The Press Council considered whether its Standards of Practice were breached by a print article published on 13 February 2026 in the Geelong Advertiser, the Gold Coast Bulletin, the Herald Sun, The Courier Mail, The Daily Telegraph and The Mercury headed “Canada school shooter a transgender dropout”.
The article reported on a mass shooting in Canada saying that “Police have revealed 18-year-old transgender former student Jesse Van Rootselaar murdered their mother and stepbrother before going on a killing spree at a Canadian high school.” The article reported that Royal Canadian Mounted Police Deputy commissioner Dwyane McDonald had “confirmed during a press conference that Van Rootselaar was born a male and had transitioned six years ago to female.” The article went on to report that “police had visited the shooter’s home on multiple occasions over the last several years due to concerns over Van Rootselaar’s mental health.”
In response to a complaint, the Council asked the publications to comment on whether the article complied with the Council’s Standards of Practice, which require publications to take reasonable steps to ensure that factual material is presented with reasonable fairness and balance (General Principle 3); and to avoid causing or contributing materially to substantial offence, distress or prejudice, or a substantial risk to health or safety, unless doing so is sufficiently in the public interest (General Principle 6). In relation to this, the complaint expressed concern that the prominent and repeated references to Van Rootselaar’s transgender status could lead some readers to conclude that this characteristic was either a cause of, or a significant factor in the reported shootings, and could contribute to substantial prejudice against transgender people.
In response, the publications said it is the responsibility of publishers to clearly communicate the facts with readers. The killer was transgender, as the story expands, having ‘transitioned’ from a boy to a girl six years prior to the shooting. The story uses the pronoun they/their and this deserves some explanation as the subject is transgender not binary. The publications also said the authorities did not communicate what the shooter’s legal sex status was. The publications said that as noted in the article, there was no motive established for the shooting and ‘police had visited the shooter’s home on multiple occasions over the last several years due to concerns over Van Rootselaar’s mental health’. The publications added that the shooter’s history of transitioning between male and female as a child, in a small town of less the 2500 people, may provide insight into the reasons behind their mental health issues, not because they were transgender but because of their likely isolation in making the choice to transition.
Conclusion
The Council notes that the article reported that the police commissioner had said Van Rootselaar was born male and had transitioned to female. However, the article did not report that Van Rootselaar’s transgender status was a cause of, or contributing factor in, the shootings.
The Council has repeatedly stated that publications should exercise great care not to place unwarranted emphasis on characteristics of individuals such as race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, country of origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, illness or age.
In the absence of a clear link between the shootings and Van Rootselaar’s transgender status, the Council considers that the prominent and repeated references to that characteristic, including in the headline, were not relevant to the substance of the article and were unfair. Accordingly, the Council finds that the publications failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that factual material was presented with reasonable fairness and balance, in breach of General Principle 3.
The Council recognises that reporting on a mass shooting and on information released by police concerning the alleged perpetrator are matters of legitimate public interest. However, the Council considers that the prominence given to Van Rootselaar’s transgender status could lead some readers to conclude that this characteristic was either a cause of, or a significant factor in, the shootings and could contribute to substantial prejudice against transgender people.
In the absence of a clear link between Van Rootselaar’s transgender status and the shootings, the Council considers that the publications failed to take reasonable steps to avoid contributing materially to substantial prejudice and that there was insufficient public interest justification for the prominent and repeated references. Accordingly, the Council finds a breach of General Principle 6.
The Council notes that publications are not required to comply with its Advisory Guidelines. However, when assessing whether a publication has taken reasonable steps to comply with its Standards of Practice, the Council may consider whether the publication had regard to a relevant Advisory Guideline.
In this instance, the Council notes its Advisory Guideline, Reporting on persons with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics. The Guideline states that reference to a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity and/or sex characteristics should be relevant to the story and in the public interest. It notes that such a reference may not be relevant in reporting on the identity of a person accused of committing a crime unless, among other things, the characteristic is directly or indirectly relevant to the investigation of the crime or forms part of a police description of a suspect.
The Guideline also states that particular consideration should be given to headlines and the immediate impressions they convey to members of the community who may not read the detail of an article. In this context, the Council encourages publications to have regard to the Advisory Guideline when reporting on persons with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity or sex characteristics.
Relevant Council Standards (not required for publication)
This Adjudication applies the following General Principles of the Council:
Publications must take reasonable steps to:
- Ensure that factual material is presented with reasonable fairness and balance, and that writers’ expressions of opinion are not based on significantly inaccurate factual material or omission of key facts.
- Avoid causing or contributing materially to substantial offence, distress or prejudice, or a substantial risk to health or safety, unless doing so is sufficiently in the public interest.