All Tranzac community members, including staff, event organizers, event participants, volunteers, and audiences have the right to be safe, and feel safe. With this right comes the responsibility for everyone to be accountable for their actions, and to contribute to a safe and positive environment.
Tranzac community members are expected to follow this code of conduct. These expectations apply to all activities inside of the Tranzac, at offsite events coordinated by the Tranzac, and they can extend to online spaces such as live streamed presentations and engagement on other social media platforms.
Expected Behaviour
Anyone participating in Tranzac programming/operations or visiting the venue is responsible for their behaviour. We expect our community members to:
- Always act out of respect and concern for the expression and safety of others.
- Respect physical and emotional boundaries. Respect the consent of each person, and act with that understanding. Always ask before touching, and check in before discussing topics that may be triggering.
- Not make assumptions about identity, experiences, or pronouns.
- Not use language that is racist, sexist, homophobic, classist, transphobic, cissexist or ableist.
- Recognize that the impact of your words on other people is more important than your intent. Remain attentive to the folks you interact with, and accept respectful correction, or correct yourself when necessary.
Unacceptable Behaviour
We do not tolerate oppressive behavior, harassment, destructive behaviour, or exclusionary actions, including, but not limited to, the following:
- Oppressive behavior: any conduct that demeans, marginalizes, rejects, threatens or harms anyone on the basis of identity, background, or ability.
- Harassment: deliberate intimidation; stalking; following; harassing photography or recording; disruption of events; aggressive, derogatory, or threatening comments; and unwanted physical contact or sexual attention.
- Destructive behaviour: damaging or altering any part of the venue, inside or out, including furniture, equipment, or other people's belongings. This extends to behaviours that undermine/jeopardize the operations of the Tranzac including, but not limited to, bringing in outside alcohol or other illicit substances, and consuming alcohol outside of designated licensed areas.
- Exclusionary actions*: actively denying a person the opportunity to participate in or contribute to community-focused initiatives.
Enforcement, and consequences:
Anyone asked to stop unacceptable behavior is expected to comply immediately.
Individuals: Anyone who engages in sustained unacceptable behaviour may be sanctioned or permanently expelled from the Tranzac without warning (and without refund in the case of a paid event or products purchased).
Organizations, groups, and residencies: if a representative of a renter/co-presenter, or residency engages in sustained unacceptable behaviour, their group will not be permitted to program at/with the Tranzac—enforcement would extend to the individual beyond their status as a representative of the group.
Following an investigation and consultation process, the Tranzac may follow up with potential steps to reconcile breaches of this code.
What to do if you need help:
When you witness or are the target of unacceptable behaviour that breaches this code of conduct: approach and identify yourself to a Tranzac staff member during an event; or contact ed@tranzac.org if you wish to report a breach after an event has taken place. Tranzac staff will support you, prepare an internal report in order to review the incident, and review options for enforcement of the code of conduct.
More information on our code of conduct:
Tranzac staffing: for a majority of programming hours at the Tranzac, the bar staff are the representatives of the organization, and will be located at the Southern Cross bar (and on occasion the Main Hall bar).
Event Bookings: individuals and organizations will be asked to confirm that they have reviewed this code of conduct as a condition of finalizing an event agreement for activities at the Tranzac.
Display in the venue: A copy of this code of conduct will be on display upon entry to the Tranzac.
Ongoing development: We fully expect this policy to develop further in response to learning, and conversation among the staff and community of the Tranzac. We want to thank Gamma Space, the Toronto Creative Music Lab, and the Music Gallery for developing initial codes of conduct which served as starting points for our discussions and adoption of this code.
*a person may be justifiably denied access to participation based on their past conduct and documented breaches of this code of conduct.