Anti-Harassment Policy
Recognizing Harm
Harassment including sexual, physically and verbal harassment is unacceptable at our community hub. This includes:
- Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, age, race, or religion
- Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment
- Deliberate misgendering or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names
- Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behaviour in spaces where they are not appropriate
- Physical contact and simulated physical contact (e.g., textual descriptions like “*hug*” or “*backrub*”) without consent or after a request to stop
- Threats of violence
- Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm
- Deliberate intimidation
- Stalking or following
- Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes.
- Unwelcome sexual attention
- Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others
- Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease
- Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their consent except as necessary to protect vulnerable people from intentional abuse
- Publication of non-harassing private communication
Massy Arts prioritizes marginalized people’s safety over privileged people’s comfort and will not act on complaints regarding:
- “Reverse” -isms, including but not limited to: “reverse racism,” “reverse sexism,” and “cisphobia”
- Reasonable communication of boundaries, including but not limited to: “leave me alone,” “go away,” or “I’m not discussing this with you”
- Communicating in a “tone” you don’t find congenial
- Criticizing racist, sexist, cissexist, homophobic, transphobic, or otherwise oppressive behaviour or assumptions
- Being in disagreement with our mask or vaccination policy
Conflict Resolution Process
Massy Arts takes complaints of harassment very seriously and will take the necessary steps to hold artists, staff and guests accountable through our conflict resolution process. Based on the nature of the complaint sent to info@massyarts.com, it will either be escalated in the following order:
- to an alternate team member at Massy Arts;
- to Founder and Director, Patricia Massy; or
- to the Massy Arts Society Board of Directors, who are mainly comprised of Indigenous women who lend their various professional and cultural worldviews in guiding our community hub in a good way
The Board reserves the right to reject any complaints intended to silence legitimate criticism or that have been made in bad faith. We believe that community care takes place outside of the carceral systems including public posts meant to incite punishment through cancel culture. We understand when individuals use this as a last resort action against a big corporation but do not recognize this social mechanism towards an Indigenous owned and operated community hub as a way to move forward through healing. Especially, when we have established other ways to be in relationship.
We believe in whisper networks that keep our community safe and may name artists, staff or guests who have harassed members of our community hub to third parties. Will will not name harassment victims without affirmative consent.
Please send your complaints to info@massyarts.com with the subject line: Complaints.