Corrections Policy

IRCC.com aims to be a primary source for Canadian immigration news. When we get something wrong, we correct it visibly. This policy documents how.

1. What counts as a correction

We distinguish three categories:

• Factual correction — any claim that is materially wrong about a date, number, name, program, policy, court ruling, or quote. These get a dated correction notice at the end of the article.
• Substantive correction— an error that changes the article's central conclusion, headline, or framing. These additionally get an Editor's Note at the top of the article, explaining what was wrong and how it was fixed.
• Typographical / formatting correction — typos, broken links, misspelled author names, formatting glitches. These are fixed silently, without a notice on the article.

2. The correction notice format

Factual corrections are appended in the form:

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that the CRS cutoff for the May 14 draw was 524. The correct figure is 525. Updated [date].

We do not silently rewrite the original incorrect text. The original sentence is preserved in the running prose; the correction notice records what was wrong and what was right.

3. The Editor's Note format

Substantive corrections receive an Editor's Note at the top of the article:

Editor's Note ([date]): This article originally said that the policy change took effect immediately. In fact it takes effect 30 days after gazette publication. The headline, lede, and timeline section have been revised. Earlier copies of this article may be referenced via the Wayback Machine.

4. Speed of correction

We aim to publish corrections within 24 hours of confirmation. Confirmation requires either:

• A primary-source citation (canada.ca, provincial newsroom, court ruling, Statistics Canada release), or
• Direct on-the-record statement from a relevant public official.

We do not retract a published claim on the basis of an anonymous tip alone, but we will investigate.

5. Retractions

In the rare case that an entire article is unsalvageable, we retract it. Retracted articles are not deleted — that would break inbound links from other publications, search engines, and the Wayback Machine. Instead the article body is replaced with a retraction notice and a link to any successor coverage.

6. How to request a correction

Send a correction request via the contact form. Include:

• The article URL.
• The specific claim you believe is wrong.
• The correct fact, with a primary-source citation if possible.
• Your relationship to the story (applicant, lawyer, official, source, reader) — optional but helpful.

We respond to correction requests within 48 hours. If we agree, the correction is published in line with sections 2–4 above. If we disagree, we'll tell you why, and the conversation remains open if you have new evidence.

7. Transparency

Corrections are not hidden. They appear inline on the article page. We do not maintain a separate corrections page that buries the audit trail.

8. AI-assisted articles

Articles drafted with AI assistance (see our Editorial Standards) are corrected by the same process as any other article. A human editor reviews the correction, and the corrected version is republished. There is no separate “AI hallucination” track — an error is an error, regardless of how the original draft was produced, and every AI-assisted article passes through human editorial review before publication.

9. Contact

Corrections requests: contact form. For urgent corrections that affect ongoing applicant decisions, mark the subject line as URGENT CORRECTION; we route those to the on-call editor.