OpenAI challenging B.C. privacy order for details of Tumbler Ridge shooting

VICTORIA — The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia says artificial intelligence company OpenAI is challenging an order to produce documents related to the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge.

A statement from the independent agency says the California-based company has filed for judicial review in B.C. Supreme Court, challenging the privacy office’s request for certain documents as part of an ongoing investigation.

The office says it originally asked OpenAI to provide information about its “policies, practices, and the specific interactions that its applications had” with Tumbler Ridge shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar last February after media reports linked the firm’s ChatGPT platform with the killings that month.

It says the company did not comply and the privacy office launched an investigation in June, followed by an order compelling the production of the information last September, which the tech company is now challenging.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The privacy office says its probe is focused on the use of personal information, such as details in uploaded content or interactions with other ChatGPT users in the chatbot’s responses, and whether it would be considered appropriate under the circumstances, “including the potential for responses to influence behaviour.”

Van Rootselaar killed eight people last Feb. 10, including five students and an educational assistant at the local secondary school before she fatally shot herself.

OpenAI shut down the shooter’s ChatGPT account in June 2025 after it was flagged for concerning behaviour, but the company did not notify police.

The B.C. government has already said it is pursuing legal options against OpenAI while several victims and their families have filed lawsuits against the tech firm.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2026.

The Canadian Press