This is where my editorial should go, but I’m ceding space to talk about a new report from the Canadian Anti-Hate League, looking at online discrimination and hate towards the trans community coming out of the shooting.
This horrific tragedy, says the report is and always will be most acutely felt by the survivors, families of the victims, their friends, and the community itself. A school shooting is among one of the most heinous acts of violence possible. Those who have been affected will be so forever.
Another harm was borne out of this tragedy; based on the research conducted and contained in this report, social media and online content generated by various entities is indicative of the shooting being used by many to spread discrimination and hate against transgender people in the days following the shooting. The statements published are reflective of an attempt to use a reprehensible act of violence to promote demonization and discrimination.
It is the opinion of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network that the demonstrated rush by these individuals and entities to demonize all transgender people did not, and does not, help the victims’ loved ones, the survivors, the town of Tumbler Ridge, or the country heal.
The far-right media landscape consists of several outlets and players, each with significant followings and reach. There is often overlap in how they interact with each other, cover similar or identical topics, or promote similar or identical narratives about events.
Some outlets have a reach of a million followers and readers or more. Some influencers have followers in the several hundred thousands.
In addition to the outlets, there are influencers who are not connected to any specific outlet, but who receive favourable coverage from, and often boost, outlets within the ecosystem, suggesting a relationship to some degree. Some of the people quoted in this report were invited to the Conservative Party of Canada’s convention in January 2026 as ‘influencers,’ and given special blue lanyards.
According to a report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (the report goes on), an independent research organization which analyzes extremism, disinformation and online threats, there was a significant spike in anti-LGBTQ+ online content following the attack. Their key findings included:
- “Canadian users made more than 10,000 such posts the day after the attack, which was the most pronounced spike in anti-LGBTQ+ hate speech between August 2025 and February 2026. Globally, more than 154,000 posts were recorded after the attack, the third-largest increase in such hate during the same time period.”
- “Canadian domestic extremist accounts sharply increased anti-LGBTQ+ hate activity online in response to the attack. Anti-LGBTQ+ posts rose from an average of 20 per day in the week leading up to the attack to 233 posts on 11 February (the day after the attack), a rise of more than 1,000 percent.”
- “Engagement was driven by a small number of recurring narratives. These included claims that transgender individuals are inherently violent, that transgender identity is a form of mental illness, that authorities were trying to hide the shooter’s gender identity, and that supportive parents or inclusive policies were to blame for the attack.”
From immediately following the shooting until days after, an incredible amount of content was posted to social media from far-right actors and outlets. This content overwhelmingly focused on the transgender identity of the shooter.
Often, content would denigrate all transgender persons. For example, describing them as mentally ill, inherently dangerous, a constant threat to children, and responsible for a wave of violence and/or terrorism.
Despite the fearmongering about a wave of “transgender violence” and “transgender terrorism” seen in the social media posts of far-right news outlets and personalities in the hours and days following the tragedy, mass shooters who identify as transgender represent a very small minority of all mass shooters. The Gun Violence Archive, an online archive of gun violence incidents collected from over 7,500 law enforcement, media, government and commercial sources, has identified seven mass shooters who identify as transgender out of 4000 mass shootings.
The Violence Project, a comprehensive database on mass violence in the United States, which uses different criteria for what constitutes a mass shooting, has only identified one.
All of this means that mass shooters who identify as transgender account for between .5 percent and one percent of all mass shootings. In the United States, transgender people account for 1 percent of the population, while in Canada, they account for 0.33 percent. Transgender people are more likely to be victims of violent crime than perpetrators.
And who is responsible for creating an environment conducive to creating these “transgender terrorists?” Why, the school, of course. The report goes on to quote a Rebel News livestream from February 11.
Lisa Merle said, referring to the Pride flag hanging on the school, “If only we had seen the warning flags in the front window of the school ahead of time. Maybe somebody could have done something about this.”
Later in the same stream, in response to Sheila Gunn-Reid saying shooters are radicalized on Reddit, Merle said, “Not just online though. Like radicalized on Reddit and then affirmed at school. I mean, we just saw what the school stands for. Who was responsible for the transing of this child?”
Links to the full report available at www.tumblerridgelines.com.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
