Canada Calls in OpenAI Representatives After ChatGPT Ban on BC Shooter

RunWithRugs · 2026-02-26T12:54:28+00:00

Canada's AI minister summoned OpenAI after a mass shooting linked to a user, whose account had been suspended for disturbing content months prior. OpenAI revealed it only informed the police after the incident. The minister expressed concern and is considering regulations.

RunWithRugs

2026-02-26 12:54:28

Abstract generation in progress

(MENAFN) Canada’s artificial intelligence minister has ordered OpenAI executives to Ottawa following revelations that the teenage perpetrator of a deadly British Columbia mass shooting had been removed from ChatGPT months before the attack.

Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Minister Evan Solomon disclosed Monday that OpenAI had suspended Jesse Van Rootselaar’s account in June after the platform detected disturbing content, yet withheld the information from law enforcement, citing an absence of credible or imminent threat indicators, media reported.

Van Rootselaar fatally shot her mother and half-brother on Feb. 10 before proceeding to a nearby secondary school in Tumbler Ridge, where she gunned down five students and an educational assistant before taking her own life, according to authorities.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report that the suspended account had been flagged for content depicting gun violence scenarios. OpenAI confirmed it contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police only after the massacre occurred, and said senior company officials would travel to Ottawa to brief Canadian government representatives on its safety protocols and threat-reporting standards.

Solomon said he was “deeply disturbed” by the findings and demanded the company account for its escalation procedures. When pressed on potential federal regulation of AI chatbots, he stopped short of committing to a specific course of action, stating only that all options remain under consideration.

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