Terms of use

IRIS is a platform on which a First Nation holds and controls its own record, and on which industry proponents and Nations can engage on a shared footing. Some of it is public — the gazetteer of Nations and the assistant. The rest is reachable only by people who hold standing: a seat on a Nation's Council, an administrator role at an organization, or an explicit grant.

A Nation's information belongs to that Nation. Nothing here transfers ownership of it to us. We hold and process it to run the platform on the Nation's behalf, and a Nation may withdraw its material at any time. Where a Nation has claimed its record, decisions about that record — what is published, what is disclosed, to whom — are the Nation's to make, not ours.

The software itself, and the platform's own compiled reference data, remain ours.

Sign-in is by a one-time code sent to your email, so keep access to that mailbox secure — anyone holding it can sign in as you. Standing on a Nation's or an organization's record is granted by that Nation or organization; it cannot be self-assigned, and you should not attempt to claim standing you do not hold.

Do not:

• attempt to reach information belonging to a Nation, community or organization you do not hold standing with;
• scrape, bulk-extract or redistribute the gazetteer or any Nation's material without that Nation's agreement;
• upload material you do not have the right to share, or that was gathered without the consent of the people it concerns;
• probe, disrupt or overload the platform, or attempt to defeat its access controls.

Every view of a disclosed record is logged. That is deliberate, and it cuts both ways: it protects a Nation, and it means your access leaves a trail.

IRIS's assistant answers from documents in the room you are in, and it cites what it used. It can still be wrong, and it will sometimes say it does not know rather than guess — that refusal is the intended behaviour, not a fault. Do not rely on it for legal, regulatory or financial decisions. The underlying documents govern; the assistant does not.

IRIS is offered as it stands. Parts of it run on hardware we operate ourselves, and it may be unavailable for maintenance or for reasons outside our control. We do not promise uninterrupted service. Where the platform is used for something time-sensitive, keep your own copy of anything you cannot afford to lose.

You may stop using IRIS at any time, and a Nation may withdraw its record. We may suspend access that is being used against these terms — particularly an attempt to reach another party's material. Where we do, we will say why.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply in it.

Chi Mino Ozhitoowin LP
724 A City Rd, Fort William First Nation, ON P7J 1K4
(807) 577-8033 · cmo-fn.ca