Todd Loik with his mother.
In a tragic coincidence, on 9 September 2013 as the Federal Government of Canada was announcing plans to introduce cyberbullying legislation, Todd Loik committed suicide. His mother said “It was non-stop taunting” from about two years ago, with posts on Facebook– “nastiness,” she said.
This past Wednesday, 20 November 2013, the Federal Government introduced Bill C-13, legislation to criminalize certain actions that have been at the base of some of the more tragic cyberbullying cases in Canada. It is not a Cyberbullying Bill per se but can be seen as a preventive measure (see Bill C-13, An Act to Amend the Criminal Code).
Cyberbullying legislation was proposed in the past by various parties at the Federal level but nothing has been approved. See for example, Bill C-273 (2011) and Bill M-385 (2012).
This latest measure, Bill C-13, seems to have support of all parties. It is based on the FPT meeting of October 2012 This resulted in the Cyberbullying and Non-Consensual Distribution of Intimate Images report, released in June 2013.
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