Mr. Speaker, today is pink shirt day in B.C. It commemorates an event in Nova Scotia, where a student was bullied for wearing a pink shirt. Fellow students wore pink shirts in support, and thus began a potent act of peaceful defiance.
There will be events across B.C. today. Firefighters wearing pink shirts will sell them to raise funds for boys and girls clubs, B.C. Place will be lit up with 6,000 pink LED lights and Vancouver's anti-bullying punk band Childsplay will perform.
Businesses, schools, media, athletes and celebrities will bring awareness to adults and youth that bullying can cause irreparable harm.
Trans and gay bullying is on the rise, as is the resulting suicide rate. The justice committee will hold final hearings today on my bill to make cyberbullies accountable, but it is only one small part of the action that we as parliamentarians must take to develop an anti-bullying strategy with education, prevention, accountability and rehabilitative components.
If people have a pink shirt, they should wear it as a quiet act of solidarity and defiance against bullies.