Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I can honestly say that I’m very honoured to be standing in this House today, discussing an issue and a matter that’s important to a lot of people in the Northwest Territories; right across Canada, for that matter. This is something that we’re talking about and that legislation is on the floor now. I do hope that we get support from all Members today on something that affects everybody: our friends, our family, our youth, our kids. I feel very strongly about this, that this legislation should be put into place and that we start discouraging the actions of bullies everywhere.

Bullies, as some of the Members have said previous, have issues as well. They have problems that we have to address through this legislation and some of the work that we do. What is the reason? What are the underlying causes that make people bully? Address those issues. It could be home life. It could be community life. We need to help those people out as well. The victim is the victim, but we also have to help some of the people who are put in positions where they are bullies.

It’s kind of unfortunate that we’re bringing the legislation forward now. I feel very sorry for the people that have been hurt because of bullying and because actions from adults and people in society not taking action and standing up for people in our

community. That’s something that we should be doing.

Earlier in my Member’s statement I said we all have a voice. Let’s speak up and talk about this. Let’s make sure things happen so that people in our communities don’t have to hurt anymore.

I’m very honoured to be here today so that we can make this move forward and take action. I hope it doesn’t come down to a private member’s bill, because it shouldn’t. We should take action on this and move on it. I’m very honoured to be standing up in front of the group here and in front of the people of the Northwest Territories in support of this motion.

I’d also like to recognize some of the schools. We had a grade school here today, a class come in and kick-start this off. Because one school did it, hopefully we can start bringing that awareness, that campaign into all schools across the Northwest Territories. It doesn’t have to end at schools. It should go into the workplace. It should go into the work areas and protect the people that work with the bullies in the workplace as well.

I am in support of this motion and I hope that all Members today do support this motion, because like I said, it affects everybody. It affects our families, our youth, our friends, our leaders. Even our leaders. Our leaders get bullied into making decisions when that shouldn’t be the case.

Today when we pass the motion, I hope we do get unanimous consent from everybody.