VICTORIA — Calls for an independent investigation into the shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., where eight people, including six children were shot last month, are growing.
Federal Conservative MP Bob Zimmer, who represents the community in northeastern B.C., says the mourning families need answers around various aspects, including the shooter’s mental health and access to guns, as well as the role of artificial intelligence and the protection of the victims’ families.
That is why it is time for an independent public inquiry, says Zimmer’s Conservative caucus colleague Frank Caputo, who is also his party’s shadow minister for public safety, at a joint press conference with Zimmer in Vancouver.
The two Conservative MPs say the inquiry should be done under the federal Inquires Act.
Their call echoes an earlier appeal from B.C. Conservative Party MLA Larry Neufeld, who says that it is time for the province to establish a public inquiry under provincial law.
Neufeld, who represents Tumbler Ridge in the provincial legislature, says that the community keeps coming back to the same question, of how this incident could have happened in the first place.
B.C. Premier David Eby has said in the legislature that his government will use “any tools available” to make sure all questions about this “tragedy” are answered, whether it be through a coroner’s inquest or a public inquiry after the police has wrapped up its investigation.
When Neufeld pressed Eby for a more precise timeline, the premier said that a public inquiry could not start until police had wrapped the investigation.
Eby said any public inquiry or inquest would take place after that.
On Feb. 10, Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, shot and killed her mother and half-brother at their home in Tumbler Ridge before going to the school and killing six people and then herself.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 1, 2026.
Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press
