Your Privacy is Important to Us

Privacy Statement

The Anglican United Refugee Alliance (AURA) is a charitable organization and a Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH) supporting Anglican parishes in the Diocese of Toronto, local sponsor groups, and United Churches to help refugees to safety in Canada.

As part of delivering its programs, AURA collects and uses personal information while respecting your privacy. AURA is responsible for all the personal information under its custody and is committed to respecting the privacy of individuals we work with, taking all appropriate and reasonable steps to protect the personal information of our Directors of the Board, staff, placement students, volunteers, donors, constituent group members, sponsored refugees and others.

This privacy statement is guided by the principles of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) which applies to the standards for personal information with respect to our operation. 

All Directors of the Board, employees and third parties, such as constituent group members, who in any way handle or have knowledge of personal information obtained through their association with AURA, are required to adhere to AURA’s standards as stated below. These privacy policy guidelines refer to the collection, disclosure, and storage as explained below in detail.

Personal Information

For purposes of this privacy statement, Personal Information is any factual or subjective information, recorded or not, that differentiates or helps identify an individual. E.g. name, address, birth date, ethnicity, etc.

AURA collects personal information willingly provided by individuals during their time of service at AURA such as personal addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, resumes, information on national identity cards, passport, social insurance numbers, immigration status, police check certificates, contact details and other private documents. AURA also collects personal and contact information that is provided by donors, members, board directors, constituent groups and refugees.

Consent

AURA seeks informed consent from individuals before collecting their personal information. AURA properly informs the individual by clearly stating the purposes, uses, risks, and possible disclosures of personal information, as well as providing an opportunity to ask questions and/or withdraw consent. Individuals are informed of the consequences of not providing consent, such as being unable to participate in certain programs.

In order to provide informed consent, the individual must also have the physical and mental capacity to consent.

In some cases, consent may be assumed, particularly when individuals seek our services and agree to their information being shared with other AURA staff members/volunteers/students who are directly involved in supporting them.

Disclosure or Sharing

All staff, Directors of the Board, placement students, volunteers and constituent group members are required to sign a confidentiality agreement.

AURA commits to the security of information by applying necessary and appropriate safeguards with respect to your information kept on record.

AURA does not disclose information for any purpose other than that for which it was originally collected unless explicit consent is obtained from the individual or as otherwise required or permitted by law.

Access to personal information is restricted to staff, volunteers, and students who provide services, are part of the circle of care (directly involved with community members on a ‘need-to-know’ basis), are assigned to tabulate or collate data, perform administrative duties, or require the data for research or educational purposes. 

There are some situations where AURA may be legally required to disclose information without consent which include but are not limited to: subpoenas, search warrants, court orders, child maltreatment, college investigations, coroners, prevention of imminent harm (suicidal or homicidal intent), workers’ compensation board, infectious diseases, emergency situations, and to government agencies as permitted by law.

Cookies

AURA website uses cookies to enhance and improve the browsing experience and functionality of the website.

While AURA’s website makes use of cookies, it does not collect personal information. Any personal information site visitors voluntarily choose to provide (e.g. to receive electronic newsletters, and/or to complete any of our online application forms for volunteering or receiving services) is not shared with third parties unless stated otherwise. Some third-party cookies on AURA’s website may be used to identify visitors for personalized and relevant advertising, site analytics, and other operational purposes.

Note: Cookies are small text files stored on your device after visiting a website to help distinguish various site visitors and track user activities on the website, remember user preferences/settings, analyze web traffic, and provide relevant content.

Retention

Your personal information will be retained only as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, and in compliance with any laws surrounding information retention. If all identified purposes for the use of your personal information have been exhausted, we will destroy the information or render it unidentifiable.

The organization will store personal information using hard copy and/or electronic means in such a way as to prevent unauthorized collection, access, use, disclosure or disposal of the personal information.

Certain situations (including but not limited to compliance with federal or provincial laws, court orders, public interest purposes, or to protect the legal interests of our organization) may require AURA to retain and/or restrict the release of your data with you or third parties.

Protection of Information

All staff, Directors of the Board, placement students, volunteers and constituent group members are required to sign a confidentiality agreement.
AURA commits to the security of information by applying necessary and appropriate safeguards with respect to your information kept on record.

Individual Access and Contact Information

Individuals may request access to, correction of, completion of, amendment to, or deletion of their personal information, or challenge its accuracy, by contacting AURA at info@auraforrefugees.org.

If you have questions or inquiries regarding this privacy statement or our privacy practices, please reach us by email at info@auraforrefugees.org.

This Privacy Statement may be updated from time to time and notice of any changes to this privacy statement will be posted on this site.

Last updated: July 2025