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British Columbia Premier David Eby also addressed the shooting, calling it an “unimaginable tragedy.” He urged people across the province to support Tumbler Ridge in the aftermath and to keep the community in their thoughts as residents face the first days of grief and uncertainty.
In the immediate aftermath, the focus has been on safety, emergency care, and stabilizing a community in crisis. Officials said roughly 100 students and staff were evacuated from the school. The secondary school, along with the town’s elementary school and a local college, remained closed for the rest of the week as investigators worked the scenes and the town tried to absorb what had happened.
Mass shootings are comparatively rare in Canada, but the country has endured notable tragedies in the past. The article points to two landmark events frequently referenced in national discussions about gun violence: the 1989 Montreal mass shooting, where 14 people were killed, and the 2020 rampage in Nova Scotia, in which 22 people died. In the years following those attacks, Canada introduced stricter gun control measures, including steps aimed at restricting and buying back certain military-style firearms.
Against that history, the killings in Tumbler Ridge are being described as among the deadliest shootings in the country’s modern era. The sense of shock is amplified by the town’s size and isolation. Tumbler Ridge was founded as a coal-mining community, surrounded by vast stretches of wilderness. It is not the kind of place most Canadians associate with large-scale violence, which is part of what has made the events feel so destabilizing to residents and observers alike.
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