Dundas Horticultural Society Members Code of Conduct

Code of Conduct for the Dundas Horticultural Society. All members of the Dundas Horticultural Society will conduct themselves in a manner such that:

1. Supports the Society and acts in the best interest of the Society at all events.

2. Demonstrates respect for individuals in all cultural, linguistic, diversity and life circumstances.

3. Respects and gives fair consideration to diverse and opposing viewpoints.

4. Encourages a positive environment in which individual contributions are encouraged and valued.

5. Acts in a manner which cannot be perceived as or that is not actual harassment or abuse as defined below.

Definitions

a. Harassment: Harassment consists of offensive, abusive, belittling or threatening behaviour directed at a person or people, because of a particular characteristic of that person or people, including the person or peoples’ level of empowerment relative to the harasser. The behaviour must be unwelcome and the sort of behaviour a reasonable person would recognize as unwelcome and likely to cause the person to feel offended, humiliated, or intimidated.

b. Sexual Harassment: A person is deemed to have sexually harassed another person (the person harassed) if a. the person makes an unwelcome sexual advance, or an unwelcome request for sexual favours, to the person harassed, or b. the person engages in unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature to the person harassed, in circumstances in which a reasonable person would have anticipated that the person harassed would be offended, humiliated, or intimidated. “Conduct of a sexual nature” includes making a statement of a sexual nature to a person, or in the presence of a person.

c. Behaviour Constituting Harassment: Can take many different forms and may be explicit or implicit, physical, verbal, or non-verbal. Examples include, but are not limited to:

i. jokes or comments directed at a person’s body, looks, age, race, religion, sexual orientation, or disability;

ii. abusive behaviour aimed at humiliating or intimidating someone in a less powerful position;

iii. unwelcome remarks including teasing, name-calling, or insults;

iv. innuendo or taunting;

v. homophobic comments and/or behaviours;

vi. uninvited touching, kissing, embracing or messaging;

vii. unwelcome staring, leering or ogling; viii.unwelcome smutty jokes and comments;

ix. unwelcome persistent or intrusive questions about a person’s private life;

x. repeated invitations to go out, especially after prior refusal;

xi. unwelcome sexual propositions;

xii. the use of promise or threat to coerce someone into sexual activity;

xiii.sexual insults, taunts, or name-calling;

d. Abuse: Abuse can be defined as, but not limited to any act of threat involving molestation, harassment, corporal punishment or any form of physical, sexual or mental abuse; the misuse of power or authority; treatment of an individual or persons in a harmful, injurious, and or offensive manner; speaking insultingly, harshly and /or unjustly to or about another person(s); or committing an act of sexual assault.

Individuals in purchasing a membership for the Dundas Horticultural Society, have read and will abide by the Society's Code of Conduct as stated above.

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