Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It used to be that bullying was seen as a normal part of growing up. Kids who were bullied just needed to learn to stick up for themselves. Fortunately, our thinking has changed and we’ve become aware of how much bullying really does hurt. Even as adults, many people still carry emotional scars from what used to be thought of as just the ordinary rough and tumble of the schoolyard.
At its most basic, bullying is when someone keeps saying or doing things to have power over another person. It can take the form of name calling, threats, leaving a person out of activities, stealing or breaking their things, posting mean comments on Facebook or Twitter, or other tactics aimed at making a person feel scared or uncomfortable. It can also escalate into physical violence or even murder, as we’ve seen in a few high-profile cases in Canada.
The victims of bullying can feel lonely, unhappy, frightened and unsafe in their schools and communities. They may be sick from the stress. They may lose confidence in themselves. Or they may not want to go to school anymore.
I cannot tell you how sad it makes me that some young people have resorted to suicide because they saw this as their only escape from bullying. This is not something to be taken lightly.
As I understand it, we do not have a territory-wide policy on bullying, but leave it to individual schools to establish their own ways of handling it. I have heard some disturbing stories from concerned parents and I am not convinced that the approach we have now goes far enough to protect our youth. I want to be sure that we are taking this matter very seriously, that we are keeping up with the absolute best practices, policies and legislative tools available, and that we are sending a clear and consistent message: Bullying hurts and we will not tolerate it.
On a personal note, and judging by the statistics that we read in a CBC report today, I’m sure there are other people in this room that were bullied as a child. I was bullied as a child and I will briefly share the story of going to a girlfriend’s house to stay overnight and her parents came home drunk. I got very scared and I wanted to go home to the security of my own home where I’d never seen drunk people or I’d never seen alcohol. My dad had to come pick me up. Well, that girl whose father came home drunk was so offended that she made it her life’s career after that to make my life miserable in school. I didn’t like school very much to start with and I sure didn’t like it after that.
It does leave scars and it does change the way you interact with people. I will say one interesting thing…
I would like to seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Thank you.
---Unanimous consent granted