Methodology

This project used different methodologies: (1) a review of the social science literature between 2012-2022; (2) a case law review of family law decisions; (3) an online survey; and (4) virtual interviews with professionals (e.g., lawyers, social workers, policy advisors) across Canada who administer and/or provide Voice of the Child programs and services and other ways of hearing directly from children and young people (e.g., parenting assessments, child legal representation, child inclusive mediation, judicial interviews).Footnote 3

The case law reviewFootnote 4 identified a total of 312 family law decisions about VCRs, child legal representation and parenting assessments released between January 2018 to March 2022 across Canada, with the exception of Nunavut, where there were no reported cases. A coding scheme was developed to extract 29 variables to better understand the ways in which children’s participation in court-based family disputes are being heard.Footnote 5

The online survey consisted of approximately 26 open and closed-ended questions, which focused on collecting baseline data about how VCRs and other ways of including children’s views and preferences are used in each jurisdiction. A total of 33 participants, including policy and program government officials and court staff, completed the online survey. Over half of the participants indicated that their professional role was a lawyer (n=17/33; 52%), followed by court staff (n=5/33; 15%). There was representation from across Canada, with the exception of the Yukon, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and New Brunswick.

Virtual interviews were conducted to complement the information obtained from the online survey. The interviews were held with professionals (e.g., lawyers, mental health professionals) who prepare VCRsFootnote 6 across Canada with the exception of the Yukon, Nunavut, and Quebec. Participants were asked to respond to 10 open-ended questions about the processes and procedures in place about VCRs or hearing a child’s views through another service or program as well as the challenges and barriers in hearing directly from children and young people involved in family disputes. A total of 27 participants (24 females and 3 males) were interviewed who had between 6-20+ years of experience in family justice.

All quantitative dataFootnote 7 were downloaded into SPSS (v28) for data analysis. All qualitative analysisFootnote 8 followed a process for identifying, analyzing and reporting qualitative data using thematic analysis.Footnote 9 Key findings are presented below by jurisdiction. The findings summarize the case law, the online survey and interviews to present a broad picture of the processes and procedures used in conducting a VCR and other ways in which children’s voices are heard across Canada.