Welcome to the peer support program of the Canadian Cancer Society (the “Website” or the “Program”). Peer support is a free and confidential telephone-based peer support service for adults 18 years and older who have been diagnosed with cancer or who are caring for someone with cancer. While support is provided over the phone, initial registration and volunteer selection are completed online.
Peer support provides the opportunity to speak one-on-one with a trained volunteer who has had a similar cancer experience. Volunteers listen, offer encouragement and share ideas for coping without giving advice. While volunteers are trained to provide support around the cancer experience, they are not medical or mental health professionals, and peer support is not a counselling service.
This is a Canadian website intended for use by residents of Canada. Though the Website may be accessed world-wide, peer support has been developed to support Canadian residents who are using the Canadian healthcare system.
Please read our Terms of Use carefully as they are legally binding. Your use of the Website signifies your acceptance of these terms. We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change, modify, add, or delete portions of the Terms of Use at any time without notice. Your continued use of the Website after any such changes constitutes your acceptance of the new terms. It is your responsibility to regularly check to determine if there have been changes to these terms and to review such changes.
Peer support is owned and provided by the Canadian Cancer Society, referred to herein as “CCS” or the “Society”.
2.1 The Society takes its responsibility to keep your personal information private very seriously. The Canadian Cancer Society’s Privacy policy is intended to help you understand how we collect, use and disclose your personal information and to help you make informed decisions when sharing your information.
2.2 By agreeing to these Terms of Use, you agree to the terms of our Privacy policy and consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as set out therein.
3.1 Help us keep peer support a safe and comfortable place for everyone seeking and sharing information and support. The Society expects all participants to be respectful of others, even those whose views may differ from your own. If you disagree with someone, please express yourself respectfully. Remain courteous at all times.
3.2 You are responsible for the accuracy and integrity of your profile. This includes all personal information, medical history and photos that you post or upload to the Website.
3.3 You agree that you will not:
a. Use this Website for any unlawful purpose.
b. Impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity.
c. Post, email or verbalize any defamatory, harassing, abusive, mean-spirited, obscene, profane, vulgar, sexually explicit, threatening or illegal content, or any material containing blatant expressions of bigotry, racism or hate.
d. Violate the property rights of others, and you agree not to post any content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party.
e. Upload files, or cause users to upload files, that contain viruses, worms, “Trojan horses”, corrupted files, or any similar software or programs that may adversely affect the operation of another’s computer.
f. Advertise or promote any goods or services on the Website - “junk mail”, “spamming”, “chain letters”, “pyramid schemes” and similar activities are strictly prohibited.
g. Solicit anyone to buy or sell products or services, without our express written approval.
h. Violate any applicable local, provincial/territorial, national or international law in connection with the use of this Program.
i. Reveal personal information or identifiers about another person, as that may violate that person’s privacy.
j. Recruit other users of this Website as participants in a research project or school assignment of any kind, identify persons to interview for a media project of any kind, interview users for a publication, recruit volunteers for any service or organization, or solicit members for any other purpose.
k. Use email accounts that hide the originating Internet Service Provider (ISP) information (such as hushmail.com).
l. “Harvesting” email addresses from the Website (by copying them or otherwise obtaining them from the Website) for commercial or other non-peer support related purposes is also strictly prohibited.
4.1 While the Society has no obligation to monitor material posted on the Website, we reserve the right to monitor and/or moderate any user content posted on the site and to remove or edit any content at our sole discretion without prior contact with the author.
4.2 Please note that CCS reserves the right to suspend the ability of any user to access the Website without notice, for any reason, including but not limited to the violation of these Terms of Use or violation of other rules posted at various places on the Website. The termination of access will be at the sole discretion of CCS.
A ban (either temporary or permanent) may be issued on your access to the Website if it becomes evident that you are unwilling to comply with the Terms of Use and/or we feel it is necessary to protect others or the integrity of the Program.
4.3 Please note that if you are responsible for any breach of these Terms of Use, it will not be an excuse to say that you did not read the Terms of Use.
5.1 You agree that you will not use the Website to post any copyright material or intellectual property that is not your own without the express permission of the copyright or intellectual property holder.
5.2 You may add links to internal or external sites within your profile but you agree to remain responsible for any links you add. We reserve the right to remove any links we consider inappropriate.
5.3 If you post links to photos or upload an avatar, you must ensure that you have permission of the person who owns the photos as well as the permission of the people who are in the photos.
6.1 The information, text, data or materials shared as part of the Program is intended for general information purposes only, and should not be construed as medical advice, medical opinion, diagnosis or treatment. Information posted on the Website does not replace your relationship with your health care provider(s). The information is for your general use, so be sure to talk to qualified health care professional before making medical decisions or if you have questions about your health. The CCS does not endorse any product, treatment or therapy; neither does it evaluate the quality of services operated by other organizations which might be mentioned during Program interactions.
6.2 The Website and all of the information it contains is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, whether express or implied. All implied warranties, including without limitation implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement are expressly disclaimed.
6.3 The CCS tries to keep the Website operational, bug-free and safe, but you use it at your own risk. The Website may be unavailable periodically for scheduled maintenance or due to technical reasons beyond our control.
6.4 The CCS is not responsible for the actions, content, information or data of third parties, which includes you and any other registrants, who access the Website.
6.5 The CCS does not control external third party websites that may be linked from this site and is not responsible for their content. The inclusion of hyperlinks to such third party websites does not imply any endorsement of the material on such websites or any association with their third parties.
6.6 With the exception of content submitted to the Website by other contributors, all intellectual property on this website, including but not limited to copy, official marks or trademarks, is owned by CCS. Copying or unauthorized use of any such intellectual property without express consent of the Society is prohibited.
7.1 You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless the CCS (and its officers, employees, agents and representatives) from and against all claims, demands, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debt, and expenses (including but not limited to reasonable legal fees) arising from or relating to: your use of the Program; your violation of these Terms of Use; your violation of any third party right; any claim that any of your posts or emails caused damage to a third party; and any claim you have against a third party.
8.1 These Terms of Use constitute an agreement between you and the Society with respect to your use of the Society’s Website and Program, and supersede all previous agreements, understandings and representations relating thereto.
8.2 No failure by the Society or You to exercise any rights, powers or remedies hereunder or its delay to do so shall constitute a waiver of these rights, powers or remedies. The single or partial exercise of a right, power or remedy shall not prevent its subsequent exercise or the exercise of any other right, power or remedy.
8.3 If any provision of these Terms of Use or part thereof is or becomes illegal, invalid or unenforceable in any jurisdiction, the illegality, invalidity or unenforceability of that provision will not affect the legality, validity or enforceability of the remainder of the provision or the remaining provisions of these Terms of Use, as the case may be, or the legality, validity or enforceability of that provision or part thereof in any other jurisdiction.
8.4 These Terms of Use will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of applicable province(s) and Canada, which will apply to all matters relating to this Agreement.
8.5 It is the express wish of the parties that these Terms of Use and all related documents are drawn up in English. C’est la volonté expresse des parties que la présente convention ainsi que tous les documents qui s’y rattachent soient rédigés en anglais.
If you are concerned about a post, email or comment that is objectionable, contains inappropriate content, or is otherwise in breach of these Terms of Use, please contact peer support through the Website’s “Contact us” page, or by email, or by calling 1-888-939-3333.
You are also encouraged to contact us if you have any questions about the Website’s operation or ideas about this site.
You may also contact peer support for assistance modifying your communications preferences (i.e., opting-out of receiving non-peer support related communications) or to deactivate your peer support account.