Terms of Service

1. About these Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a legal agreement between you and Zongheng Tian ("Maple Citizen", "we", "us", or "our"), governing your use of the Maple Citizen website at maplecitizen.ca and its related features (the "Service"). By accessing or using the Service — including by creating an account, starting a free trial, or purchasing Maple Citizen Pro — you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

2. What Maple Citizen is — and what it isn't

Maple Citizen is an independent online study aid to help you practise for the Canadian citizenship test.

Not affiliated with the government. Maple Citizen is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Government of Canada or IRCC, and does not reproduce the confidential official test questions.

Not legal or immigration advice. Nothing in the Service is legal, immigration, or professional advice. For guidance about your citizenship application or eligibility, consult IRCC (canada.ca) or a licensed immigration professional.

No guarantee of results. We do not promise, guarantee, or warrant that using Maple Citizen will result in a passing grade or a successful citizenship application. The real test is set and administered by IRCC, and your results depend on many factors outside our control.

3. Eligibility and your account

• The Service is intended for adults preparing for the citizenship test. You must be the age of majority in your province or territory, or use the Service with the consent and supervision of a parent or guardian.
• An account is required to use the Service. You can sign in with Google or with an email sign-in link, and you are responsible for activity under your account and for keeping access to your email or Google account secure.
• Please provide accurate information, use one account per person, and do not share, sell, or transfer your account.

4. Free features and Maple Citizen Pro

• Free, with an account: the study path (topic-based study modules), your mistake book, one baseline mock test, the leaderboard, and guide search. The free tier is supported by advertising (see Advertising below).
• Maple Citizen Pro unlocks: Smart Review (adaptive study tailored to your weak spots), unlimited timed mock tests, the option to mix your past mistakes into mock tests, flagged-question review, and an ad-free experience.

We may adjust which features are free versus Pro over time and will try to give reasonable notice of material changes. We will not remove access to the core Pro features that a Lifetime purchaser has already paid for, except as described in section 14 (discontinuation of the Service).

Advertising

The free tier of the Service is supported by advertising. We may display ads — for example, a short ad after a study module — through third-party advertising providers (currently Google, via Google AdSense). Those ads are served by the third party; we do not control, endorse, or take responsibility for the content of third-party ads or the products and services they promote, and your dealings with advertisers are solely between you and them. Maple Citizen Pro is ad-free. How advertising-related information is collected, and the choices you have (including consent and how to opt out of personalized ads), are described in our Privacy Policy.

5. Pricing, billing, free trial, and the "Lifetime" plan

All prices are in Canadian dollars (CAD) and may be subject to applicable taxes (such as GST/HST/QST), which are shown at checkout where required. Payments are processed by Stripe. We do not collect or store your full payment card number — that is handled by Stripe under its own terms and privacy policy.

Free trial

We offer a one-time 3-day free trial of Pro per account. The trial requires a valid payment method, and unless you cancel before the 3 days end it automatically converts into a paid monthly subscription and your payment method is charged the then-current monthly price. You can cancel at any time during the trial — from the Stripe billing portal or the "Manage or cancel trial" link in your profile — and you will not be charged. We may limit or withdraw trials, and creating multiple accounts to obtain additional trials is not permitted.

Monthly plan — $3.95 CAD / month

The monthly plan is a subscription that automatically renews each month until you cancel. You authorize us (through Stripe) to charge your payment method at the start of each billing period. You can cancel at any time from the billing portal or the "Manage subscription" link in your profile; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period, and you keep Pro access until then. We do not provide partial-period refunds except where required by law.

Lifetime plan — $9.85 CAD, one time

The Lifetime plan is a single payment for ongoing access to the Pro features.

What "lifetime" means. "Lifetime" refers to the operational lifetime of the Maple Citizen Service — that is, for as long as we continue to operate it — not the lifetime of any person, and not a perpetual or guaranteed-forever commitment. If we permanently discontinue the Service or the Pro features, lifetime access ends at that time, and section 14 applies. Lifetime access is tied to your account, is for your personal, non-transferable use, and may not be resold or shared.

Price changes

We may change our prices and plans going forward. A price change will not affect a one-time Lifetime purchase you have already completed. For the monthly plan, we will give notice before a price change takes effect so you can cancel if you do not agree.

6. Cancellations and refunds

You can stop using the Service or cancel a subscription at any time.

Refund policy. Because Pro begins with a 3-day free trial that you can cancel at any time before it converts — so you can fully evaluate Pro before you are charged — purchases are generally non-refundable once made, except (a) where a refund is required by applicable consumer-protection law, or (b) at our discretion. To request a refund or report a billing problem, contact us at support@maplecitizen.ca.

Nothing here limits any rights you have under consumer-protection law that cannot be waived (see section 17).

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• copy, scrape, harvest, republish, resell, or commercially exploit the Service or its content, except as expressly allowed;
• reverse engineer, interfere with, overload, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service or its systems;
• upload unlawful, infringing, harassing, or harmful content, or impersonate others;
• manipulate the leaderboard, badges, or statistics, or create accounts by automated means;
• use the Service in violation of applicable laws.

8. Your content and the leaderboard

Your study data (attempts, mistakes, flags, and statistics) is yours. You grant us a limited licence to store and process it so we can provide the Service, as described in our Privacy Policy.

The leaderboard is opt-in. If you choose to join, a display name and (if available) your profile photo are shown publicly to other users alongside your standing. You can leave the leaderboard at any time. Please do not use a display name that is offensive or that impersonates someone else.

9. Intellectual property

The Service — including its software, design, text, graphics, the Maple Citizen name and logo, and the original practice questions and explanations — is owned by us or our licensors and is protected by law. We grant you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the Service for your own citizenship-test preparation.

Source material. Study content is written from facts in the Government of Canada's Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship guide. Facts themselves are not owned by anyone; the Discover Canada publication is © the Government of Canada. Maple Citizen is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Government of Canada or IRCC and does not reproduce the confidential official test questions.

If you believe content on the Service infringes your rights, contact us at support@maplecitizen.ca.

10. Third-party services

The Service relies on third parties, including Google (sign-in and, on the free tier, advertising via Google AdSense), Stripe (payments), Supabase (accounts and data), and Cloudflare (hosting). Your use of those features may also be subject to those providers' terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for third-party services we do not control.

11. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement, to the fullest extent permitted by law. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure, or that content is complete, current, or accurate. You are responsible for verifying important facts against official Government of Canada sources before relying on them.

12. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, and except for liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law:

• we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost data, lost profits, or any exam or application outcome, arising from or related to your use of the Service; and
• our total liability for all claims relating to the Service is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us for the Service in the 12 months before the claim, or (b) CAD $50.

13. Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from claims, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your misuse of the Service or your breach of these Terms.

14. Suspension, termination, and discontinuation

• You may stop using the Service at any time and may delete your account (see the Privacy Policy).
• We may suspend or terminate access if you breach these Terms or misuse the Service.
• We may modify, suspend, or discontinue the Service (or any feature, including Pro) in whole or in part. If we permanently discontinue the Service, lifetime access ends at that time; we will aim to give reasonable advance notice where practical and will handle any refunds in accordance with applicable law.

15. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, provide additional notice. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.

16. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of British Columbia and the federal laws of Canada applicable there, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Subject to section 17, you agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located in British Columbia for any dispute. We encourage you to contact us first at support@maplecitizen.ca so we can try to resolve any concern informally.

17. Consumer rights that cannot be waived

Nothing in these Terms limits or removes any rights or remedies you have under applicable consumer-protection legislation that cannot be waived by agreement. If you are a consumer resident in a Canadian province or territory (for example, Quebec), you keep all mandatory protections of your local consumer law, and where those laws conflict with these Terms, those laws prevail to the extent of the conflict.

18. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Contact Zongheng Tian at support@maplecitizen.ca.