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1st Cyberbullying Awareness Day on P.E.I. honours youth who died by suicide [Video]

P.E.I. marked its first Cyberbullying Awareness Day on Thursday, a way to honour a teenager who died by suicide after he became the victim of sextortion.   

April 25 marked the one-year anniversary of the death of 17-year-old Harry Burke, who was from the Souris area. 

Robin Croucher, MLA for Souris-Elmira, proposed the awareness day through a private member’s bill that passed unanimously in the P.E.I. Legislature in March. 

“We need to bring the spotlight to [cyberbullying] so that we can hopefully prevent this from happening in the future,” Croucher said Thursday.

The programs police run in schools aim to help students understand the dangers of cyberbullying, says Sgt. Melissa Craswell with Charlottetown Police Services. (Laura Meader/CBC)

Croucher is a good friend of Burke’s family and said his death highlights the risks of cyberbullying and sextortion. 

“Even though I have three children — [ages] 17, 19 and 21 — I didn’t …

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