Tumbler Ridge MP backs mother’s lawsuit against OpenAI, blaming it for shooting role

By Canadian Press on March 11, 2026.

The MP for Tumbler Ridge, B.C., says he supports a lawsuit against artificial intelligence firm OpenAI by the mother of a girl critically wounded in the mass shooting in the community last month.

Cia Edmonds, whose 12-year-old daughter Maya Gebala was shot three times, filed the lawsuit Monday, and Bob Zimmer says the legal action is “justified” based on his reading of recent news coverage.

The lawsuit alleges that the company’s ChatGPT bot provided “information, guidance and assistance” to carry out such an attack, and Zimmer says it’s “very troubling” if that is the case.

He says the company “needs to answer” for developing software that was “essentially advising somebody” how to go through with the attack, in which Jesse van Rootselaar shot dead eight people before killing herself.

Premier David Eby said last week that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had agreed to a public apology about his company’s role in the shooting, but Zimmer says that is not enough.

OpenAI has not responded to the lawsuit but has said Van Rootselaar was banned from ChatGPT last June over problematic interactions, although it did not inform law enforcement at the time.

It also says Van Rootselaar got around the ban by having a second ChatGPT account.

Attorney General Niki Sharma said on Tuesday that Altman has agreed to work with government and the mayor of Tumbler Ridge on an apology that is “sensitive and appropriate” to the victims, but could not say when it would happen.

Eby has previously said it looks like OpenAI could have prevented the shooting, but Sharma said it was too early to say if the government would join the lawsuit or launch a separate one.

— With files by Sarah Ritchie in Ottawa

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 11, 2026.

Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press