary on the situation at hand and that the comments were fair and were not malicious.
c) Qualified Privilege
The defence of qualified privilege arises normally in situations where based on public policy, even where a person makes a statement that is considered defamatory, the individual, corporation or organization publishing these statements will escape any liability if it can be proven that the public good could be furthered in open debate.
d) Absolute Privilege
Situations where the defence of absolute privilege would apply would be comments made by civil servants, members of parliament, members of provincial parliament, federal government, ministers and the like who make comments that may be defamatory, but were made in the furtherance of investigations, fact finding missions, and reporting for the benefit of public policy.
