Canadian Legal Approaches to 'Cyberbullying' and Cyberviolence: An Overview

Abstract

As early as the mid 1990s Canadian economic and social policy prioritized getting young people connected to what was then referred to as the "information super highway". By the late 1990s policy discourse had expanded to include the negative consequences of connectivity, including technologically facilitated harassment and violence, frequently referred to as "cyberbullying". This overview canvasses the legal responses that have followed at the national, provincial and territorial level, including human rights, education, civil, administrative/regulatory and criminal law responses. It concludes that the complexity of the issues, as well as the underlying equality issues that are often at stake, necessitate a multi-pronged approach more heavily weighted in favour of human rights and educational responses.