Alissa Fingold

The issue of cyber-bullying has increasingly become the subject of media attention, particularly after the recent suicide of 15-year-old Jamie Hubley. Hubley’s parents attribute his death to cyber-bullying targeting his sexual orientation. On Oct. 21, the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association released a study that revealed that almost 70 per cent of students and 84 per cent of parents request that schools would take action, even if cyber-bullying occurs outside of school hours.

According to Dr. Shaheen Shariff, an associate professor in McGill’s department of education and the director of Define the Line, an anti-cyber-bullying organization, the issue affects McGill students.  Shariff noted that currently, the administration can only get involved in cases of cyber-bullying if students are being harassed in residence or if the bullying is negatively affecting a student’s classroom experience. However, the administration is taking steps to prevent cyber-bullying.

“We’re developing some workshops with [the] senior administration that will probably, next year, be offered to students and faculty and people in residences,” Shariff said. “We’re getting more and more complaints; enough that we need to do something about it.”

Presently, McGill may not be prepared to deal with an emergency. A representative from McGill’s Mental Health Services said that they have not yet dealt with cases of cyber-bullying. Similarly, Ted Baker from the McGill Counselling Service responded that none of its staff “has any expertise or experience with cyber-bullying.” Shariff recommends making professors aware of any cyber-bullying or talking with the Dean of Students and looking for counseling when appropriate.

“I think that they really need to make someone aware – they need to talk to someone they trust that will handle the issues sensitively and not get them in worse trouble with their perpetrators,” Shariff said. “Get support. That’s the first thing; don’t try to deal with it yourself and not tell anyone because that’s when it ends up like the boy who committed suicide.”

Due to the relative novelty of this kind of bullying, education students might not be learning the proper skills to deal with cyber-bullying if it occurs to students in their classrooms. Although Shariff says she includes anti-cyber-bullying modules  in her courses, the topic is not currently in the departmental curriculum.

Cyber-bullying has become a large enough problem that the Canadian government is responding, both at the provincial and national level, Shariff explained.

“A lot of bullying and cyber-bullying is homophobic, and students are picked on even if they’re not gay,” she said, “so the Quebec ministry has just announced that they’ve put in $8 million to reduce homophobic harassment.”

Shariff also noted the need for collaboration in funding for research on legal responses to cyber-bullying.

“Now the federal government [has] brought in their legislation on victim safety, but it causes problems because they want to change the criminal code to include cyber-bullying as a criminal offense. So you know, are we going to jail a little kid?” she asked. “But it’s also important for universities, for students here to know what they could get themselves [into], you know, if they do engage in something that ends up being considered a criminal offense.”