Experts embrace Ontario anti-bullying law, call for national strategy

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TORONTO – Some of Canada’s leading experts on bullying are calling for a national strategy to address the issue, which they say is a public health problem because of its prevalence.
    
According a study done collaboratively with the World Health Organization, 17 per cent of 11-year-old girls in Canada report being bullied at least twice in the past few months.
    
In Sweden, where a national bullying policy is in place, only 4 per cent of 11-year-old girls report being bullied.
    
At a conference in Toronto, experts say they embrace Ontario’s new anti-bullying law aimed at schools, but say it remains to be seen how the policy will be enacted.
    
Professor Wendy Craig of Queen’s University says Canada needs to do better at bridging the gap between policy and practice.
    
Craig says adults working in schools should be given more resources and knowledge to help them identify bullying and properly intervene.
    
She also says schools need to use evidence-based anti-bullying approaches that are connected into the community, because bullying can take place outside of school, as well.
  

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