Contrasting Media and Police Responses to Recent Multiple Murders in Canada and the US
Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson
About two decades ago pollster Michael Adams published Sex in the Snow (1997) and Fire and Ice (2003) showing that despite the proximity of U.S. media leading to Canadian adoption of U.S. words and spellings, the two countries were developing separate cultures. He said the United States was increasingly individualistic, competitive, self‑reliant while Canada took a communitarian, egalitarian, and state‑supportive turn. Polling revealed that people in the United States were more traditional, religious and moralistic while people in Canada were more secular, pluralistic and tolerant of diversity. In the United States government was viewed as a potential threat while in Canada government was a partner. Violence was viewed as a personal problem in the U.S. while in Canada it was framed as a social problem requiring government regulation. He predicted that these differences would increase with time. We would expect that such increasing divergence would affect policing and media coverage. The media coverage of two similar multiple murders on opposite sides of the North American continent in February of this year seemed to support Adams’ prediction.
On February 10, 2026, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar murdered eight people in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia. on February 16, 56-year-old Robert Dorgan (also known as Roberta Esposito) killed two family members at an ice rink in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Both perpetrators identified as transwomen, yet police and initial media coverage diverged sharply: Canadian authorities and outlets predominantly referred to Van Rootselaar using she/her pronouns and as female, while U.S. authorities used “he/him” for Dorgan, and while some non-conservative media followed this convention, others, like the New York Times, avoided using pronouns altogether. These framings sparked significant online and media controversy, with vocal critics in each case arguing the perpetrator had been misgendered—either by affirming gender identity over biological sex, or by downplaying it. To maintain strict neutrality on this contested issue and to avoid endorsing either side’s preferred framing, this article uses the neopronoun ‘ze/zir’ (or similar variants) when referring to either individual.
Van Roottselaar had transitioned to female six years earlier with the active support of zis mother. On the day of the killing, ze murdered her and zis younger brother before entering a nearby school and murdering 6 more people and wounding 27 before killing zimself. Van Rootselaar had a history of mental illness with some psychotic episodes precipitating police intervention. Ze had also displayed a fascination with firearms and had been active on the internet playing and and creating violent video games.
On February 16, two people were murdered and four were injured by 56-year-old Robert/Roberta Dorgan. Media frequently reported three injured – the parents of zis ex-wife and a family friend – but they fail to note the injury to one of the bystanders who had tackled the killer. After being tackled Dorgan produced a second gun and shot zimself. Ze had transitioned to female six years earlier, and this led to zis divorce shortly thereafter. Dorgan subsequently laid various complaints to the police that zis ex-wife had harassed, threatened and made zim feel unsafe but none of the complaints led to charges. Dorgan also had a history of mental health issues, but no diagnosis has been publicly disclosed. Dorgan’s history of internet use included interacting with female “adult content” performers. The day before murdering his ex-wife and child he posted on “X” “keep bashing us, but do not wonder why we Go BERSERK.”
The difference in police reporting between the countries would be in keeping with Adams’ hypothesis that the cultures of the two countries were diverging. Canadian police initially reported that the killer was a woman while emphasizing zer mental health history. This emphasis defines the circumstances leading up the murders as an extension of social problems while conforming to a belief that “transwomen are women.” The U.S. police, on the other hand, used male pronouns for Dorgan and framed the issue as one of domestic violence. Use of pronouns in reporting the Van Rootselaar murders conformed to police description in Canada; however, the reporting of the Dorgan case in the United States did not conform to the police frame. While the conservative media consistently used male pronouns, outlets like the Providence Journal used plural pronouns to describe the Pawtucket shooter; and, as we have seen, outlets like the New York Times avoided the use of pronouns entirely. This would indicate that these media were not comfortable with the gender designation of their police in this case with an implied affinity for the Canadian designation. This may indicated that under the 21st Century phenomenon sometimes labeled as “Wokism,” the two countries’ mainstream media cultures may be converging with respect to terminology use to describe various identity categories. Further, in both countries, mainstream media, after initial reporting, acknowledged that the killers were transwomen while maintaining that this was not a causal factor. The factors that were held to be causal differed by country.
The relevant context in which the events were framed varied by country. Canadian national outlets (CBC, CTV, Global News) focused on the collective trauma faced by the Tumbler Ridge community, the number of child victims (33 including those wounded), and that the killer had documented mental health issues. Major outlets in the U.S. (AP, Boston Globe, Providence Journal, CNN), framed the Dorgan murders primarily as domestic violence ignoring the public setting ot the murders and that the number of killed and wounded could have been higher had the assailant not been tackled by some brave hockey fans. Since domestic violence is considered common, the Pawtucket murders did not become a sustained national headline
The more right-wing alternate media in the two countries also differed in their coverage. After listing a series of killers who identified as transgender, the New York Post suggested: “Constantly telling those who ID as trans that they’re under attack, let alone that they have to take up arms to defend themselves from abuse and violence, is all but programming them to lash out.” Canada’s National Post, on the other hand, treated the Tumbler Ridge case as a systemic‑failure with the killer’s mental health problems, propensity for violence, drug use, and fascination with guns well-known. Citing recent mass murders in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia, Sabrina Maddeaux reasoned, “We need fewer platitudes and more blunt tools that flag risks, escalate them, and force treatment and sustained supervision.” Thus, the two largest conservative dailies in each country reflected a difference in national culture – the New York Post emphasized the gender identity of both perpetrators and the negative messaging given transgender individuals by those promoting the view that transwomen are women which they framed as “gender ideology.” The National Post, on the other hand, argued for systemic reform to keep the public safe from those with violent mental health issues. In this, the approach of National Post was closer to that of Canada’s mainstream media than that of the conservative media in the United States.
In general, Michael Adams’ observations were confirmed by this brief review – the U.S. media demonstrated more polarization and culture‑war politics. Canada’s media focused more on community and developing systems to prevent future tragedy. The U.S. media was more adversarial, partisan, and identity‑driven with a focus on domestic conflict. Despite the rhetoric sometimes used, police in neither country keep data on the murders committed by transwomen, so it is impossible to compare their murder rate with that of the general population.
In line with Adams’ thesis, Canada, in these two exemplars, tended to treat identity as a matter of social accommodation while the U.S. treated it as a matter of ideological conflict. While Canada tends to frame violence as a systemic failure, the U.S. treats it as an individual pathology. The issue for Canadians is to determine when accommodations are actually harmful to the public at large while U.S. Americans need to grapple with how the two sides can talk to each other with understanding. In the end, it may come down to national myths. The United States was founded on the principles of liberty, self-reliance and freedom. Canada’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald argued that “peace, order and good government” was more fundamental.
References
Adams, M. (1997). Sex in the snow: Canadian social values at the end of the millennium. Viking.
Adams, M. (2003). Fire and ice: The United States, Canada, and the myth of converging values. Penguin.
