Serious Legal Problems faced by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Other Sexual-Minority People in Western Canada: A Qualitative Study

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Appendix B: Individual Interview Consent Agreement

You are being invited to participate in a research study, entitled “A Qualitative Look at Serious Legal Problems – LGBTQ2+ People in Western Canada.” Please read this consent form so that you understand what your participation will involve. Before you consent to participate, please ask any questions to be sure you understand what your participation will involve.

A Qualitative Look at Serious Legal Problems: LGBTQ2+ People in Western Canada

Investigators

Nathan Lachowsky (University of Victoria, Community-Based Research Centre), Jody Jollimore (Community-Based Research Centre), Daniel Grace (University of Toronto), Olivier Ferlatte (Université de Montréal), Rod Knight (University of British Columbia), Travis Salway (Simon Fraser University).

Purpose of the Study

You are being asked 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, bisexual, trans, queer, and Two-Spirit (LGBTQ2+) people in Canada today. This study is funded by the Department of Justice, Government of Canada.

Study Procedure

If you agree to participate in this study, you will be asked to take part in an interview either over the phone or using the internet service Zoom. The interview will take approximately 1.5 hours and will be conducted by a trained peer research team member. In the interview, you will be asked to share your personal experiences of serious legal challenges and barriers to accessing justice in Canada over the last three years. The interview will be audio-recorded and transcribed by research staff.

Eligibility

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.

Risks and Benefits

There are limited risks associated with this study. However, we acknowledge that recounting experiences of legal problems, including violence or discrimination, can be emotionally difficult. If our discussion brings up any emotional or traumatic experiences, we will provide a list of mental health services that you are encouraged to access for support. If you have negative reactions to any questions, you may choose not to answer a question. You may also choose to discontinue and withdraw from the study at any time without penalty. Your participation or lack thereof in this study will in no way affect any services that you might receive now or in the future from any organization.

For the interviews, we will be using a program called Zoom that may store data in the US. As such, there is a possibility that information about you may be accessed without your knowledge or consent by the US government in compliance with the US Freedom Act. There are a few things you can do to help protect your information, including:

1. using only a nickname, substitute name, or a name that feels more comfortable for you;
2. turning off your camera;
3. muting your microphone when you are not talking.

Along with this consent form, you will find a resource list for local mental health resources that are low-cost or free. If you experience any negative feelings or thoughts as a product of participating in this study, we encourage you to reach out to these resources for support. The person who will be conducting the interview will also check in with you at the end of your interview and will remind you of this resource list if appropriate. 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.

A potential benefit of your participation is that the experiences you share may be used by the Department of Justice to shape and improve legal policy impacting LGBTQ2+ communities and people in the future.

Incentive for Participation:

You will be compensated $50 cash for your participation. Compensation ($50) will still be provided if you choose to withdraw, and you may decide if any input you provided in the interview up until your withdrawal shall be used. The honorarium will be provided to you in the form of an e-transfer to the email address that you used when you signed up for the study. If you would prefer to have a cheque mailed to you instead of an e-transfer, please let us know.

Participant Rights

You are free to withdraw at any time from this project without any penalty or prejudice. In addition, you are under no obligation to reveal identifying information. Compensation ($50) will still be provided if you choose to withdraw, and you may decide if any input you provided in the interview up until your withdrawal will be used. You can also request to have something specific you said excluded from the transcription by telling the interviewer, who will make note of this. Following transcription and anonymization, you will be given an opportunity to review and approve a final transcript for use.

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.

Please note, the research team cannot provide any legal advice and the researchers are not able to support the research participants with their legal proceedings.

Confidentiality

Interview data will be stored on an encrypted server at the University of Victoria and consent forms will be stored separately in a locked filing cabinet. Data will be transferred to study team members at other universities via Sync and stored solely on secure university servers. Only our study team and will have access to the data. All interview recordings will be deleted following transcription and transcripts will be anonymized prior to analysis. All identifying information will be removed. All data collected, including transcriptions, will be deleted in its entirety seven years after the completion of the study.

You may use pseudonyms and avoid sharing identifying information (e.g., place of birth) if you wish to further minimize the risk of identification. We ask that you do not share the names or identifying information of people who have not agreed to participate in this study.

Confidentiality will be protected within the limits of the law. In accordance with the Wigmore Criteria (http://www.sfu.ca/~palys/Wigmore.html), the privacy of participant data precedes any responsibility to report or discuss these activities to state authorities in principle. However, if you are under the age of 18 (19 in some jurisdictions) and disclose experiences of abuse or neglect, or if the research team suspects abuse or neglect, the research team has a duty to report these interactions to the child protective services in your region. Additionally, there may be rare circumstances where we are unable to protect confidential research materials, for example, if these materials are under subpoena and/or are forcibly seized by the police. In order to mitigate this risk, recordings will be deleted upon transcription, transcripts will be fully anonymized, and we will destroy all participant contact information upon completion of the interview and receipt of honoraria.

The results will be shared with academic, governmental, and community audiences. Quotes from participants in the interviews may be included in conference presentations, journal articles, teaching materials, community events, and summaries or reports provided to the Department of Justice. Additionally, results from the study will be available to participants in the form of a short community report that will summarize our main findings, which will be available on the CBRC website and through partner organizations. We will also conduct a public webinar where our findings will be shared and additional input from LGBTQ2+ communities will be sought. Results will also be shared at community-oriented conferences and events, such as CBRC’s annual Health Summit. Finally, we will leverage our experience in intervention development to produce a toolkit for LGBTQ2+ people that will succinctly highlight the common legal challenges and barriers to justice faced by our participants, along with a compilation of resources for legal resolutions to such challenges. All quotes presented in our results will be selected to ensure participants are non-identifiable.

Finally, the researchers will at all times comply with the Tri-Council ethical guidelines for research with human participants.

Questions About the Research?

If you have questions about the research in general, about your role in the study, would like to share your experience with the study, or would like to share concerns about the study please contact:

This research has been reviewed by the University of Victoria’s Research Ethics Board and conforms to the standards of the Canadian Tri-Council Research Ethics guidelines. In addition, you may verify the ethical approval of this study, or raise any concerns you might have, by contacting the Human Research Ethics Office at the University of Victoria (250-472-4545 or ethics@uvic.ca).

Verbal Consent provided via phone (and indicated by the interviewer):

I understand these are voluntary procedures and that I am free to withdraw at any time by contacting the Principal Investigator. I understand that confidentiality will be respected

Interviewer Name & Signature: _______________________ _______________________

Date: _______________________

Time: _______/hh _______/mm

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