Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, March 01, 2012

Bullying should be a crime: poll

A majority of Canadians believe bullying should be considered a crime, according to an Angus Reid poll released Wednesday, Pink Shirt Day. The poll revealed 65 per cent of respondents believe bullying should be regarded as a criminal activity, even if no physical violence is involved.

Respondents in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces were more likely to identify bullying as a criminal act, with support reaching 78 per cent. In Alberta, 58 per cent of respondents agreed bullying should be a crime.

B.C. had the lowest level of support among all provinces, at 55 per cent. About 20 per cent of Canadians believe bullying should be deemed a crime only when there is physical violence, while six per cent believe bullying is not a crime.

The vast majority of Canadians - 90 per cent - were in favour of a cyber-bullying law similar to one proposed in the United States that would make it a crime to bully some-one online.

According to the anti-bullying Pink Shirt Day campaign website, a child is bullied in Canada every seven seconds. Pink Shirt Day is a nationwide campaign in which young people don pink shirts to send an anti-bullying message. It began in September 2007 at a high school in Cambridge, N.S., when a Grade 9 student was bullied because he wore a pink shirt. The Angus Reid poll was conducted online Feb. 14-15. It involved 1,006 respondents and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 per cent 19 times out of 20.

Original Article
Source: edmonton journal
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