Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First off I’d like to thank Mr. Dolynny for bringing this motion forward. I appreciate the initiative and certainly the enthusiasm from our new Member for Range Lake. He’s already starting to have a defining impact on the 17th Assembly. This is a clear example of his
efforts. At the same time I’d like to recognize Mr. Yakeleya for supporting this, because it takes grassroots territorial support to bring an initiative like this forward.
Undoubtedly, anti-bullying, or I should say bullying efforts and countering them go from one tip of the territory to the next. It’s not just a large community issue; it’s also a small community issue. It’s a community issue. It’s everyone.
The statement made here by many of the Members in their Members’ statements should have brought forward the passion and concern that many of our constituents suffer from. It’s hard to deny that when somebody’s being bullied about, you cannot see or in many cases you probably can’t erase the irreparable impact that’s had on their lives and how it’s changed them.
The fact is that in my Member’s statement I tried to highlight Mildred Hall, which is a school in the downtown. I consider what an amazing little school it is. It’s certainly the little school that could and it’s certainly the little school that can. It’s a school that uses a lot of their efforts to focus in on what’s the best they can do for their children. Those students
there every day preach responsibility, respect and a safe environment. I think that’s something that’s very impressive. The students, you can feel it resonate how they respect each other, they respect authority, they respect their friends, they respect who they are themselves. Out of that builds self-esteem, as I talked about earlier today.
Just on the self-esteem note, as I said in my Member’s statement and even in my dialogue with some folks in Mildred Hall, they talked about identifying that sometimes it’s a self-esteem issue with the bully, that they actually have to narrow it down to say how do we stop this particular problem. They say, well, wait a minute, the bully not only is the problem per se, but the bully has a problem themselves. When they drill down, sometimes they find that that’s the person that needs the support and that’s how they’re reacting. If they want to help break the cycle, they’re spending that type of time and effort to make sure they get to know these folks and understand the problem from the full gamut, not just what brought us to the last part, but all the way back and say how can we make a difference. I want to applaud Mildred Hall. I want to applaud YK1. I want to applaud YK1’s partners with YCS and the RCMP, who send their community liaison officer over there to work with them.
Sometimes they’re not as simple as just talking to a student. Sometimes they’re not as simple as talking to a parent. These are troubling problems. I’d be surprised if one of us here has not been touched in the sense of a tragedy that’s happened out of a bullying effort. I’m not talking about someone who’s been ashamed by the colour of their clothes or the colour of their skin or even the language they speak.
I can speak and remember growing up in Akaitcho Hall, in particular – and I thank Mrs. Groenewegen, I’ll say, for sharing that personal story – I remember someone who, quite frankly… We would not speak the word “gay” in our time in the ‘80s at Akaitcho. There was a young man there and he was gay. He hid from everyone because they bullied him there. It was horrible. He came from a well-to-do family. The fact is, no one stood up for him, and years back, from this point I should say, as I look back years ago and I think what a shame that no one stood up for him. It’s one of those horrible stories. I wish we could end with it all worked out fine. But he disappeared; he didn’t come back the following year. The next time we heard about him we heard that he threw himself down a garbage disposal in some apartment building unit because he just couldn’t take it anymore. That story just always reminds me about… It bothers me now just talking about it. It always reminds me that the bully isn’t just the person doing the punches and the words. The bully isn’t the person doing all those hateful things. Sometimes the crowd, by doing nothing, becomes part of the problem. I’m sorry I brought
that up, Mr. Speaker. It’s statements like this that we think about it.
This motion today, I often call them creative suggestions, but I certainly hope it resonates with this particular government. As I said earlier, I want to thank Mr. Dolynny for bringing this forward, and I’m convinced that if this government doesn’t act, I suspect that in somewhere between six and 12 months Mr. Dolynny will be working out his own private member’s bill to bring forward this initiative.
This initiative here supports our school systems. Let us not forget that. Right now many of our good school systems do have supporting policies that work very hard to work with the students and parents in the community. I can tell you they need support of good legislation that helps them when they need to do their job. This is more than just a motion today. This is telling our schools, and teachers, and administration in those districts that we care and we support them.
If it isn’t evident by now, I’ll be voting in favour of this particular motion because I feel that it is very important. As a parent, I’ll tell you that nothing is sadder than when your kid comes home and talks about being bullied. I’ll tell you, this motion means a lot to many of us in many different ways and I’ve shared them today.