Eby says Tumbler Ridge shooting could have potentially been prevented if OpenAI warned authorities earlier
CBC
B.C. Premier David Eby called on OpenAI to share information on what it knew about the Tumbler Ridge shooter’s violent online activity, and why the U.S.-based company did not alert authorities prior to one of the worst shootings in Canadian history.
This comes in response to the revelation that OpenAI knew — but did not inform Canadian officials — that the teenager who committed the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge had been banned from its ChatGPT platform for months prior to the shooting.
“From the outside, it looks like OpenAI had the opportunity to prevent this tragedy, to prevent this horrific loss of life, to prevent there from being dead children in British Columbia,” he said on Monday.
“I’m angry about that, I’m trying hard not to rush to judgment," Eby said.
"I am trying to figure out how it could be possible that a large group of staff within an organization could bring this kind of information forward and ask that police be called and a decision be made not to do that."The information that OpenAI staff had internally raised concerns about the account's activity was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
While OpenAI confirmed to CBC News it did not report the account to police before the shooting, CBC News has not independently verified the details about internal conversations within the company.
If the American company does not come forward with the information, which it has shared with the RCMP, Eby said that British Columbians will find out anyway — either through a coroner’s inquest or a public inquiry.
Eby also urged the federal government to create a national standard for when AI companies must report users plotting violence on their platforms.
“It will have to be done carefully, but ensuring a consistent standard for all AI companies across the country is required,” he said.
OpenAI representatives met with B.C. Minister of State for AI Rick Glumac on the early afternoon of Feb. 10 — the same day that RCMP say Jesse Van Rootselaar killed eight people in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., including five children and an education assistant at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, and then killed herself.
The next morning, on Feb. 11, RCMP identified the shooter as Van Rootselaar.
Then, at 2 p.m. PT, OpenAI met with a representative from the premier’s office to discuss the company’s interest in opening an office in B.C., Eby said.
OpenAI did not mention at any point to government officials what it had known for months: that it had banned the teenager who would go on to commit the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge from its platform following activity in June 2025, due to what OpenAI said in a statement amounted to “misuses of our models in furtherance of violent activities.”
On Feb. 12, OpenAI asked Eby’s office for the RCMP’s contact information.
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