Canadian Astronomical Society Meeting 2024 Code of Conduct
The organizers are committed to making this meeting productive and enjoyable for everyone, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, nationality, political affiliation, religion, ability status, physical appearance or educational background. We will not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. Attendance at a CASCA meeting implies consent to abide by this code of conduct. Explicitly, please follow these guidelines:
● Behave professionally. Harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary comments or jokes are not appropriate. Harassment includes sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, sexual attention or innuendo, deliberate intimidation, stalking, and photography or recording of an individual without consent. It also includes offensive comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race or religion.
● All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate.
● Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down other attendees.
Participants asked to stop any inappropriate behaviour are expected to comply immediately.
Consequences for attendees violating these rules may range from verbal warning to being asked to leave the event or conference at the sole discretion of the organizers without a refund of any charge to notifying the appropriate authorities. Retaliation for complaints of inappropriate conduct will not be tolerated. If a participant observes inappropriate comments or actions and personal intervention seems appropriate and safe, they should be considerate of all parties before intervening.
Any participant who wishes to report a violation or a potential violation of this policy is asked to speak, in confidence, to the meeting’s designated contact(s):
- either LOC co-chairs Renée Hložek or Adam Muzzin;
- a member of CASCA’s Equity & Inclusivity Committee (EIC);
- or a member of the CASCA Board.
In case of any conduct concerns during the conference, participants are strongly encouraged to contact the EIC representatives directly for advice and guidance, including help with the procedure to follow in case a participant decides to file an official complaint.
Protocol for addressing complaints of this policy
To avoid any confusion or bias in dealing with official reports of violations of the code of conduct, the following protocol will be followed:
● The designated CASCA contact will request a written record of the complaint including time and date plus particulars. The participant reporting the violation of the policy will review and approve the report before it is filed. They will remain anonymous to the invididual(s) indicated to have violated the policy in the report.
● The designated CASCA contact will bring the incident to the attention of the LOC and the CASCA Board;
● The designated CASCA contact will inform the individual(s) indicated to have violated the code of conduct of the allegation and ascertain and record their version of events.
This code of conduct is based on the "London Code of Conduct", as originally designed for the conference “Accurate Astrophysics. Correct Cosmology”, held in London in July 2015. The London Code of Conduct was adapted with permission by Andrew Pontzen and Hiranya Peiris from a document by Software Carpentry, which itself derives from original Creative Commons documents by PyCon and Geek Feminism.
