Standard · how the watch handles reports

Submission and documentation standard.

Before the watch publishes anything that names a shop, an operator, a regulator, or an authority, the report has to clear a small set of evidentiary checks. This page is the public version of that standard, so submitters know what we need and what happens after they send something in.

Why this standard exists A consumer watch is only useful if its public record is reliable. Naming a business — or naming an authority that has not followed up — is a serious step. We want to make that step on evidence, not on opinion or on a single anonymous note.

What we need from a submission

  • 1
    Who, where, when.

    The name of the shop or operator (or the URL, social handle, or other identifier), the city or neighbourhood, and the date you observed what you are reporting. Without a date and a location, we hold the report but cannot publish it.

  • 2
    What you observed.

    A direct description of what you saw or heard, in your own words. Not what someone told you, not what you suspect — what was observable to you. Receipts, listing URLs, product photos, and dates of purchase are all useful.

  • 3
    Evidence available.

    Links, photos, public filings, news reports, regulator file numbers, or test results. If you have files to share, write that in the form and we will reply with secure upload instructions.

  • 4
    Regulator contact, if any.

    If you have already contacted AHS Tobacco and Vaping Reduction inspections, Alberta Health, municipal bylaw services, Service Alberta, the RCMP, or any federal authority — tell us which, when, the file or reference number, and what response (or silence) you received.

  • 5
    You are an adult Alberta consumer or resident.

    The watch's audience and submission channel are for adult Alberta consumers and residents reporting their own observations. We do not publish anonymous accusations against named businesses.

What happens after you submit

  1. Intake. The submission goes to the watch inbox. Personal contact details are held by the watch and are not published.
  2. Triage. We classify the report — illicit operator, storefront compliance, suspected sale to minors, regulator inaction, or consumer harm — and check whether the same issue already exists on the tracker.
  3. Status. Until verification, the report is held as Reported, pending verification. We may summarise it in aggregate (for example, "N consumer reports of prohibited display in city in month") without naming the business.
  4. Verification. We attempt to confirm the report against the public record: published enforcement actions, court filings, regulator publications, named statements, or, where appropriate, a documented second observation. A successful match upgrades the entry to Confirmed.
  5. Regulator on notice. If we contact a regulator about the report and there is no follow-up on the public record, that fact is logged as On notice, with the date of contact. The named authority — not the named business — is the subject of that entry.
  6. Publication or hold. If we can publish responsibly, we publish with a source link and a status badge. If we cannot, the submission stays on file and may be re-evaluated if more evidence appears.
  7. Correction. A named party can ask us to review an entry. If they can show that the entry misreads the record, we update the entry and timestamp the correction.

What the watch will not publish

  • Allegations of guilt, criminality, or intent against a named business without an underlying public-record source.
  • Anonymous accusations against named individuals.
  • Personal information about employees of a shop (names, photos, addresses, immigration status).
  • Material that is plainly defamatory under Alberta law, or that asserts a legal conclusion the watch is not in a position to assert.
  • Submissions from competitors of a named business that do not also include public-record evidence.

What the watch will publish

  • Aggregate report counts and patterns, with city-level granularity at most when the underlying reports are not yet verified.
  • Named enforcement actions, citations, fines, suspensions, court outcomes, and regulator publications that are themselves on the public record.
  • Confirmed observations of online or parcel-post sale that fall outside Alberta's lawful framework, with evidence the watch has reviewed.
  • Regulator-on-notice entries — naming the authority, the date of contact, the issue raised, and the absence of follow-up on the public record.

Compliant retailers, briefly

The watch's audience is Alberta consumers and residents. Compliant Alberta retailers are not a co-equal audience. They may appear in our work in two narrow ways: as affected stakeholders when the legal framework changes (for example, a retailer's location is named in a published enforcement action they did not commit, or the legal channel as a whole is affected by an enforcement pattern), or as sources of documented reports about illicit operators competing outside the lawful framework. Reports from retailers are held to the same evidentiary standard as any other submission.

How to submit

Use the report form on the home page, or email hello@consumeraccesswatch.ca. We acknowledge submissions; we do not always confirm what will be published, and we do not promise a timeline. The point is the record, not the speed.

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