Supplement to Statistics Canada's Generic Privacy Impact Assessment related to the Canadian Legal Problems Survey (CLPS)

Data from the Canadian Legal Problems Survey seeks to improve our understanding of legal problems encountered by Canadians and the impact on the Canadian population, thus supporting decision-making at all levels of government.

The Department of Justice Canada will analyze the survey results, in aggregate form and without personal identifiers, to assess the possible need for federal government contributions to civil legal aid. The information will also be used to inform and develop programs to address Canadians' legal problems and needs, such as supporting community justice centres, enhancing legal literacy and other people-centred approaches to accessing justice. The aggregate anonymous data will also be available to provincial governments and other legal associations to help, for example, identify ways to communicate or raise awareness of legal aid services, identify the most common problems that groups of the population are facing, and establish programs to help Canadians resolve those problems.

Only individuals 18 years of age and older, living in the provinces, with the exception of institutional residents (people who live in an institutional collective dwelling, such as a hospital, a nursing home or a prison), are eligible to participate in the Canadian Legal Problems Survey. As such, respondents will first be asked to provide their date of birth or age, and their province of residence, in order to establish whether they can take part in the survey.

The demographic data collected, including gender, sexual orientation, Indigenous identity, country of birth, immigration status and related information, citizenship, population group, and education and income, will be used for analysis of subgroups of the population. This data serves to better understand the social determinants of justice. Just as with the social determinants of health, some research has noted that certain characteristics, such as income, age, education, race, geography, influence justice outcomes. For example, it is known that characteristics such as sexual orientation or gender identity can lead to marginalization, discrimination and harassment, but there is a lack of national data on this. Demographic data (in particular race-based) is needed to better understand the impacts of the justice system on Canadians, and to inform change.

The survey data file, with all personal identifiers removed, will be made available to researchers in the Research Data Centres (RDC) upon approval of requests to access the data for statistical research. Statistics Canada's directives and policies on data publication will be followed to ensure the confidentiality of any data released from the RDC. Only aggregate results, which are fully anonymized and non-confidential, without direct personal identifiers, which precludes the possibility of re-identifying individuals, can be released from the RDC. Individual responses will be grouped with those of others when reporting results and results for very small groups will not be published or shared with government departments or agencies. This will also reduce any potential impact on vulnerable populations or subsets of populations, as the grouping of results will protect the confidentiality of individual responses.

A public use microdata file (PUMF) will also be created and made available upon request. The PUMF is a fully anonymized and non-confidential file; survey variables that directly identify respondents are excluded, and variables that might indirectly identify respondents are also examined and modified if necessary to protect the privacy and confidentiality of respondents.

Personal identifiers will be kept separately from the survey data and replaced by a statistical identifier. The data file will be retained as long as required for statistical purposes, in order to conduct long-term analysis.

The survey will be conducted using a self-reported electronic questionnaire. The sample frame for this survey will be developed by Statistics Canada methodologists using administrative files within the Agency, which contain personal information such as name and contact information. The sample frame is created to ensure the Canadian population is represented, whether or not they have encountered serious disputes or problems. This information will be used to contact individuals selected for the survey. Targeting individuals who have encountered serious disputes or problems is not possible as this information is not available within Statistics Canada's data holdings or survey frame. Prior to collection, selected individuals will be sent an invitation letter with details about the survey such as the survey purpose and the protection of confidentiality, as well as a list of legal and mental health resources. The letter will include a unique secure access code for the respondent to access the electronic questionnaire on Statistics Canada's secure survey infrastructure.

Statistics Canada interviewers will conduct follow-up phone calls with people who have not responded after six weeks, to invite them again. This will also provide respondents the opportunity to complete the survey over the telephone with a trained Statistics Canada interviewer.

The collection period will be approximately three months. Statistics Canada will follow all directives and policies for the development, collection, and dissemination of the survey. Survey responses will not be directly attached to respondents' personal identifiers, such as their name, address or phone numbers. The other personal information collected during the survey such as gender, sexual orientation, Indigenous identity, country of birth, immigration status and related information, citizenship, population group, education and income, will be grouped to create statistics for publication of survey results, or to create a public use microdata file (PUMF) in order to ensure anonymity, and used for analysis of sub-populations.

The survey includes a representative sample from the general population (30,000) as well as a sample of Indigenous Peoples divided into smaller sub-groups by Indigenous identity (12,400). The sample size of Indigenous Peoples is necessary to publish national-level estimates for Indigenous Peoples grouped by gender while protecting the privacy and confidentiality of respondents. The total sample size of 42,400 persons has been assessed as the minimum required to ensure that estimates calculated from the collected data are of sufficient quality.

Experts at Statistics Canada and the Department of Justice Canada were consulted on the scope and methodology of the Canadian Legal Problems Survey. Questions from other Statistics Canada surveys have been included and qualitative testing was performed. Five questions on the COVID-19 pandemic have been included in order to assess the impact of the pandemic on serious and not easily resolved disputes or problems encountered by the respondents. For example, the pandemic may have caused serious problems, or delays to procedures, or access to legal services due to closures. This information will also provide context when analyzing the data.

Statistics Canada directives and policies with respect to data collection and publication will be followed to ensure the confidentiality of the data. Individual responses will be grouped with those of others when reporting results. Individual responses and results for very small groups will not be published or shared with government departments or agencies. This will also reduce any potential impact on vulnerable populations or subsets of populations, as the grouping of results will make it difficult to identify responses by individuals within a particular subset of the population.

The benefits of the findings, which will support decision-making at all levels of government, improve knowledge and understanding of legal problems encountered by Canadians and the impact on them, and the steps taken to protect privacy, are proportional to the potential risks to an individual's privacy.

• Data sensitivity:

  Given that information on members of Indigenous Communities will be produced through this survey, experts from Statistics Canada's Centre for Indigenous Statistics and Partnerships (CISP) have been consulted and will continue to be consulted throughout the survey process. They will also review the summary of the survey results prior to their release.

• Ethics:

  Prior to collection, individuals selected to participate in the survey will be clearly informed about the survey topics and that the survey is voluntary. This information is found on the questionnaire or provided by the interviewer before any questions are asked so that people can make an informed decision about whether or not they want to participate. They will also be notified that their data may be linked to immigration data and to other surveys or administrative data sources. If respondents have questions or concerns about such linkages, they will be provided with appropriate contact information at Statistics Canada.

  Since the topic of the survey is sensitive and could lead to distress, resources on mental health and legal help will be made available to the respondents in their invitation letter, on the survey's web page, in the brochure, the electronic questionnaire, and during interviews. Interviewers will be trained on how to administer the questionnaire and respond to questions from respondents. They will be instructed not to provide legal or mental health advice to respondents, but instead direct people to the appropriate legal or mental health experts listed in the survey material.

Currently, there is no other data source that gathers information on how legal problems impact Canadians' lives. The possibility of using crowdsourcing or other survey methodologies was explored. However, based on discussions between justice and methodology experts at Statistics Canada and the Department of Justice Canada, it was determined that a survey with at least 42,400 units was necessary to produce reliable and accurate results by province. Releasing data at these aggregated levels will reduce the potential to identify impacts on vulnerable populations, subsets of populations, and groups, while providing meaningful results.