Debt and Money Owed

One participant from the East Coast and five (20 percent) of the 25 Central Canada participants reported legal issues related to debt and money owed, including collecting money owed or child support, accessing trust funds, and selling property.

The following participant experienced issues with an unemployed partner, with the participant covering the partner’s living costs (rent, utilities, basic necessities). This has proven difficult for the participant, who made this arrangement without accessing any official legal services. The participant noted that he had also found it difficult to stay employed and had agreed to support his partner with the understanding that he would arrange to pay back the money. However, navigating the payment plan became difficult. He explains, “I told him that you need to figure out when you’re going to pay me this back. I know that you now have a job that I helped you get. It doesn’t pay a ton of money. It’s an entry level position with the federal government. But it did take us a while to get to the point like here’s exactly how much you owe me and here’s the time frame that I want to be paid in” (CC#11).

Another participant also experienced difficulty collecting money they were owed. They had lent their friend some money, expecting, as with the previous participant, that the partner would arrange a payment plan. Their friend stopped complying with the payment plan and the participant took them to court. They explain, “So I ended up going to the court system for about $75, which I felt really kind of bad doing, because it really doesn’t seem worth it. And then I ended up settling and I got $30 because the judge was telling me, they’re not going to give this up easily at this point so do you really want me to send it to trial for this amount of money and I was like, no. So the judge sort of asked me what’s the minimum that you would accept as debt repayment? And I said the minimum for what this all started was $35. So he goes okay. Judgment, here you go” (CC#12).

The next participant, from Central Canada, faced issues gaining access to childcare support, and noted that their court case was still ongoing. Their lawyer noted it was the worst case of failing to pay child support payments she had ever seen:

Trying to get child support payments and money owed by my ex-wife for our daughters. My lawyer has the worst case she’s ever had to deal with. We just passed the 3-year mark on separation. I have no idea how much longer it’s going to go. There’s still a huge outstanding chunk of funds owed to me. She is still refusing to pay her portion of expenses (CC#1).

In another case, a Central Canada participant could not access their late mother’s trust fund. They explained that their sister controls the funds and refuses to acknowledge the participant’s sexual orientation, though she is aware of it:

My mother passed away in 2013 and I was basically always at home, and I get a trust fund and my sister is in control of that, since she is older. And I would say yes. We eventually got around to it, but we unfortunately don’t speak because of that. She still maintains power over the trust fund, but I still am receiving it. Yeah. I don’t know if it has anything to do with it. I don’t know if this has anything to do with your study, but I would say my, we’ve never had an argument over me being gay, but I know that she doesn’t like it and she’s never acknowledged it (CC#14).

The next participant, who is separated from his partner, tried to sell their house. His ex-partner tried to take ownership of the participant’s house to sell it, which resulted in a court case and needing to hire lawyers. The participant highlighted what they felt to be weak representation by their lawyer, whom the participant felt was not fully comfortable with their gender identity:

When I finally did find someone, it was because on her webpage she said she was LGBT-friendly. So I took her on, but I found that the quality of her services was not the best so I had some issues with that. And I actually did not completely pay her because I was so dissatisfied with some of the service she provided. And she tried to be a good person, but she didn’t have a lot of trans experience and she also made comments, like very, I don’t know, it may be gendered comments which show a stereotypical bias. So I was challenged with that. I didn’t always feel like I had a representative really 100% supporting me (CC#6).