CFJR conducts rigorous, community-grounded research on the families that Canadian family law has historically failed to see. Our programs span longitudinal ethnography, community-engaged research, and legal analysis.
Seven years of ethnographic fieldwork documenting how 64 Canadian polyamorous families navigate institutional exclusion, build resilience strategies, and adapt in the absence of legal recognition.
View project →Exploring how non-monogamous families in Canada and the United States structure their relationships in response to legal liminality — and what this reveals about the limits of current family law.
View project →A community-engaged research study documenting chosen family practices among 2SLGBTQIA+ Canadians and the legal recognition these kinship structures require. Now actively recruiting participants.
View project →A demographic data series exploring the contemporary characteristics of polyamorous and non-monogamous families across Canada and the United States. New snapshots published periodically.
View project →Research questions, methods, and outputs are developed in genuine dialogue with the communities most affected by the issues under study. At CFJR, participants are not subjects — they are collaborators in the production of knowledge that concerns them directly.
No single method is applied uniformly across projects. CFJR selects and adapts its methodological approach in response to the specific research question, community context, and policy environment at hand — drawing on qualitative, ethnographic, and legal analytical traditions as the work requires.
Findings are analysed to the standards that academic and legal scrutiny demand, then translated into outputs that are usable beyond the academy — by practitioners, policymakers, and the communities whose lives the research describes.
The Chosen study is currently recruiting 2SLGBTQIA+ community members and legal practitioners across Canada. All research activity aligns with the ethical practices and principles of the Tri-Council Policy Statement — TCPS-2. Participation is fully confidential.