The Community Based Research Centre Society, with funding from the Department of Justice Canada, is seeking participants for a new interview study documenting serious legal problems faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and Two-Spirit people in Western Canada (including British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba). If you identify as LGBTQ2+ and have experienced a serious legal problem in the past three years, you may be eligible to participate.
If you are eligible and consent to participate, you will be asked to complete a qualitative interview with a peer researcher over the phone or over Zoom. The interviewer will ask you to share your experiences of serious legal problems and barriers to accessing justice in Canada over the last three years. Your contributions will help to illuminate the legal challenges facing lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. The interview will take approximately 60-90 minutes, and you will be provided with a $50 honorarium as a thank you for your time.
In order to be included in this study, you must identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, or Two-Spirit, or as another sexual minority. Additionally, you must have experienced a serious legal problem (as outlined in our eligibility screener) in the last three years, be 16 years of age or older, and be able to complete an interview in English in order to be eligible. You do not have to have engaged in legal action to be eligible.
If you are interested in participating, please complete the following eligibility screener on Survey Monkey. The screener will ask some demographic questions about yourself and about different types of legal problems you’ve experienced. You will be asked to provide a name, phone number, and email address so that we can contact you for follow-up. Your contact information will be kept confidential and stored securely on encrypted servers at the University of Victoria. If you are selected to participate in an interview, this information will be destroyed once we have successfully contacted you. Personal information will be destroyed for participants who are not selected for an interview. If you decide you would like to withdraw from the study, you will have your contact information erased from the servers.
Your contact information will not be shared with the Department of Justice or outside of our research team. However, Survey Monkey servers are located in the United States and as such please be advised that there is a possibility that information about you gathered as part of this research study may be accessed without your knowledge or consent by the US government in compliance with the US Freedom Act.
Participation in this research is voluntary and potential participants are under no obligation to participate. Choosing to participate or not will not affect your ability to access services, standing, or relationships where you might have heard about this study.
If you are not eligible to participate, your contact information will be deleted. All participants, regardless of eligibility, will receive a list of mental health resources that are local to their area. If you experience any negative mental health impacts as a result of your participation, we encourage you to contact these resources. These mental health resources will be low or no barrier and inclusive of LGBTQ2+ communities. You are also able to bring a support person of your choosing with you to your interview if you would like. Support persons will be required to sign a confidentiality agreement to ensure that the information you share in the interview will not be communicated outside of the interview context.
Please note, the research team cannot provide any legal advice and that the researchers are not able to support the research participants with their legal proceedings.
If you have any questions about this research project, please contact CBRC’s Research Manager, Ben Klassen at [email protected].
This study is being led by Nathan Lachowsky (University of Victoria, Community-Based Research Centre), Jody Jollimore (Community-Based Research Centre), Stephanie Booth (Community-Based Research Centre), Valerie Brown (Community-Based Research Centre), Daniel Grace (University of Toronto), Olivier Ferlatte (Université de Montréal), Ben Klassen (Community-Based Research Centre), Rod Knight (University of British Columbia), Travis Salway (Simon Fraser University), Katrina Stephany (Community-Based Research Centre), Alex Wells (Community-Based Research Centre), and Bre Woligroski (Community-Based Research Centre).
