Today SaskTel announced the kickoff to the second annual I Am Stronger Pink Shirt Day rally. This year's event follows up on the successful rally held in Regina last year with a visit to Evan Hardy Collegiate in Saskatoon. Students will hear from the University of Regina's Dr. Alec Couros, an expert in digital citizenship and literacy, on the impacts of social media and cyber-bullying.

"We're pleased to show our support for Pink Shirt Day through our partnership between the Ministry of Education and SaskTel's I Am Stronger," said the Honourable Gordon Wyant, Deputy Premier and Minister of Education. "I Am Stronger is an important resource to teachers and students that can help raise awareness while empowering them to stand up to bullying. I invite everyone in Saskatchewan to join me in wearing a pink shirt and to treat others with respect and dignity."

Beginning at 11:45 a.m., Evan Hardy's students will be introduced to the complex issues surrounding online bullying, and the ways they can become part of the solution to the problem. Additional sessions will also be held that will further expand on the content of Dr. Couros' presentation ensuring that students gain the most they can out of the Pink Shirt Day rally.

"Our connected world can be a difficult one to navigate," said Dr. Couros. "But by providing students with the knowledge of how it can affect their lives and how they can mitigate the negative impacts of when they or others experience online bullying, we can help them achieve much better outcomes."

Empowering students is one of the core principles of I Am Stronger. And, while community engagement like the Pink Shirt Day Rally at Evan Hardy Collegiate is the focus of a large part of its activities, it also works to take that core focus to the next level through a grant program that allows students to design and implement their own initiatives to help end bullying both online and in our schools.

"With Pink Shirt Day's focus in 2018 being placed on cyber-bullying, our program has never been more aligned with this movement than it is now," said Doug Burnett, Acting SaskTel President and CEO. "As an ICT provider, we recognize the impacts that online bullying has in the offline world, and we are happy that with I Am Stronger's Pink Shirt Day rally, we can work at empowering Saskatchewan youth to help move the bar on this important issue."

In addition to the rally SaskTel is also showing its support for Pink Shirt Day by encouraging all its employees to wear pink shirts as we join together in taking a stand against bullying. Even SaskTel's valued partners are getting in on the act, with friends such as Derek Dennis, former Saskatchewan Roughrider and 2016 CFL Outstanding Offensive Lineman of the Year, The Saskatchewan Rush's Chris Corbeil, and Eliza Mary Doyle of The Dead South all producing Pink Shirt Day videos that began appearing on SaskTel's social media feeds February 21.

About SaskTel

SaskTel is the leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) provider in Saskatchewan, with over $1.2 billion in annual revenue and approximately 1.4 million customer connections including 609,000 wireless accesses, 361,000 wireline network accesses, 279,000 Internet accesses and 112,000 maxTV subscribers. SaskTel and its wholly-owned subsidiaries offer a wide range of ICT products and services including competitive voice, data and Internet services, wireless data services, maxTV services, data centre services, cloud-based services, security monitoring services, advertising services, and international software and consulting services. SaskTel and its wholly-owned subsidiaries have a workforce of approximately 4,000 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs). Visit SaskTel at www.sasktel.com.

About I Am Stronger

SaskTel's I Am Stronger is an initiative designed to stop the activities of bullying and cyber-bullying. The I Am Stronger team accomplishes this through raising awareness and providing education around cyber safety, the effects of bullying, and by supporting youth-led initiatives. In partnership with the Government of Saskatchewan's Ministry of Education, I Am Stronger works to empower young people by providing grants of up to $1,000 to take their ideas to address bullying and cyber-bullying and turn them into positive actions that can influence social change in schools, communities, and online. Visit I Am Stronger at iamstronger.ca.

For more information, please contact:
Tim Jones, SaskTel Manager of External Communications
Phone: 306.777.4548
E-mail: timothy.jones@sasktel.com