The tragic suicide of Port Coquitlam, B.C., teenager Amanda Todd in October stoked a moral panic over the scourge of bullying. While some educational laws have been toughened to encouraging stricter punishment for taunting and aggression, it hasn
The tragic suicide of Port Coquitlam, B.C., teenager Amanda Todd in October stoked a moral panic over the scourge of bullying. While some educational laws have been toughened to encouraging stricter punishment for taunting and aggression, it hasn’t stopped there: Municipalities are following suit, with anti-bullying bylaws that can lead to fines and even jail time for both adults and children.
Hanna, Alta., a small town two hours east of Calgary enacted an anti-bullying bylaw in October. Mayor Mark Nikota says the bylaw defines bullying as physical and verbal harassment, real or threatened, taunting, emotional abuse, extortion and social outcasting. The Post’s Jen Gerson spoke with Mr. Nikota about the town’s experience so far. The following transcript has been edited for length.
Q: Why did you think that a bullying bylaw was a good idea? How did this come to pass?
A: The local RCMP detachment approached us and said they were having a bullying issue — any town has a bullying issue — but they needed a mechanism to deal with the situation before it escalated into a criminal code offence.Basically a criminal code offence is when violence or something else physical has happened. Short of that, all they could do if approached with an incident is go talk to the person. But they felt that wasn’t very effective.
Q: Tell me a little about this bylaw. What exactly does it penalize?
A: Harassment situations, abuse situations, things that escalate out of control. It’s not in place, as I’ve seen some