Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to echo what we’ve heard a bit here as well. I would like to thank the schools, the teachers, the school administration, parents and the various stakeholders that we had a chance to talk to throughout the Northwest Territories.
Committee found out, as soon as we embarked on this journey, that bullying was more of a personal issue than we anticipated. While we listened and heard many stories and great ideas, in some sense it was a bit of a healing method in itself for some. To that, I want to thank those who opened up to some very deep, buried scars that had been with people for many years. So I think in itself it was a healing journey for committee.
To start off, I just want to take a moment to review the motion that I was able to bring into the House with support from my colleagues that was passed unanimously on February 16, 2012. Although I wish to commend the department for capturing most of it in their attempt to cover most of this bill, there are areas within this motion that I found that were not addressed to its fullest in the draft of the bill. I will just quote here, and it was one of the “and whereas.”
And whereas, the Members of Legislative Assembly which denounce all bullying behaviour in our schools and our society at large.
It’s determined that society at large seems to be not captured as well within the bill. I understand that we
have to start somewhere and that the Education Act was used as a means to commence this product that, as we heard, bullying is a societal issue, and that was loud and clear in our journey.
The other aspect to this was that it recommends the Government of the Northwest Territories establish a territory-wide campaign to denounce bullying, including cyber-bullying, and to provide information and resources for schools, parents, victims and bystanders. Now, there are implied responses within this bill we would assume through territorial code of conduct or through safe schools plan, but nothing explicit. As a result, I would love to see more that answers to that question. I am earmarking that for the department and hopefully they are listening and that, with time, more of a campaign, a more prescriptive campaign of bullying would be coming.
My first reaction when I got this bill was interesting because, as you are well aware, I went public early on and this is one of the first topics as a newly elected Member that I was going to bring forward even as a private member’s bill. I put a lot of effort and research into this before it even became a motion of the House. So I waited 18 months feverishly to find out the reaction. I have to say my first reaction was that this bill was somewhat playing around the edges of bullying. I think I may have said that publicly as well. I always ask myself, when I look at a bill of this magnitude, does it really tip the scales to help the victim. Even after going through everything we did with this bill, I am still not sure if it does. I think we provide some definitions, we provide some framework, but are we tipping the scales to support victims?
One of the other things of my reaction was the 20-day suspension that, as I said earlier, I treat that type of terminology more as a holiday. I can tell you that some of my early diagnoses were echoed by many stakeholders as we talked throughout the communities. Not that it was comforting to hear, but it was nice to see, as a Member, my barometer was working just fine.
Of course, many were hoping for a bill somewhat to the likes of what we have seen in Nova Scotia. We know it’s a far cry from that. We want to make sure that the department, whether it’s Education or Justice, need to continue to strive for stronger aspects of this bill, whether it’s protection orders, torte laws, and hopefully we can get some assurances from the House that something can be done in the near future.
I just want to take a moment to review some of what we’ve heard from stakeholders. Some of this stuff was captured in committee’s report, but I want to make sure some of the things that were not captured that we can share today here. As I said earlier, bullying was a societal issue. We heard that time and time again, so I can’t stress that enough.
The issue of mandatory counselling was viewed upon differently throughout the Northwest Territories, yet the overall feeling is that it would do good, so there was support for that. Many wanted to make sure the definition was easy to understand and to remove all the guesswork both for bullying and cyber-bullying. I believe, as we heard from our chair, that was captured with the amendments, and thank you, Minister, for agreeing.
From the kids’ perspective, they said snitches get it worse. That was a unanimous theme and yet this bill somehow doesn’t protect the people who come forward. I think that’s something that I’m hoping through the safe schools or territorial code we have to keep that in mind.
We heard again that parents need to play a bigger role here. This came out everywhere, yet the bill does not factor this nor is it implied with it in the code of conduct. Some places we heard that fines or financial penalties would not be out of line, and hitting the issue of bullying at the expense of a pocketbook seemed to be well received by some respondents, and I wanted to make sure that made the public as well.
We heard different ways of restorative justice, especially from students. Again, we hope that gets filtered down to the department. However, I want to shed some light that aside from trying to find the root cause of bullying, which I’m very supportive of, I believe there was equal weight given to the punitive aspect of one’s actions. Community service was such an option, as was a sentencing circle, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that many times clear consequences and process must be known and practiced.
It was also mentioned that all the legislation should depict the maximum consequences. Schools should still have some flexibility and some type of tied judgment model or process.
Ironically, in small pockets of the Northwest Territories there appears to be gender-based bullying, which was a surprise, I think, for some Members here, especially amongst girls. The ideas of a girls talking circle seemed to be well received as an option for redirection, and again I’m hoping the department is capturing that.
I guess from the teachers’ perspective, they were wondering how protected were they as teachers. It came up many times in our deliberations, because many teachers and ex-teachers did participate in the stakeholders meeting. Again, the other concern that teachers had was how much time will this take out of my day already. So, clearly, committee heard concerns from teachers being bullied as well. Again, they’re really concerned what tools they’ll have at their disposal. We’ve heard in many circumstances that most schools only have a 0.5 position for councillors. Again, I think we need to take a look at that model.
It is also clear that the department has to really strive to work positively with the NWTTA, all school board authorities and teachers to balance teacher workload and the options to deal with bullying. Many schools already have been addressing the issue of bullying. In fact, just recently Range Lake North School, in my riding, just had a great day dedicated to this topic, yet we’ve seen other schools with little programs. So my hope is that with this bill we don’t eliminate the great programs that were working well in regions, but we need to enhance or standardize those best practice errors that we are seeing.
The issue of a territorial confidential help line came up a number of times, and we think committee captured this in the recommendation; however, I would challenge the department to review this one with the help of technology. That is with almost 70 percent of our territory with 3GB and soon to be almost 100 percent, with the proper app technology, we could, in essence, use smart technology to modernize our unique messaging to our students. Let’s face it, the days of calling in to a switchboard is about as old-fashioned as they come. So I’m sure the department will find the right way to bridge mechanisms and bring the message home to the students in a way that they’ll receive it.
In conclusion, I think these are great first steps that the department has brought forward. I know there’s been a lot of time and energy from many people who brought this draft forward. On an equal footnote, there’s been a lot of equal work done by the committee, from Clerk’s staff to bring that report forward. As you heard from our chair, this is the first time I think in legislative history in the Northwest Territories we took a bill on the road to the schools and had the schools’ and the kids’ input on effects. I think that should echo loud and clear, the fact that the committee did a very thorough analysis in preparation for today. I want to commend the Standing Committee on Social Programs for thinking outside the box, and I hope that’s the tone for future bills to come.
Madam Chair, we know this is not the end; this is the beginning to bullying and denouncing of bullying. I’m strongly looking forward to seeing future amendments or future legislation to help stop and curb one of our worst traits as a human being. Thank you.