ChatGPT-maker OpenAI safety representatives summoned to Canada after school shooting

The Canadian government has summoned representatives of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI to Ottawa after the company admitted it considered but didn't alert Canadian police about the activities of a person who later committed one of Canada's worst school shootings. AI Minister Evan Solomon announced on February 23, 2026, that he expects OpenAI's top safety representatives to explain its protocols and decision-making processes regarding when to forward cases to law enforcement during their meeting scheduled for the following day. This summons comes after OpenAI revealed that in June 2025, the company identified the account of Jesse Van Rootselaar through its abuse detection systems for 'furtherance of violent activities,' but determined the activity didn't meet the threshold for referral to law enforcement, only banning the account for policy violations. The 18-year-old perpetrator later killed eight people in a remote part of British Columbia in February 2026 before dying by self-inflicted gunshot. OpenAI's revelation, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, disclosed that approximately a dozen internal employees debated whether to inform Canadian authorities about Van Rootselaar's account activities. The company stated that its threshold for referring users to law enforcement is whether there's an 'imminent and credible risk of serious physical harm to others,' and in this case, they didn't identify such planning. It wasn't until after the school shooting that OpenAI employees reached out to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) with information about the individual and their use of ChatGPT. Minister Solomon confirmed he contacted OpenAI immediately upon reading reports that the company didn't contact law enforcement in a timely manner, emphasizing that 'Canadians expect, first of all, that their children particularly are kept safe and these organizations act in a responsible manner.' While Solomon wouldn't specify if Canada intends to regulate AI chatbots like ChatGPT, he noted that all options are currently on the table. The tragic shooting occurred in Tumbler Ridge, a town in the Canadian Rockies more than 1,000 kilometers northeast of Vancouver near the Alberta border. Police investigation revealed that Van Rootselaar first killed her mother and stepbrother at their family home before attacking the nearby school. The victims included a 39-year-old teaching assistant and five students aged 12 to 13. The attack marked Canada's deadliest rampage since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people and set fires resulting in nine additional deaths. Despite the perpetrator's history of mental health contacts with police, the motive for the shooting remains unclear. The incident has sparked renewed debate about AI safety protocols, corporate responsibility, and the need for regulatory frameworks to address potential threats identified by advanced AI systems before they materialize into real-world violence.