MPs will debate a private member’s motion today that calls for the developing of a national bullying prevention strategy.
The motion, so soon after teenager Amanda Todd’s apparent suicide after years of torment from bullies, is sure to garner attention, and NDP MP Dany Morin said he hopes that parliamentarians will put partisanship aside and move forward on his proposal.
The first step toward preventing bullying must be to study its prevalence and effects in Canada, Morin said on CTV’s Question Period on Sunday.
Criminalizing cyber-bullying – a suggestion made by B.C. Premier Christy Clarke after Todd’s death – is not the answer, Morin said.
“I was bullied as a teenager. I know first-hand what bullying really is like,” said Morin, the MP for Chicoutimi-Le Fjord. “When the harm has been done, when a kid has been bullied for months, for years, bringing criminal charges to the bully will not solve the problem. The harm has been done. That is why I want the special committee to focus on prevention.”
Todd, 15, was found dead in a Port Coquitlam home Wednesday – five weeks after posting a YouTube video outlining the abuse she endured both online and in person. The video has gone viral. The RCMP has launched an investigation.
“Unfortunately, there’s been a lot of media attention towards my motion due to Amanda Todd’s passing,” Morin said Sunday.
Morin’s motion, M-385, calls for the creation of a 12-member, all-party committee to develop a national bullying prevention strategy.
The committee would identify a range of anti-bullying best practices, spread information to Canadian families, and provide support for organizations that work with young people “to promote positive and safe environments,” according to the motion.
But Allan Hubley, an Ottawa city councillor who lost his bullied son to suicide last year, says more study is not what’s needed right now.
“There is a time for action now instead of another study or anything like that,” Hubley told Question Period.
“The front line resources that will help these kids when they need it most, that moment when they’re about to make that decision, they are underfunded. That is where we need to put our energy and our efforts.”
Morin said he agreed with Hubley but that the first step must be to establish a broad view of the current situation.
On Sunday, interim Liberal leader Bob Rae said on Twitter that he would be thinking of Todd “and so many others” when he spoke to a convention on suicide prevention in Niagara Falls, Ont.
And Kerry-Lynne Findlay, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice, said Saturday that her own teenage daughter has received death threats from other girls over a social networking site.
“We all recognize bullying is a tragedy. It shouldn’t be and doesn’t have to be a part of growing up. It’s not a right of passage,” she told CBC’s The House.
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Comments