Written for Daily Hive by Anna Lilly, a communications professional based in North Vancouver.
The B.C. Government announced it has retained an American law firm to explore legal action against OpenAI following the mass shooting tragedy in Tumbler Ridge. If legal action is warranted, the Province should pursue it.
But before we spend millions of dollars going after a tech company for failing to implement safeguards that could have prevented a mentally ill teenager from planning an act of horrific violence, shouldn’t the government be asking whether the system failed this kid, and the community?
British Columbians deserve to know whether enough was done to help this young person before lives were lost. We need a full public inquiry. I’m not looking at this in my professional capacity as a policy communicator and government relations strategist, but as a parent of two incredible neurodivergent children with multiple diagnoses.
For years, our family has navigated a youth mental health system that too often feels impossible to understand and painfully slow to respond.
I’ve spent nights in emergency rooms wondering whether my kid would receive the help they desperately needed. I’ve spent countless hours researching programs, calling social workers, speaking with doctors, comparing notes with other parents and trying to figure out how to get my kid the help they need before three months becomes six months, six months becomes nine months, and a crisis becomes something far worse.
In our case, violent behaviour hasn’t been an issue, but the lack of support has been
devastating. And I know our situation is not unique. I’ve spoken with other parents in support groups who have their own versions of this story.
Different diagnoses or circumstances, but the same exhausting struggle to navigate a fragmented system with too few resources and too many families competing for help.
This is why the Province’s response to the Tumbler Ridge tragedy feels incomplete.
Public reporting suggests that the young person who perpetrated this terrible crime had prior interactions with mental health services and other public systems. Those reports raise questions that deserve careful, independent examination.
A coroner’s inquest has been called to look into the circumstances surrounding the mass
shooting, including availability of mental health supports in rural communities (although not ALL communities across the province).
That inquest will be limited. An independent public inquiry would have a broader mandate, including an examination of systemic and structural factors and a set of recommendations that hold governments and private interests to account.
B.C.’s Minister of Public Safety hasn’t ruled out a public inquiry, but said the Province will await the outcomes of the police investigation and coroner’s inquest before deciding whether one is needed.
I believe a full, open public inquiry is necessary and must address several critical questions.
Did this kid receive timely access to appropriate care? Were there opportunities to intervene earlier? Were professionals given the resources they needed? Were existing systems equipped to recognize escalating risk?
I don’t know the answers, and neither does the Government of British Columbia. But the
Province’s first major step has been to hire expensive lawyers to examine whether OpenAI
should bear responsibility. It feels like scapegoating, and frankly, a slap in the face for families who have seen the failures of our mental health system up close.
We owe it to the victims in Tumbler Ridge, their families and every parent still struggling to
access care to examine both the role of AI and the performance of our own public institutions. By holding a public inquiry, we can uncover recommendations focused on preventing kids from carrying out violent acts and avoiding more young people slipping away into self-harm and addiction.
The Province is right to demand accountability from powerful corporations whose technology may contribute to real-world harm, but that same standard must apply to government itself.