Please note that these rules and policies came about after extensive discussions between all moderators and the community, and no one is making these decisions unilaterally or impulsively

[1] Headlines and Editorializing:

• If the headline of the article is sufficient, use the exact headline of the article. The only reason to not do so is to selectively present or misrepresent information, and that is not acceptable.
• Titles do not need to exactly match the title of the article if the title isn't descriptive enough or if the poster wishes to comment on something specific about the article unrelated to the topic of the article itself, but discussions regarding a specific point in the article which aren't the main focus of the article itself should be taken to a self post.
• Titles should not be misleading, spun, factually incorrect, extra emphasized, or overly sensationalized
• Likewise, please try not to use clickbait headlines.
• Keep the title consistent with the overall intent of the article
• If linking to an editorial or anything being presented as an opinion, please tag the title of the threads with [Opinion] to help differentiate between that and hard news. At some point in the future we might look at using link flair for this instead. This will likely not be enforced, but we ask that users differentiate such posts.
• Please try to avoid linking to questionable or obviously biased news sources or youtube videos. We will generally not remove these (unless they violate the rules or are blogspam), but surely there are more objective sources that can be found.
• If making a post for the purposes of asking questions or holding a discussion a topic not directly related to the article in question, use a self post.
• If you wish to express your thoughts or opinions about an article, the best way to go about doing so is in the comments section.
• Keep your headlines neat and tidy. For example, don't include URLs, don't post in all-caps.

TL;DR: Don't change the headline if it's clear enough, and don't interject your own opinion or change the headline to guide readers to one opinion over another.

Examples of good and bad titles

Article URL: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/netflix-piracy-content-vpn-1.3548476

Article title: After Netflix crackdown on border-hopping, Canadians ready to return to piracy

Page Title: After Netflix crackdown on border-hopping, Canadians ready to return to piracy - Business - CBC News

• Good Titles

• After Netflix crackdown on border-hopping, Canadians ready to return to piracy

• After Netflix crackdown on border-hopping, Canadians ready to return to piracy - Business - CBC News

• Bad Titles

• Netflix CEO calls Canadians "Small but vocal minority" and "inconsequential to us".

• Netflix cracks down on border hopping

• Netflix doesn't care about Canadians

• After Netflix crackdown on border-hopping, Canadians ready to return to piracy, CEO says Canadians are "inconsequential to us"

[2] Rabble-rousing:

• Posts which are intended to only stir up trouble will be removed. If you have a legitimate issue regarding something, please first try messaging the moderators, as we're generally more than happy to discuss things with you. If there is an issue which we feel should be discussed by the subreddit, we will then make a thread about it. Please notify us first so that we can contribute to that discussion.

• Posts which do nothing but dismiss others and repeatedly accuse them of unfounded accusations could be subject to removal and/or banning. This includes the use of the word "shill" or similar adjectives used in a context meant to falsely brand someone as not worth listening to.

• We reserve the right to remove any blatantly racist, sexist or antagonistic posts. Posts that contribute nothing but attack others will likely be removed. If you use repeated hate speech or abusive language you may get a temporary ban from the community. Repeated violators will be permanently banned.

• Be reasonable and have some common sense. We shouldn't have to outline a full set of "forbidden words". That's silly and most of you are more than capable of determining right from wrong, honest from disingenuous.

Some Guidelines:

• Don't be rude or hostile. By choosing not to be rude, you increase the overall civility of the community and make it better for all of us.

• Don't conduct personal attacks on other users. Ad hominem and other distracting attacks do not add anything to the conversation.

• Troll. Trolling does not contribute to the conversation.

• Make posts that lack content. Phrases such as "this", "lol", and "I came here to say this" are not witty, original, or funny, and do not add anything to the discussion.

Please do not bring petty squabbles to us. We're not interested in interjecting ourselves in arguments that you can't win through honest discourse, and we'll be less likely to give weight to what you have to say in the future should it become a pattern.

TL;DR: You stay classy, /r/Canada. Don't cause trouble, don't be rude. We will remove posts which do and are.

[3] Self linking and Non Profit Organizations:

In general, we discourage linking to websites which are owned or operated by the poster. We will try to follow the general Reddit guidelines on what constitutes spam. However, we also recognize that there are many nonprofit organizations who are trying to spread their message, and Reddit is a good medium for such things. As such, we would like to make an exception to the self linking rules under the following conditions:

• NPO's are allowed to self link on a limited basis, at the discretion of the moderators. This will mainly come down to how new the content is. We discourage regular updates solely for the purpose of updating, but recognize that there might be new news which could be brought to the attention of the subreddit.
• Posts should not be misleading or overly sensationalized.
• Posters need to at least make an attempt to respond to questions in their threads.
• When in doubt, follow the reddit guidelines on spam

[4] A reminder on Rediquette

Over the past while (probably since the last election), things in this subreddit have become overly partisan. People are downvoted for just expressing their honest opinion, and overly hyperbolic posts have been upvoted since they conform to populist opinion on the subreddit. This is just a friendly reminder to please follow the guidelines on Rediquette. In particular:

• DO NOT downvote someone just because you disagree with them.
• Please look at the actual content of the post before deciding whether or not to upvote or downvote. Don't do it based on the user in question.
• Please DO upvote anyone who is trying to hold a civil discussion about something and is just expressing their beliefs. Do we want comments that only conform with our own views, or do we want to see other points of view so that we might better understand and express our own view on things?
• Please DO downvote antagonistic or factually incorrect posts or those which do not contribute to or encourage discussion. If we're going to not remove as many threads in the interest of moderator transparency, it is up to the community to ensure that actual important news and discussions are prioritized over silly pictures of cats (or Tim Hortons cups). If you see a thread which you believe is too high on the front page, that would be an acceptable use of the downvote button, even if you don't find it offensive or wrong.

[5] Moderator Transparency

• We will do our best to communicate with people when taking action on a thread or posts so that the people involved might better understand our reasoning for those actions. A lot of drama can probably be avoided by doing so.

• Please understand that we are just as human as everyone else. Sometimes we make mistakes, and sometimes we unintentionally let our own biases interfere with our decisions, but we'll try to minimize those occurrences. Also understand that we might not be able to respond immediately, as all of us do have personal lives and work which might prevent us from responding as quickly as you would like. Sorry about that. We will try our best.

[6] Submission Content

• Posts generally lacking any content will be removed.
• Posts which do not relate to Canada will be removed.

• Posts which relate to Canada only in passing (e.g. mens rights vs womens rights arguments) will also likely be removed.

• What content is allowed on /r/Canada might change according to overall trends. For example, during the last election, it became more necessary to enforce the "No Editorializing" rule due to a trend of users submitting increasingly editorialized headlines.

• We will sometimes remove multiple posts along the same theme (i.e. if 5 users submit threads about Tim Hortons trying to one-up each other and they all make it to the front page) in order to diversify the content of the subreddit.

• Memes using standard images (i.e. the Fry meme, Scumbag Steve), or standard "Canadian stereotype" posts will generally be removed, particularly if they reach the top few posts. Again, this is mainly to encourage the submission and discussion of more important and interesting issues.

TL;DR: Stay on topic, don't make posts considered low content, don't post duplicate content

[7] Image Content

While images are always nice to break up the monotony of news and political threads, we decided to limit submissions because we tend to be overrun with repetitive types of 'canadian stereotype' images (i.e. facebook posts, scenery, currency, tim hortons, 'isn't it cold', 'so canadian', etc). We've also noticed that many people don't tend to downvote these sort of posts, even if they're reposts or utterly useless. For an explanation of why this might occur, please see this thread. As such, please follow the following rules:

• No bandwagons: Several image posts along the same theme will likely be removed.

• Low content posts and images will likely be removed. (This includes memes and fluffy images such as the ones listed in the paragraph above.)

[8] Trolling

• Intentionally trolling or posting content specifically to look for downvotes will not be tolerated. Posts will be removed, and repeat offenders will be given a temporary ban. Continued trolling will result in a permanent ban.

[9] Partisan Material (for election season)

We're getting hit with a fair amount of links to political ads and other hyper-partisan material. We feel it would be prudent to limit these low-content submissions, so we're proposing a ban on submissions linking directly to party advertisements or "third party" attack ads. Hopefully this will also limit the amount of astroturfing by parties across the political spectrum.

Articles which discuss various political ads or platform details would still be acceptable, and it really shouldn't be too difficult to find an article from a reputable journalist discussing these issues.

Not acceptable

• Direct links to political ads (i.e. youtube or party websites)
• Direct links to petitions or other nonsense material clearly started for political purposes
• Direct links to "third party" attack ads

Acceptable

• Links to articles from reputable journalists which discuss party ads, party platforms or attack ads
• Direct links to party platforms