Tumbler Ridge isn’t an AI story. It’s a story of how the Canadian and BC governments have let down our kids—kids like mine. And yesterday, I joined three different CBC radio programs to share our story. (Here is the Vancouver interview, with Gloria Macarenko.)
Yes, I was outraged by the news that OpenAI decided to keep quiet despite seeing troubling signs of violence in the account of Jesse Van Rootselaar, the teen behind the Tumbler Ridge shooting. But I was offended to hear our Premier say that OpenAI could have prevented this tragedy, and to see OpenAI called to Ottawa by our Minister of AI as if all that’s required is a good spanking.
That claim might pass muster if OpenAI was alone in seeing a teen in trouble. But this was a home that was known to law enforcement, a teen who had already been hospitalized (involuntarily) for mental-health reasons, and a family that had had its firearms both seized and returned.
Now our federal and provincial leaders are pretending that all OpenAI had to do was call. But if you want that to work, someone has to be there to pick up the phone. And speaking as a parent who has called for help, there’s nobody there.
I’ve had a kid taken to the ER by the police, after threats of self-harm, and then discharged; the first follow-up call for psychiatric care was ten months later. I wonder how many kids don’t survive that wait.
I’ve had a child hospitalized after an overdose, and put on a twenty-four hour psychiatric hold….then sent home with zero mental health supports.
“I’m so glad we can finally get referred to a therapist,” I said to the psychiatrist who called me to say our kid was being discharged.
“I don’t have anyone to refer you to,” the doctor told me.
“It’s ok, we can pay for a psychologist,” I said, thinking of all the families who don’t have the resources to do that. “We just need to find someone who is taking new patients.”
“I don’t have anyone,” the doctor said, again.
We live in the largest city in BC, and we have a lot of economic and social privilege. I messaged everyone I know who works in healthcare and mental health: Do you know anyone who’s taking patients? We were lucky that a friend of a friend was willing to fit my kid into her clinical counselling practice.
The fees for that clinical counselling? Not even tax deductible, because the federal government doesn’t consider clinical counselling to be an eligible medical expense in BC (the policy varies by province). Even though you’re lucky if you can find any therapist who’s taking patients.
All of this transpired long before ChatGPT came along. The crisis in youth mental health has been escalating for years, but we haven’t addressed the problem. It got even worse during the pandemic, but both the federal and provincial governments have failed Canadian kids, families and citizens.
As the Canadian Mental Health Association documented in its 2024 report, Canada spends just 6.3% of its healthcare budget on mental health. In the UK and Sweden it’s 9%, in Germany’s it’s over 11% and in France it’s 15%. These countries recognize that investing in mental health provides a foundation for every other form of physical, social and economic wellbeing.
When we fail to provide mental-health supports to our kids, how can we act surprised if they turn to chatbots instead? No, that is not a safe or healthy alternative to therapy—but when nobody else is listening, who are kids supposed to talk to?
Blaming the Tumbler Ridge shooting on OpenAI is an insult to every parent in this country who is concerned about how AI is affecting our kids, but watching the industry go unregulated, and watching our schools and healthcare system try to grapple with a whole new set of challenges, but with no policy or funding in place to enable this transition.
And it’s offensive to every parent and every person who has ever placed that call—that call to authorities, that call that is supposed to save lives.
Because we know that when we call, there’s no answer. We’re on our own—and so our our kids.
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