There are various ways bullies injure or harm their victims.  The following is a brief summary for information purposes:

Various Torts (torts are wrongful or harmful acts)

 

1.    Battery: when one person intentionally touches another person with their body or an object, without consent (punching, slapping, kicking, hitting someone with a stick etc..).

 

2.    Assault:  the intentional creation in another person of a reasonable apprehension of imminent harm or offensive contact (in other words, the apprehension of imminent battery) (yelling – I’m going to hit you, I will kill you, etc…

 

3.    False Imprisonment: the intentional confinement of another person within fixed boundaries without lawful justification (holding someone in a room, with only one exit and refusing to let them out).

 

4.    Defamation: Libel and slander are the two forms of defamation: slander is when some uses spoken words or gestures and libel involves more permanent statements such as those done in writing. Social media bullying for instance can in many cases be considered a form of libel. Defamation involves libel or slander to injure someone’s reputation in the community.

 

5.    Intentional infliction of mental suffering: this involves the performance of an act or the making of statements (likely false statements) that is calculated to cause mental anguish to another.

 

6.    Invasion of privacy: the dissemination of private information or documents about another without lawful justification.

 

These are the general principles I use as an Ottawa lawyer when assessing the claims victims have against bullies.

 

With respect to school boards, the claims usually advanced are breaches of the school board’s obligations under the Education Act such as lack of supervision and failing to take preventative actions or reasonable steps to identify and stop the bullying. In general, claims against school boards also lie in negligence. Here, a victim would allege that the school board owed them a duty of care to protect them as a student, that the school board breached that duty and that the breach of the duty caused them to suffer harm. There are many intricacies in negligence claims, but the above is a general summary.

If you or someone you know is the subject of bullying, contact us to know your rights. You don’t have to suffer alone.

Marc Quinn

Ottawa anti-bullying lawyer

613-315-4878