Port Coquitlam on Tuesday became the first municipality in the western Canadian province of British Columbia to impose an anti-bullying bylaw. The bylaw prohibits consensual fighting in public places and bullying, be it physical, written or electronic. Offenders will be fined between 100 Canadian dollars (100.57 U.S. dollars) and 2,000 Canadian dollars, depending on how long they take to pay. The measure, based on an existing bylaw in Regina, Saskatchewan, defines bullying as \"objectionable comment, conduct or display directed at an individual\" that intends to humiliate, ridicule or isolate, and likely to cause physical or emotional distress. Greg Moore, the mayor of Port Coquitlam, a city of 56,000 population about 30 km east of Vancouver, said it was clear bullying had to stop as his small community experienced four teen suicides last year alone. Speaking at the launch of the Be Someone anti-bullying campaign at a local high school, he emphasized the bylaw is also designed to help offenders realize the consequences of their actions by taking an anti-bullying education program. Once the voluntary program is completed, any outstanding fines will be forgiven. \"The goal isn\'t for the local government to make a couple of hundred bucks here and there, the goal is to help the youth and give them the support and the care that they need, because I really do think that bullies they need some help. We can\'t just cast them aside,\" Moore said. \"We also need to demonstrate to them that the bullying that they are doing now has long-term effects. You know 20, 30, 40 years down the road, someone that was bullied in high school still will be holding on to that and they need to realize that it\'s just not what they do at that moment and it\'s gone, that it\'s there forever.\" Under the Be Somebody program, a collaboration between businesses, schools, police, youth groups and others, the initiative includes a community awareness campaign, online resources for victims and bullies who want assistance to change, education for parents to recognize the signs of bullying and a fundraising event. A mobile phone text message platform is also currently in development to provide students with a quick way to report bullying or to seek help or counseling. Gary Mauris, a local financier who founded the program, warned parents that bullying had changed dramatically from their generation. Then, bullying typically ended at the conclusion of a school day when a child could go back to the safety of his home; now, it was endless with the advent of anonymous cyberbullies. He added all the tools created for the program were now being offered to other communities across Canada for free to encourage them to start their own anti-bullying programs. \"We want to make it cool to make it unacceptable to watch somebody else say something nasty or bully someone,\" Mauris said, \"If we can get that kind of power behind us as a school district, as a community, as a nation, when we can drive that message home that it is not cool to turn a blind eye and have someone being bullied, I think we can make a massive difference.\" The Be Someone program was created over the past month following the Oct. 10 death of Amanda Todd. The 15-year-old Port Coquitlam resident killed herself following years of bullying. As a 12-year-old, she had made the mistake of flashing her breasts on a web camera. The torment of the incident would follow her for the rest of her short life as she was bullied both physically and mentally. Her plight was highlighted by a homemade video she posted online weeks prior to her death detailing her misery and how she had been bullied, saying nothing but letting only handwritten flashcards tell her story. Following her suicide, the video went viral and has been seen by a reported 20 million viewers. Launching the program on what would have been Todd\'s 16th birthday, her mother Carol told the audience she hoped her daughter\'s death was not in vain and hopefully it would help others. \"I\'m so proud to be here with all these people in sharing this news with the world today, because I really think we can make a difference in our community and across Canada, and maybe we\'ll go globally,\" said Todd, a Canadian of Chinese descent. \"My daughter\'s video reached 20 million viewers and if we can get the message out to beyond our little scope of life here, it will only help and it can only make a better world.\"