Communications & Media Policies

This memo provides a summary of the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (“CASL”), which came into effect July 1, 2014. As of July 1, Providence has reviewed and determined the nature and purpose of all outgoing electronic communications, primarily to ascertain if they are related to Providence’s core activities or fall within one of the 4 exemptions, or may be viewed as commercial, in which case further analysis has been taken.

The Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)

The Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) regulates the sending of commercial electronic messages (CEMs). The law took effect on July 1, 2014 and prevents the distribution of commercial messages sent through electronic means, such as emails, newsletters, text messages, and direct messaging on social media. The new law also requires that all electronic messages clearly identify the sender and include an unsubscribe option. The legislation requires that you must have permission before you communicate electronically with an individual to send a Commercial Electronic Message (CEM).

A CEM is defined as commercial if it encourages participation in a commercial activity. The term commercial activity means any activity that is of commercial nature, whether or not the person who carries out the activity expects a profit.

Providence Communications

Providence is of the opinion that electronic communications relating to its core educational activities, broadly defined, are not “of a commercial character”. Thus, CASL does not regulate communications pertaining to our core educational activities. Our core activities relate to education in all its many-faceted aspects, and to the maintenance of an educational community. Thus, the new law will not regulate our communications with:

• Existing or prospective students, for any kind of educational program, and for any aspect of the educational relationship, including residence space, meal plans, etc: or
• Alumni in relation to educational activities and the maintenance of an educational community relationship (e.g. lectures, reunions, alumni events).

In addition, there are some exemptions to the law. Emails sent from Providence accounts that do not relate to core educational activities may be exempt from the law if they are emails that are sent:

• For fundraising purposes;
• To businesses with which Providence conducts business, in the normal course of business;
• By one Providence employee to another Providence employee; and
• By a Providence employee to her/his friends or family members.

Electronic communication sent out from Providence deemed "of a commercial character” would include (but is not limited to): messages regarding special offers, contests or promotions that are typically outside of our educational programming etc.

Consent

If the communication is commercial, and is not otherwise exempt, express or implied consent is required to send it. In the case of “an existing business or non-business relationship”, the legislation provides a transitional period of three years from July 1, 2014 during which consent to receive emails can be implied, and during which you can receive express consent. Express consent requires three things:

1. Consent (e.g. completed by clicking on a button that says ‘I consent’ to a specific kind of communication);
2. Identification of the person on whose behalf the message is sent (in our case this will be Providence, and it will be best practice to identify a specific contact/dept. within Providence relevant to the communication begin sent); and
3. An unsubscribe mechanism.

When you give your consent, you agree to receive messages with commercial content from Providence. You may unsubscribe at any time. Your consent will be recorded. For emails of commercial character only: You may continue to receive emails for a period of 18 months if we have your implied consent. You can unsubscribe from any emails at any time.

When you unsubscribe from one email, you may still receive messages that come from a variety of other departments within Providence and each department maintains their own list. Every email that Providence sends has its own unsubscribe button, unsubscribing from one email does not affect other departments.

Providence University College and Theological Seminary believes that this legislation should have only a small impact on the institution since most of our communications pertain to our core activities, which are not of a commercial character. If further guidance is required, please contact pr@prov.ca. See CASL for more information.

Providence maintains an official presence on various social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Providence social media platforms exist to highlight topics related to the Providence community and its mission to engage the culture and change the world. As a Christian academic community, we do covenant:

• To practice a vital and vibrant life of individual and corporate worship of the one true God;
• To pursue moral excellence in every aspect of our life and relationships;
• To steward our time, talent, treasure, body, and the environment to the glory of God;
• To exemplify the gospel of grace by upholding the dignity of, showing respect to, and serving all people regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or culture;
• To maintain a living and verbal witness to the grace of God;
• To practice love, grace, truth, and generosity, and eschew offensive, manipulative, harmful, and deceptive behavior;
• To sacrifice our own selves for the good of the community and for the sake of the gospel; and
• To forgive and be reconciled to one another when we sin, and to seek forgiveness and reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ.

This community covenant guides our approach and policy regarding social media.

Conduct

We encourage you to share feedback and comments on our provmanitoba social media, however, these are moderated online discussion sites, not public forums. We expect remarks to be on-topic and respectful of the rights and opinions of others.

Providence is not responsible for comments or posts made by visitors on our social media websites. Such content does not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Providence University College or Providence Theological Seminary.

Once posted, we reserve the right to delete comments, images, or links that contain:

• Offensive language;
• Personal attacks of any kind;
• Improper comments that target any ethnic, racial, or religious group;
• Spam or certain links to other sites;
• Clearly off-topic content;
• Infringements on copyrights or trademarks;
• Any content deemed to be in violation of the above covenant.

If you have any questions concerning Providence social media properties, please contact Marketing.

For most up-to-date information, click on our website privacy policy link provided below.

https://www.prov.ca/privacy-policy/