Cyberbullying in Nova Scotia

~ Clarissa

Nova Scotia is a province in Canada that is plagued by very serious problems. The economy is barely functioning, and the standard of living is nothing like what you see in Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia. The formerly great universities of the province are in decline, and the young people find that fleeing Nova Scotia for less problematic areas of Canada or the US makes a lot of sense. I have relatives living there, so I’m very familiar with the challenges the province is facing.

Of course, whenever a region starts to suffer economically, academically, culturally, and politically, its authorities begin to take measures to prevent people from noticing that the region sucks. This is precisely what is happening in Nova Scotia. The province has introduced a new bill aimed at fighting cyber-bullying that is worded in a way which makes anybody who ever wrote absolutely anything online a potential criminal:

The definition of cyberbullying, in this particular bill, includes “any electronic communication” that ”ought reasonably be expected” to “humiliate” another person, or harm their “emotional well-being, self-esteem or reputation.”

So many people feel abused and traumatized by people having opinions that differ from theirs that nobody will be immune from such accusations by those who troll the Internet looking for reasons to feel aggravated.

As the article’s author points out, the bill is doomed from the start:

Nova Scotia’s Cyber Safety Act is in clear conflict with our Charter rights to free expression, and I can’t imagine it withstanding a legal challenge on those grounds.

In the meanwhile, however, it will do what it was supposed to do from the start: distract everybody from the real issues that the province is facing.

Thank you, Titfortat, for bringing here this link.

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Published by Clarissa

18 thoughts on “Cyberbullying in Nova Scotia”

  1. The bill looks unenforceable and incredibly stupid, even by standards of do gooder legilslation.

    But… unless everything I thought I knew about Canada is wrong, the martitime provinces have been the poorest part of Canada and exporting their young and ambitious west and southward since….. forever, as chronicled in the Canadian national anthem

    (I only know the song from this moving tale of maritime emigration gone wrong)

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        1. Instead of concentrating on rape, this girl’s parents seem fixated on the emails. I have a feeling they cared a lot more about her “reputation” than about anything else which is why she probably killed herself.

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    2. Never join a politically correct movement if you have the wrong identity to start with. Your identity will never be redeemed. You will be accused of sorcery.

      I consider Western culture to be a politically correct movement that I, for one, will not join. I’m not kidding, but people always do get around to accusing me of trickery or deception or not being of good character. The real issue is not related to my character, though, but my identity.

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