According to the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, "open access is an emerging model of scholarly communication that promises to greatly improve the accessibility of results of research. In general terms, scholarly research that is published in open access is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing (although it does require that proper attribution of works be given to authors)".
The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) and Queen's University support open access as a sustainable means of sharing research literature as widely as possible. In August, 2017, the U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities released a U15 Statement on Sustainable Publishing that clearly states their support for open and sustainable publishing of research findings.
Researchers are of course concerned about how they will determine the value of emerging open access journals, particularly with so many new titles appearing each year. In addition to their collegial networks and knowledge of the scholars and literature in their field, many researchers now also consult the Canadian Association of Research Libraries' guide to Identifying and Avoiding Predatory Publishers: A Primer for Researchers.
The Tri-Council Open Access Policy on Publications came into effect for the Social Science Humanities Council mandates that "any peer-reviewed journal publications arising from Agency-supported research are freely accessible within 12 months of publication. (http://www.science.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/eng/h_F6765465.html?OpenDocument)
If you would like to retain the right to disseminate your work beyond the journal it will be published in, use the Canadian Author Addendum prepared by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC). For more information about this Addendum and how to use it, see the CARL Guide to Author Rights or the Library's Copyright and Author's Rights page.