Have I bullied someone?

A variety of words or actions, including insulting, pushing, slandering, or threatening, by one or more people, may cause someone to feel harassed or bullied. Behaviour that seems insignificant to you may feel like bullying to someone else.

What you should know about bullying:

• People who commit acts of bullying are trying to exert power over someone else or to take advantage of their superiority (physically or based on age or on their social status in a group, etc.) to hurt or humiliate the other (unequal power relationship).
• They act with the intention of hurting or harming the other.
• Their acts have adverse consequences for the person targeted. The person on the receiving end of bullying may feel anxiety, develop low self-esteem, or suffer serious psychological distress.
• In most cases, it is the repetition of actions and words that causes distress to the person targeted. Some serious acts could also be considered acts of bullying without being repetitive in nature.

Whatever your motivation, you are responsible for your behaviour.

Many acts are defined by laws, and some are even considered crimes under the Criminal Code of Canada, such as death threats, threats to cause bodily harm, or the use of violence.

• Fighting Bullying and Violence in the Schools (Ministère de l'Éducation)
• The section What to do if you're bullying others on the Kids Help Phone website
• The section L'intimidation, c'est quoi? (in French) on the Kids Help Phone website

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