Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you’ve already heard, it’s Pink Shirt Day. We should be all yelling this and bellowing it in the highest of our trumpet voices and saying we need to help join in the fight to help eliminate bullying, all types of bullying, any type of bullying. It’s often a struggle carried alone, as we all know, but it should never be that way. Today many of us wear pink shirts or pink apparel to show our support for this cause.
Today is February 25th, just another day on the calendar for many. But there are others out there. Today is just another day in a long nightmare where they’re struggling with a bully. Bullying affects all our lives. Bullying affects people’s life outlook. It affects their friends. It affects their families. It affects their hopes and certainly affects their dreams. Imagine being one of those bullied, feeling alone, feeling as if the world doesn’t like you, that you’re not worth anything.
But it should never be that way. Everyone can help stop the bullying. Let us not fool ourselves though. It is a struggle to stand up to a bully. That’s why we must do it together and not let people feel alone. That is why we need everyone’s help.
We’ve often heard that there are four main types of bullying, but it doesn’t end there. We’ve heard about verbal bullying, social bullying, physical bullying and certainly cyberbullying. Watching someone being called names or hearing sarcasm or teasing or spreading rumors is terrible. Making one feel inferior about their cultures, their ethnicity, their race, or their religion is terrible. The power is within all of us to help support that person who is getting bullied.
Often bullies don’t know that they are the problem, and that’s why we need to do our work much, much harder. We must redouble our efforts, as they say, and we must find meaningful ways to help those who are being bullied and help to encourage those who are doing it to not do it anymore.
Be the voice of change. Be the friend to someone who has no friend. Let us not let this day go by as just February 25th, another day on the calendar. Let it sink in within all of us and realize that someone out there is being bullied right now, feels alone and has no friend. As I said earlier, let’s be the voice of change. Let’s be the friend when someone has no one.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
