Terms of Use

Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities (AODA)

Provision of Services and Programs to People with Disabilities

 The Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal (OPSDT) is committed to making all services and programs available and accessible to people with disabilities in a way that respects their dignity and independence.

Communication

The Tribunal will communicate with people with disabilities in ways that respect their disability. This includes the use of alternative formats and methods. We will train our staff on how to interact and communicate with people with various types of disabilities.

Assistive devices

OPSDT will work with any person to accommodate any personal support services they use to help with communication, mobility, personal care or medical needs. If any person requires an assistive device to participate in a Tribunal proceeding, we will ensure our staff are trained and familiar with the various assistive devices that may be used by individuals while accessing our services and programs.

Service animals and support persons

The Tribunal welcomes support persons and service animals accompanying people with a disability.

Notice of temporary service disruption

In the event of a planned or unexpected disruption in Tribunal services, the Tribunal will notify the public of the disruption, the reason for the disruption, its anticipated length and a description of alternative facilities or services, if available. The notice will be placed on the front entrance of the building, posted on our website, and our telephone answering system will be updated accordingly.

Training to staff

All Tribunal staff who provide services to members or the public will be trained on:

• Purpose and requirements of the AODA;
• How to interact and communicate with people with disabilities;
• How to interact with people who use assistive devices or require a service animal or support person;
• Available assistive devices on our premises and how to use them;
• What to do if a person with a disability is having difficulty in accessing our services; and
• The Tribunal’s policies and practices relating to customer service.

Questions or Feedback

Please contact the Tribunal with any questions or feedback.

In-person or by mail:
80 College St, Toronto, On M5G 2E2

By phone: (416) 968-5173

By email: tribunal@opsdt.ca

Communications Code of Conduct

The Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal (OPSDT) is committed to communicating with you in a respectful, professional and civil manner, and we expect the same courtesy from you.

We understand the circumstances or issues you are communicating to OPSDT may be stressful. However, the law requires we protect staff from abusive behaviour and communications. We will not tolerate threats, vexatious or harassing comments or conduct, sexual harassment, intimidation, yelling or screaming and/or obscene, racist or discriminatory statements. Repeated bad behaviour may result in the Tribunal communicating with you in writing only.

Respect for Human Rights

The Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal (OPSDT) respects and supports the public policy goals of the Ontario Human Rights Code to recognize the dignity and worth of every person, and to provide equal rights and opportunities without discrimination that is contrary to law.

The OPSDT is committed to ensuring it operates in compliance with the Human Rights Code. In all its activities, the Tribunal strives to ensure not only that it respects its legal obligations, but also that it creates and fosters an environment in which the personal worth and dignity of every individual is respected.

The Tribunal seeks to achieve this goal in two ways: by striving to provide adjudicative services to the public and parties without discrimination on protected grounds; and by taking steps to accommodate individuals short of undue hardship to facilitate their ability to access the Tribunal’s services.

Social Media

These terms of use explain how the Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal (OPSDT) interacts and communicates with the legal profession, the media and the public through social media.

The Tribunal currently does not have any official social media accounts. Where the Tribunal uses social media tools to share information about the Tribunal and communicate with stakeholders, it will make reasonable efforts to ensure the content it posts comes from official and approved sources.

For information about a Tribunal hearing, please email tribunal@opsdt.ca or check the Upcoming Hearings page. 

Content on any Tribunal social media platform may include, but is not limited to, the following:

• Administrative announcements, such as rule changes, practice advisories, practice directions and other notices to the legal profession and the public
• Announcements related to adjudicator appointments
• Notification of and links to case law of interest
• Tribunal news
• Media releases

The Tribunal OPSDT does not comment on its decisions or express opinions about issues that have or may come before it for adjudication. The Tribunal’s decision to subscribe to or to follow a social media account, or to share, like or re-post social media content from another user is not an endorsement of that account, page, website, organization or its content.

Rules for posting content

The Tribunal reserves the right to edit or delete any comments or replies on its social media platforms that:

• provide information or opinions that are unrelated to the Tribunal or the issue being discussed
• provide personal information or information that may identify a third party
• breach or may breach a publication ban made by the Tribunal
• discuss complaints or compliments about a specific physician
• relate to a specific individual
• discuss an ongoing investigation or hearing
• make false or unsubstantiated allegations
• are, or may be, aggressive, abusive, obscene, profane, hateful, harassing or threatening
• may abuse or infringe any intellectual property right
• are, or may be, defamatory, slanderous or libelous
• constitute spam
• advertise or solicit business
• breach, or may breach, any Tribunal order, policy, rule or terms of use (including these Terms of Use)
• breach or may breach any law, statute, regulation, order, code, standard or rule
• are or may be unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory

The Tribunal may restrict use of its social media sites, tools or channels if the Tribunal determines, in its sole discretion, that the user is:

• impersonating another person
• allowing any other person to use the user's identification for posting or viewing comments or content
• breaching or may breach any Tribunal order, policy, rule or terms of use (including these Terms of Use)
• breaching, or may breach, any law, statute, regulation, order, code, standard or rule
• is engaging, or may engage, in unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory activity

Content removal and other remedies

• The Tribunal reserves the right at any time to refuse to post comments and content, or to remove comments or content in whole or in part, which the Tribunal determines, in its sole discretion, does not comply with these Terms of Use.
• Violation of any element of these Terms of Use can lead to restrictions regarding use of the Tribunal’s social media sites, tools or channels, including without limitation blocking a user from posting to the Tribunal’s social media sites, tools or channels.
• The Tribunal’s rights and remedies under these Terms of Use are cumulative and are in addition to and not in substitution for any rights and remedies provided at law, in equity or by statute.
• Please notify the Tribunal if you see a comment, content or use that you think does not comply with these Terms of Use.

Disclaimers and Agreements

• All comments posted are the opinion of the writer, not the Tribunal.
• You agree not to upload viruses or other malicious code.
• You agree not to facilitate or to encourage any violations of these Terms of Use.
• By posting comments or content, you are giving the Tribunal permission to use and distribute those comments and content. For any comments or content you post that is covered by intellectual property rights (“IP Content”), you specifically grant the Tribunal the non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use IP Content in any manner (including without limitation the right to copy, distribute and make derivative works). You confirm, represent and warrant that you have the right without restriction to post all comments and content (including without limitation all links) posted by you.
• The submitter of comments and content is fully responsible for the comments and content posted. The Tribunal is in no way responsible for such comments and content nor for any information, references, links, opinions, claims, or advice in such comments and content, nor to collect, review, use, update, edit, retain, return, dispose of, share, circulate, act on, consider, or respond to, any such comments and content.
• The Tribunal in no way verifies or confirms the accuracy of user comments or any aspect of posted content. The Tribunal does not review any references or links in any content and is not responsible for any content of any document referred to or site linked.
• Spelling and grammatical errors will not be corrected.
• The Tribunal will not ‘friend’ or ‘follow’ individual users.
• Any sharing or re-tweeting of links on the part of the Tribunal does not equate to endorsement.
• Social media sites, tools or channels are or involve third-party service providers for the Tribunal which are not affiliated with the Tribunal. Users are encouraged to read the terms and conditions of use and the privacy policy of each relevant social media site, tool or channel.
• By using any of Tribunal’s social media sites, tools or channels (including without limitation by posting any comment or content), each user agrees to indemnify the Tribunal regarding and to hold the Tribunal harmless from any liability, loss, damage or expense, including without limitation professional and other fees and expenses, arising out of such user’s use of any Tribunal social media site, tool or channel and any comments or content posted.