Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I get into my Member’s statement, I would like to thank Minister Moses for giving us the opportunity to attend the presentation in the Great Hall this morning. It was a great experience and I would like to thank the organizers, students, and teachers for coming here to speak about bullying as part of the National Pink Shirt Day. It was fitting to say the least, as today I stand in front of you to speak about bullying. Have you ever been called names? Have you ever had someone make you feel bad about your looks, where you live, or how you live? I totally believe everybody in this room has probably been bullied or been a bully at least once in their life. It's not the best feeling, is it? It makes one feel apprehensive, demeaned, and very uncomfortable. It has the power to destroy lives, mentally, and physically. We all have witnessed it in our lives.
The scary thing is that bullying is not confined to adolescence. It happens in adulthood too. With modern technology, bullying becomes faceless assault, whether it is through texting, Internet, social networking, forums, et cetera. Through my experience, I have seen many types of bullying, whether it was physical, such as is being hit or tripping somebody; verbal, such as name calling, teasing, or putting them down through jokes, and we all have a good laugh about that, but it's not really good at the expense of that person; psychological, stalking or making threats; social, being ignored or spreading rumours; sexual, picking on somebody because of their sexual preferences -- my colleagues spoke about this previously; cyber-bullying, sending cruel or threatening emails.
These are just a few of examples; I know we could add more to the list for sure. I have been very fortunate to be part of a number of amazing programs such as the Canadian Red Cross Beyond the Hurt program. This program supports a school- or organization-based approach to preventing bullying and building empathy and respect. Beyond the Hurt is based on the belief that all youth, those targeted, those who bully, and bystanders, have a critical role in preventing bullying. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to ask for unanimous consent to finish my speech.
---Unanimous consent granted
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The other one is the HIGH FIVE program, with the five principles of healthy child development, being offered by the NWT Recreation and Parks Association. It provides in-depth training in the five principles of healthy child development so front-line leaders understand what they need to do to ensure each child's social, emotional, and cognitive needs are met. There is a great section that deals with bullying. In closing I would like to leave us with this cool acronym I heard today to deal with bullying, WITS: Walk away, Ignore it, Talk about it, Seek help. Later on, I'll have some questions for the Minister of ECE. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
