Effective October 24, 2026. Photographs help place Canadian knowledge in context. Citizen.ca respects photographers, rights holders, people depicted, and the communities represented.
How Citizen.ca decides whether to publish a photo
Citizen.ca follows these checks before adding a photograph to a knowledge card. An administrator must:
- Find the original file or a reliable rights record; record the creator, title, source URL, licence and version or written permission, and check date. Retain evidence of the permission and any required notices.
- Confirm that the stated rights cover Citizen.ca’s public website and intended resizing or cropping. Use our own authorized photographs, images under a suitable open licence, reliably documented public-domain material, or images with sufficient written permission. Educational purpose, a search result, and a licence badge alone are insufficient when ownership or permission is contradictory or unclear.
- Check the actual file, its metadata, caption and source history for misleading context, alterations and conflicting restrictions. Review identifiable people, children, privacy, sensitive subjects, cultural restrictions and other rights separately from copyright. Do not imply consent or endorsement.
- Publish the required creator and title credits, source and licence links, notices and change disclosures. Keep any adapted image under its required share-alike licence. Our website copyright notice adds no restrictions to rights already granted by an image’s licence or applicable law.
- Confirm that the photo and caption accurately support or illustrate the card, distinguish modern illustration from historical evidence, and disclose known AI editing or material alteration.
- Keep member submissions private until review. If rights cannot be established, withhold the photo and use a cleared alternative. Recheck when a credible concern arises, recording corrections, replacement or removal. Photo checks are separate from factual verification and are not a guarantee against every unknown rights claim.
Photo rights belong to their owners
Photographs on Citizen.ca are not automatically free to reuse. Each image has its own rights status. The website’s copyright notice, a verified knowledge card, and educational use do not create a blanket photo licence. A claim verified against cited sources does not certify ownership of the accompanying photograph.
Credits, sources, and permissions
We aim to show the photographer or credited creator, original source, applicable licence or permission, and a contextual caption with each knowledge photograph. Follow the source and licence links before reusing an image. If information is missing or unclear, do not assume permission; check with the rights holder. We correct incomplete or inaccurate credits when identified.
For Creative Commons images, follow the specific licence and version: preserve required attribution, link to the source and licence, identify changes, and observe any applicable share-alike, noncommercial, or no-derivatives conditions. Public-domain and CC0 labels should be checked at the original source; we retain source credits for provenance. Other rights, including privacy and personality rights, may still apply. See Creative Commons licence descriptions and attribution guidance.
Reusing a photo
Obtain any required permission from the rights holder, not merely from Citizen.ca. Credit Citizen.ca as a source of a knowledge item when appropriate, but do not replace the photographer’s required credit with ours. A suitable credit includes the photo title if supplied, creator, original source, licence with a link, and any changes. Cropping or resizing does not remove licence conditions. Government-hosted images can include third-party material; check the image-specific notice and the applicable Crown copyright guidance.
Submitting a photo
Submit only a photograph you created and are entitled to publish, one covered by a suitable licence, or one for which you have permission. Supply accurate creator, source, licence or permission, and caption information. Do not upload an image simply because it appears in a search result. Do not submit confidential material, unnecessary personal information, or photographs whose publication would violate the rights of the people depicted. Take particular care with children, sensitive locations, and culturally restricted material.
You retain any rights you hold. Your submission must authorize Citizen.ca to store and review the photo and, if approved, display it with the knowledge card, including necessary web sizing, only within the permission or licence you provide. Submission does not transfer copyright or grant visitors additional reuse rights. An administrator may request evidence of permission or decline a photo. Unverified submissions and photos remain private to their submitter and administrators until approval; returned or rejected submissions remain private.
Accurate presentation
Captions should explain what the image depicts and its relationship to the knowledge item. An illustrative photo is not necessarily a record of the specific event discussed. We do not use misleading edits as documentary evidence. Synthetic or materially altered imagery must be disclosed and must not be presented as an authentic historical photograph.
Automated access and branding
Photo permissions apply to people and digital agents alike. Public availability or automated access does not grant additional rights to copy, redistribute, or use a photo for AI training. The actual licence, permission, and applicable law govern. Citizen.ca’s maple-leaf logo and other branding are not offered under a blanket photo licence; their display does not imply government affiliation or endorsement.
Credit corrections and removal requests
If you believe a photo is miscredited, used without permission, misleading, or raises a privacy or cultural concern, prepare the Citizen.ca page URL, identification of the photo, the concern, supporting rights or source information, and a way to reply. Do not post sensitive evidence publicly. An administrator can correct a credit, replace an image, restrict access, or remove it after review. Removal from public display does not immediately erase restricted backups.
For photo-credit corrections, factual concerns or removal requests, use our private on-site report form. Reports go directly to administrators without relying on email. Include the page URL, precise concern and supporting information; do not send passwords or unnecessary personal data. A report does not automatically mark an item as challenged.
Knowledge contributor names and photo credits
Every knowledge card records a contributor, defaulting to Citizen.ca if no name is supplied, plus a choice to show or hide that contributor publicly. This preference applies to knowledge attribution only. It does not remove a photographer’s required credit, copyright notice, licence, or other mandatory image attribution. If the contributor and photographer are the same person, a required public photo credit may reveal the name even when knowledge attribution is hidden. Use an appropriate authorized credit or a different cleared photograph if that is a concern; do not remove required credits or invent permission. Administrators must check this distinction with the contributor’s exact visibility choice before publication.
Photo checks, source fidelity, and factual accuracy
Photo permission and attribution checks do not prove the factual accuracy of a knowledge claim. Source fidelity means faithfully representing cited sources; factual accuracy concerns whether the account describes reality correctly. Photos need accurate contextual captions and alteration disclosures, independently of those source checks. A credible evidence-based factual challenge is marked on the knowledge item and recorded in its review history. A photo-rights concern follows the photo correction/removal process; it must not be confused with a factual-accuracy verdict. Required credits remain in place when a contributor name is hidden.
Public data access and original-text reuse
Citizen.ca provides public REST APIs, JSON/JSONL downloads, a change/withdrawal feed and crawler discovery for human readers, search engines and AI agents. Our original summaries, long-form text and annotations explicitly marked as Citizen.ca-owned are offered under CC BY 4.0: credit the record and sources, link to the licence and identify changes. Already-granted permissions remain available to compliant users. Member-owned text without separate permission, third-party sources, photos and logos are not included in this text licence. Exported records preserve source-fidelity and factual-accuracy review distinctions; an export does not certify truth. Read the Data Access documentation.
Knowledge cards show a brief summary. Optional long-form text appears only on the opened record page and in public data exports. Source checks cover both; a change to long-form text invalidates the checked version and dependent quiz approval.