As Tumbler Ridge mourns last week’s mass shooting that left eight dead and two with serious injuries, advocates are speaking out against anti-transgender rhetoric circulating online.
Six children, an education assistant and the suspect’s mother were killed in the shootings at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and a home in the small, northeastern B.C. community.
Police said the 18-year-old suspect, Jesse Van Rootselaar, was found dead at the school from a self-inflicted wound.
B.C. RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald confirmed to reporters the day after the shootings that Van Rootselaar was a trans woman.
Vista News has opted not to include details about the suspect’s gender identity in our ongoing reporting on the shooting unless new information indicates it is relevant to the case.
RCMP have not shared details about a possible motive for the shootings.
McDonald said police had gone to Van Rootselaar’s home on multiple occasions over the past several years related to mental health concerns, and she had been apprehended “on different occasions” for assessment under the Mental Health Act.
Rumours and misinformation about the shootings and the suspect’s identity was circulating online even before police confirmed Van Rootselaar was transgender. They included inaccurate claims linking transgender identity to violent crime.
Independent MLA for Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream Tara Armstrong who decried what she called an “epidemic of transgender violence,” in a Feb 10. social media post.
B.C.’s Human Rights Commissioner Kasari Govender said she was disappointed by the rise of anti-trans narratives that were being spread following the shootings.
“Mis and disinformation amplify hateful beliefs, which can result in discrimination and violence towards trans people who already face extremely high levels of discrimination and harassment,” said Govender in a statement.
“Using this horrific incident to conflate trans identities with violent tendencies is incorrect, irresponsible and frankly dangerous,” she said.
The B.C. Teachers Federation also spoke out in a social media post, saying the shooter’s identity is being politicized and used to create more division. The union pledged to support its trans and gender-diverse members. The post was shared by B.C. Education and Childcare Minister Lisa Beare, who said it’s “shameful and wrong” to exploit a tragedy to push a political agenda against trans kids.
Kate Rossiter, director of provincial services at the Ending Violence Association of B.C., said the group is focused on providing support to the affected families.
“A lot of people want answers and want to understand what happened in this case,” she said. “As we search for answers, I think there are people who will utilize this incident to fuel ideas that are stigmatizing and discriminatory.”
Rossiter said trans people are far more likely to be the targets of violent crimes than the perpetrators.
A U.S.-based study published in the journal AJPH found transgender people were about four-times as likely to be a victim of a crime, compared to those who aren’t transgender. Data also show that well below one per cent of people who commit mass shootings in the U.S. are transgender.
In Canada, there has been a rise of hate targeting LGBTQ+ communities in recent year. Statistics Canada says the number of police-reported hate crimes targeting a gender identity or expression more than doubled between 2020 and 2023.
Celeste Trianon is the founding director of the not-for-profit legal clinic Juritrans and is a member of the B.C.-based organization Lawyers Against Transphobia.
She said that some of the earliest of pieces of misinformation about the suspect were being spread from foreign accounts in the U.S., China, India and elsewhere.
“I would start by being critical toward any sources of information. Listen to official sources and people who are on the ground, not necessarily political pundits commenting,” said Trianon.
She noted that incorrect information circulating about the shooter was shared up by some mainstream news outlets, including falsely identifying an Ontario trans woman as the suspect.
“This kind of irresponsible reporting puts lives in danger,” said Trianon. “What I’m most afraid of is more violence, when the whole objective that we should all have is violence prevention.”
She said the focus should be on the victim’s families and the communities.
Rossiter agreed: “Now is the time not for hate but for love and support of the community impacted by this violence,” she said.
The Tumbler Ridge Parent Advisory Committee set up a GoFundMe page for the families affected by the shooting that has raised more than $700,000 as of Wednesday.
Other fundraising pages have also been set up for victims’ families, including the family of 12-year-old Maya Gebala, who remains in serious condition in a Vancouver hospital.
Anyone affected by the tragedy can contact the 24-hour Crisis Services Canada line at 1-833-456-4566 or text 45645 to connect with support, or call the 24-hour B.C. crisis line at 310-6789 (no area code required) to connect with support.
Trans Lifeline provides trans peer support in Canada at 877-330-6366.
The post Advocates decry anti-trans narratives after Tumbler Ridge mass shooting appeared first on AM 1150.
