BC looks into role of OpenAI private info in mass shooting. OpenAI asks to quash

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A man lays flowers at a memorial to the victims of the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, on Feb. 12, 2026. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

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OpenAI, the company behind the ChatGPT platform, is suing to quash an investigation launched in June by B.C.'s Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) into the Tumbler Ridge shooting.

In a petition filed in B.C. Supreme Court, OpenAI says the investigation strays beyond the statutory and constitutional limits of the OIPC's authority.

"The OIPC has offered no coherent rationale for the investigation and, contrary to the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) … has identified no reasonable grounds to believe OpenAI breached that statute in connection with the Tumbler Ridge tragedy," reads the lawsuit.

Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, died of a self-inflicted gunshot after killing six children and two adults on Feb. 10 in the small B.C. town. More than two dozen others were injured. Van Rootselaar allegedly used OpenAI's ChatGPT to help plan the massacre.

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OpenAI has already said Van Rootselaar's activity was flagged internally for violent content and shut down.

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, wrote a letter of apology to the community of Tumbler Ridge for failing to notify authorities in Canada about the activity. The company later said it had failed to notice a second account created by Van Rootselaar after the first was disabled.

Eight people were killed in the Feb. 10, 2026, mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge. (CBC News)

In a statement published on Tuesday, one day after OpenAI filed the lawsuit, the OIPC said its investigation "is focused on whether the use of personal information (including as contained in and derived from prompts, uploaded content, usage data, interaction with other users) in the delivery of the service (i.e. ChatGPT responses) is one that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances, including the potential for responses to influence behaviour."

The OIPC had not previously disclosed to the public it had opened an investigation into OpenAI.

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OpenAI's lawsuit claims that even if the OIPC has reasonable grounds for an investigation, the issues have already been litigated in a three-year joint investigation by Canadian privacy regulators, including the OIPC.

That investigation concluded this past May, finding that Open AI lacked accountability and didn't follow Canadian law, and that it had launched ChatGPT without having fully addressed known privacy issues.

OpenAI didn't respect Canadian privacy law when it trained ChatGPT: investigation

OpenAI says commitments it has already made as a result of the national investigation would put it in compliance with PIPA, and that it should not have to face a "duplicative second investigation."

OpenAI also claims in its lawsuit that a "sweeping" production order issued by OIPC is "overbroad and unnecessary."

It says, among other things, the OIPC is demanding all of Van Rootselaar's chat logs, which have already been provided to law enforcement and the province, and all of OpenAI's records regarding its decision not to refer Van Rootselaar's account to law enforcement.

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In September, the B.C. government announced it is suing OpenAI in its home base of California based on the company's failure to notify police of threats made on ChatGPT before the mass shooting.

The company and CEO Altman are also facing dozens of civil suits filed on behalf of victims, survivors and witnesses.

The OIPC has jurisdiction over organizations that collect, use and disclose the personal information of people living in British Columbia. To conduct those activities, an organization must have legal authorization, the office said in its statement.

Karin Larsen is a former Olympian and award-winning sports broadcaster who covers news and sports for CBC Vancouver.