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How to Participate

We thank all those who participated in the questionnaire and discussion group. The participant portions of this web site ceased taking new answers and postings on May 1, 2003.

You are invited to read the Minister's "A Dialogue on Foreign Policy" paper. You are also invited to comment on the paper or the questions and take part in electronic discussion. We will be pleased to accept your comments and your discussion group participation starting January 22, 2003 and ending on May 1, 2003.

Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham will report to Canadians about this dialogue by June 2003.

You do not have to register on the Web site to view content or to answer questions. However in order to participate in the discussion groups, you must register and log in. All messages posted to this Web site must meet the Civil Rules (the code of acceptable conduct) and will be moderated. When you submit a response, you can request that your answer remain private, or you can allow your answers to be posted on the Web site.

When you answer a question, your answer will become part of the dialogue database. If you change your mind or would like to register a revised opinion you have a second chance to do so. Your revised opinion will then become part of the final database.

Our moderators are members of the general public. They are not government employees or civil servants, and they do not speak for the Minister or the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Their role of a moderator is to facilitate this Dialogue on Foreign Policy, and to ensure that this Web site space is a civil public place where citizens with diverse opinions and communication skills feel welcome to engage in these important deliberations within the reasonable limits of expression of a free and democratic society (as captured in the Civil Rules).

Summaries of messages will appear weekly to allow busy citizens to stay in touch with the dialogue without having to read every post. A bulletin of summary highlights will appear every two weeks and you can subscribe to the Bulletin to stay in touch.

You do not need to register in order to subscribe to the Bulletin. If you wish to comment on a summary, you may send a letter to the editors.

The moderators, writers, analysts, researchers, technical and other people who are working behind the scenes to make this Web site possible are stewards of democratic public dialogue on-line. They work under the direction of the byDesign eLab and with the eCommons project. They are working in partnership with the Canadian Centre for Foreign Policy Development (the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade). They will do their best to facilitate and summarize this discussion in an unbiased and helpful manner.

If you have problems participating fully in the discussion groups or in the Web-based part of the Dialogue please contact: editors@foreign-policy-dialogue.ca

Accessibility

For guidelines on how to navigate the site using accessibility features, please see Access Keystrokes.

Help is contextual on this web site. This means that in most sections in the Foreign Policy Dialogue web site, you can find a specific help page relevant to that section's elements. Please check the Help listing on the site map for details.