Public Engagement & Participation

Public Participation Terms of Engagement

We encourage discussion, debate and freedom of expression on the City of Medicine Hat’s official engagement site and in-person events. However, feedback and questions should be respectful, constructive, and on topic.

We use Shape Your City as a moderated online discussion tool for official public participation projects. We engage the strongest filters provided by the platform and, therefore, some comments are automatically hidden (e.g., profanity).

We moderate comments to ensure our online spaces are respectful, open, and safe for all. With this in mind, we ask that you treat each other and page administrators with respect when providing feedback and engaging in City of Medicine Hat spaces. This applies to in-person engagement activities and events.

We reserve the right to remove participants or feedback that is:

• racist, hateful, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, contain slurs, or are otherwise contrary to the principles of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
• abusive, rude, violent or threatening in tone, either to government staff or to other participants
• sensitive information (identifying persons, personal, corporate, financial, confidential, proprietary, involving third parties, etc.)
• off topic
• defamatory or contain personal attacks
• encouraging of conduct that may or would violate the laws of relevant jurisdictions
• unproven or inaccurate accusations against individuals or organizations
• unproven or inaccurate factual claims
• obscene or pornographic
• posted for advertising purposes
• duplicate or spam content (the same comment posted verbatim multiple times in a post, or across multiple posts)
• announcements from labour or political organizations, or messages from partisan websites
• unintelligible
• posted without the necessary licenses and consents from third parties
• any other message that moderators feel will not add to the normal flow of dialogue

Participants who do not comply with these terms will be warned and may be asked to leave. City of Medicine Hat staff reserve the right to determine when a participant is in violation of the terms of engagement.

If you have concerns about a recent participation experience (either on Shape Your City or at an in-person engagement event) where you felt unsafe, please send a message to participate@medicinehat.ca.

The views expressed by participants do not necessarily represent the views of the City of Medicine Hat or its employees. The City of Medicine Hat does not endorse feedback publicly shared.