Inside Tumbler Ridge: A Local Journalist on the Worst School Shooting in Canadian History

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Unknown
This episode discusses a school shooting, loss of life and trauma. Listener and viewer discretion is advised.

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Tim Conrad
On February 10th, 2026. It was a typical peaceful day in the stunningly beautiful Tumbler Ridge, a tiny and remote mountain town in British Columbia, Canada. Shortly after lunch, the worst school shooting in Canadian history happened at their only secondary school alone, shooter took the lives of eight people and seriously injured two others, including Maya Gabala, 12 years old, who continues to recover in hospital.

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Tim Conrad
The shooter first took the lives of their mother and brother at home. Emmett Jacobs, 11 years old. Jennifer Jacobs, 39 years old. Then they continued to the school, where in only minutes, students, teachers and assistants were targeted before the shooter took their own life. The Lives of Shenandoah Avila Gonda Durant, 39 years old. Zoe Benoit, 12 years old.

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Tim Conrad
To carry a Lampert, 12 years old. Abel Monzon, 12 years old. Ezekiel Schofield, 13 years old. And Kylie Smith, 12 years old, were all taken and a town was on lockdown. It would be several hours before backup arrived to discover what happened and pieced together the crime scene. Anyone who has ever been to Tumbler Ridge will know how peaceful, serene and spectacular the views are.

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Tim Conrad
The incredible surroundings of the mountains, rivers, lakes and trails are matched by the people of the community who are peaceful, helpful and friendly beyond what you'll experience in many Canadian towns. Trent Ernst is the publisher of The Temple Ridgelines, a weekly newspaper and digital platform which keeps up on news in the area, including communities two hours away such as Chetwynd, Dawson Creek and Grand Prairie, and in typical small town reality.

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Tim Conrad
Trent also provides services to the community as photographer, graphic designer and even serves as the campsite attendant at the Lions Campground where I met him. I'm your host, Tim Conrad. Thank you for joining me for this episode of the wildfires, Floods and Chaos Communications podcast with guest Trent Ernst. As he describes the first moments on that day.

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Unknown
A

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Trent Ernst
friend posted on online or sent a note. Sent a message saying, sounds like something's up at the school.

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Trent Ernst
And, you know, there's always something up at the school. There's misidentifications, there's emergency test, there's, you know, all this sort of stuff. But I decided, well, I'll go, I'll go check it out. So I drove down to the school and a friend of mine was parked there, and he was like, I don't know what's happening. My kids are there.

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Trent Ernst
I'm I'm worried. Right? And I was like, okay, so so I knew knew right away that it was, well, I mean, that that it was something more than just, oh, somebody walked into school with a, with a stick in their backpack and somebody thought it was a gun. Right. That's that's kind of the normal level. But at the same time I thought maybe, you know, maybe somebody had gone in there brandishing a gun, maybe somebody had gone in, you know, fired a few shots in the air.

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Trent Ernst
I, I, I wasn't expecting anything really serious. Yeah. And it was just like, so I was, I, I got there and just as I was about to hit, hit, hit, go on on a live stream

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Trent Ernst
because I decided I would, I would live stream

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Trent Ernst
there was this emergency alert that went out and it's, you know, it was like active shooter, somebody wearing a dress. And that was basically all the information I had. So I, I got out there and was like, I was kind of standing outside of the school grounds because I knew that they yell at me if I, if I, you know, as a reporter, if I enter the school ground.

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Trent Ernst
So I was I was out there and just sort of going, you know, something's happening. The police are here. They're not they're not moving in like they're not going in tactically. So it feels like either what's happening is father in or that something is or that whatever was happening is over. And I was there for, I don't know, ten, 12, 15 minutes.

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Trent Ernst
And then I got a call from the school district saying, hey, you know, the alert said, you know, shelter in place, you shouldn't be out there. And I was like, thanks, but this is this is my job. Right? So I'm, I'm, I'm basically I'm not that worried about an active shooter because the cops are right there and I'm, you know, I have I have line of sight for 200, 300m around me.

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Trent Ernst
So I'm not that worried. So, I then I tried to go back to live streaming, and I realized that my, my, I was just using my phone because I wasn't. I was just expecting, you know, whatever. But I realized my phone was almost dead, so I, I stopped and I went home. I heard that there had been a the RCMP were also looking at this other house.

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Trent Ernst
So I went by there, took a picture, went home and started just live streaming from my computer, sort of thinking, well, you know, okay, some it seems like something more than, than, you know, somebody misidentified because it's bigger news and and then, you know, I did that for a couple of hours. And then the news came out that there were there were people dead.

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Trent Ernst
And it was just like. The bottom fell out. The, the world, the world suddenly just sort of went and changed because because Tumbler Ridge is not the sort of place where that sort of thing is supposed to happen. You know, I keep telling stories about how when the Luke Magneto not a incident happened in Montreal, our big my big story that week was, oh, here's here's some mama duck and her baby ducklings walking through downtown.

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Trent Ernst
Right. And I wrote in my editorial, you know, this is this is why I love Tumbler Ridge. You know, other other, other newspapers. Their concern is if it bleeds, it leads. I don't I don't want that. I'm a it's a yeah it's a, it's a newspaper but it's the community side of that is equally or more important than the, than the.

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Trent Ernst
The, the news part of it. Right. So you know, if you go, if you go to like a big paper like the Vancouver Sun or the Edmonton Journal, you know, they sort of treat that, that sort of the feature writing and the human interest stuff is sort of the lesser news, the lower news. But but for me, that's, that's kind of the stuff that's really, really important because that's, that's about people, that's about who we are as, as as individuals and as a community.

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Trent Ernst
Yeah,

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Unknown
We acknowledge and respect the indigenous people on whose ancestral territories we work and play, whether the land is

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Unknown
unceded or ceded. Your relationship with this land and your culture is one we admire. Wherever we are, we are committed to truth and reconciliation

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Unknown
through regular,

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Unknown
meaningful

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Unknown
actions.

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Tim Conrad
can you tell me a little bit like just talk about Tumbler? Rich, you've been here for decades. I've known of you from my time living in Grand Prairie. We never had any interactions because I didn't do work here, but certainly followed your work and the news that you provided. And you also do a lot of other services too.

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Tim Conrad
But about Tumbler, Ridge and what it's kind of like here in a typical, typical day through that time of year.

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Trent Ernst
Six.

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Tim Conrad
Months ago. Right? Right.

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Trent Ernst
Yeah. So Tom Tumbler Ridge is it's a mining town that's trying not to be a mining time anymore. So we've got we've got one mine here. There's a mine halfway between here and chat when where some people work. And so you've got, you know, a couple hundred people who work at the mines so that, that that provides a large chunk of the employment and then but there's also.

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Trent Ernst
There had been mines here back in the 80s and 90s, and then in 2000, one of them, one of them closed. Right. And it put put 500 people out of work to three years later, the other mine went out and and so there was, there was like the reason for the town to exist was no longer there. Yeah.

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Trent Ernst
At least that's what that's what an outsider observer would have said. There's, there's, you know, Tumbler Ridge, it's a mining town. No more mines. Therefore, you know, pack up, move on. Let the let the town become just another ghost town in BC, right? You know, become the next Braylon or the next Gold Creek or the next right. But people had been here for like since the early 80s, and they discovered that it wasn't just another stop on the mining merry go round, that this was this was home.

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Trent Ernst
Right. And there were a couple of reasons for that. One, they they put a lot of work when they, when they built the town into making it a very strong community focus. Like the way, the, the way the town is laid out is, you know, people look at it and go, that's that's weird, that's crazy. But it was designed to prevent crime.

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Trent Ernst
It was designed for crime prevention. Right. And there was a lot of effort put into, you know, community organizations. There were there were rodeos in the early days. There were there was a community center. There was all these activities. The the mines would have just these epic summer picnic barbecues, get all the kids out, just have fun.

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Trent Ernst
And so it became it became home. And so when the mine, when the mines closed down, a bunch of people said, this is home, we're not moving and we want to see the town survive. So there was there's a housing sale, you know, you could pick up a house for $30,000, which was I mean, for, for me, who was a struggling feature writer, that that was a, that was something that that was like, wow, I can I can afford a house for one tenth of what you'd get it for down in the Lower Mainland.

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Trent Ernst
And, you know, a lot more, a lot less now. Yeah. So, so I moved up here and, and because I'd been here like in the 80s, just working and I loved. So the first time, the first time I was up here, I went out to canoe. So falls, which was at the time our the big, the big thing that you wanted to see.

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Trent Ernst
And but this was before they had built the road in. So they'd done logging back there in the 1950s. And so there was this old road that you could get in on with a four wheel drive. The bridges were out on the creek, so you had 4 or 5 crossing, so you could only go when the water was down.

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Trent Ernst
And. Yeah. And I got there and we walked down to the base of the falls and, and I was from Saskatchewan, and I looked up at this waterfall and I was like, this is quite possibly the most amazing thing I've ever seen. And when, when, when, when I left, instead of following the path up, I decided to to take this just kind of go into the bush and walk up kind of between the waterfall and the path, and I would take a step and it was, you know, it was really steep.

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Trent Ernst
So I, you know, I'd take a step, I'd take a, you know, sit there and breathe. But I would look down at where I was standing and go right here. Have there ever been any feet that ever have touched this patch of ground, ever in the history of existence? And for somebody from Saskatchewan, where like 90% of the province, at least south of Prince Prince Albert is, has been, you know, farmed and, you know, plowed up and planted and seeded.

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Trent Ernst
That was just such a heavy, heavy revelation. Yeah, right. And so I just I just fell in love with the place. So, when I, when I had the chance to come back, I took it. And, you know, it was it hasn't been easy because, you know, I'm a I'm a writer. And they were looking for miners. And that's not what you do as a writer.

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Trent Ernst
But but I managed, you know, I was doing a lot of freelance stuff and I managed to survive. And my wife was working at at a bunch of different places and, you know, so we we made it work. Yeah. Anyways, so that doesn't really answer your question about what what Tumbler Ridge is, you know, what the day to day life is.

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Trent Ernst
But but that kind of gives you a sense of sort of the dichotomy of it. There's you've got people here who come here who are just looking to work. They, they, they spend seven days working, they go home for seven days and it's just a job. But then you have this group of people who are passionate about Tumbler Ridge, who love the place, who love the community and who love just this.

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Trent Ernst
Right? They love they love the nature. Right? We're we're kind of one of the right on the edge of, of an area that that had never been really explored. Right. So, so you so you kind of go west from here and, you know, you know, that there's been First Nations in this area for, for centuries and that there has been explorers and trappers, but there were not a lot of signs of settlement and development.

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Trent Ernst
So, so yeah, so you've got, you've got kind of those two groups that live here and, you know, and then you got just the people who are, you know, followed their spouse or but it's it is a, it's it's not a very active town. Right. It's not a, it's not a I've always wanted to do a, do a thing about like, okay, it's rush hour and Tumbler Ridge and we're sitting here at the, you know, the corner of Main Street and Monkman Way, and we're, we're sitting here and, yeah, we don't have any traffic yet, but but but we'll we'll let you know when it comes by.

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Trent Ernst
All right. Here we go. Okay. I've been here for a couple of minutes. Oh, I think I see it's not turning down here, so it's not coming into downtown. But but right. You know, so it's very, very slow, you know. And so, so there are there there's the good side of that. But there's also drawbacks. Right. There's you know, you, you, you run out of milk.

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Trent Ernst
It's 8:00 at night. There's no place to get milk.

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Tim Conrad
Yeah, yeah.

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Trent Ernst
That's right. But Yeah. So so you have, you have people who who just kind of love, love it here, who live here, who enjoy it. I for me, for myself, I'm always I try and get five kilometers of walking in just and trying not to follow the same trail all the time, because there's just so many little deer paths and ATV trails and bike paths, and then you can just kind of kind of go along like like, right, right now there's there's a trail right beside us that, you know, if we if we follow it that way, it goes eight kilometers one way.

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Trent Ernst
If we follow it that way, it goes 11km the other. Yeah, right. And, you know, you can just sort of, you know, you can just always explore in the both in the grand sense of like climbing to the tops of mountains and in the micro sense where you're sort of, you know, going, oh, look, here's, here's this flower I've never seen or this, this, this tree is doing something that I've never, never noticed before.

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Tim Conrad
Or, or there's just some dinosaur foot tracks across some some rock.

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Trent Ernst
Yeah. So so one, I know this is kind of off topic, but one of my first jobs when I moved here was actually we were we were building trails and and just just upstream here there's a place called Cabin Pool, which is where they found the original dinosaur tracks. And so they wanted us to build a trail down there.

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Trent Ernst
So so we got out there, we built the trail, and we got, got, you know, we finished building the trail. And that summer there was a flood and it came up and it washed all this debris and stuff up and onto this big rock that was was kind of across the river from the dinosaur tracks. And the sort of the boss was sort of like, well, can we can we clean that off?

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Trent Ernst
It's like, okay, well, I'm so I'm like sitting there throwing all the trash into the. And I take a broom and I'm sweeping it and I'm sitting there cursing it because it's like there's all these stupid indents in the rock that the dirt would get caught in. And literally a three weeks later, some guy went down there and he's like, that looked like a dinosaur footprint to you.

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Trent Ernst
And that and that and that. And it turns out it's like the largest, largest collection of dinosaur tracks in North America. And and so I'm like, well, I didn't, I didn't I can't say that I discovered it, but I, I can say that I uncovered it.

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Tim Conrad
So yeah. And it's a, I think that's a I want for people to understand that Tumbler Ridge is this I've told people it's the best hidden secret you will find probably anywhere in Canada. It is a stunningly beautiful and fairly untouched spot. Yeah. And there's the things that you can do here, like going to see dinosaur foot tracks, particularly the lantern tourism.

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Tim Conrad
It unreal experience. It's to me, if it's not on your bucket list, it needs to be and you know going out. There's so many waterfalls here you mentioned so and like an unreal, spectacular waterfall that is, you know, really kind of comparison Niagara Falls in my view. And and yet it's tucked into this wild nature and then yeah, just gorgeous trails like unreal trails that you can do.

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Tim Conrad
And there's just so much it's so, so much like when you're coming in on the road, you always meet vehicles and and what they've got on them. It just shows you that the absolute breadth of recreation that happens in the area. Yeah, it's it's a remarkable spot.

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Trent Ernst
Yeah. I mean, if your thing is if your thing is going to the movies every weekend and going shopping, this isn't the place. But if it's if it's going out and spending time in nature, if it's, you know, going, going downtown to just pick up a jug of melt and spending half an hour because you keep bumping into people that you know and want to talk to, then.

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Trent Ernst
Yeah, this is an amazing place.

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Tim Conrad
Yeah,

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Unknown
Mental well-being is something we all have a responsibility to ourselves to be aware of and to look for ways to improve through intentional actions, such as getting outside or seeking professional help. As a responder, consider taking mental health first aid, which has been very important for the work I do. Interacting with people during large emergencies from residents to responders.

00;19;20;07 - 00;19;34;19
Unknown
If you are an urgent need of help in Canada, dial or text 988. You deserve to be heard. They are there to listen. It is a safe spot to talk 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

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Tim Conrad
yeah. So what's you know, you had that that first, first day of things after the shooting. And it was then you start to see an influx. So tell me about that influx that comes in and what, what that experience was like.

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Trent Ernst
Yeah. So I, I spent the next basically the 24 hours after after that, a lot of it was sort of doing media interviews. Right. Because, you know, the BBC is not going to be able to get somebody on site within, you know, 12, 24 hours. So there was a lot, a lot of, you know, just dealing with media.

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Trent Ernst
But, you know, it got to a point where they were like, so what's what's happening now? I'm like, honestly, I don't know, because I have not left my, my office basically. So I started to, you know, sort of went, okay, now, now the media is coming in and I they you can you can get stuff from them, you can talk to other people.

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Trent Ernst
I need to go out and do reporting. I need to be with be with my town. Yeah. But yeah, it was it was the community center was became sort of the healing hub. So there were, there were ten or so counselors who kind of took over part of the part of the space. The victim services were there.

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Trent Ernst
There were a couple, a couple emotional support animals like dogs that were there. And it was sort of it was sort of this weird, weird tension because, you know, they're like, well, media is not allowed in here, but your local, so just don't be media. And so I would it was, it was wild because I walked into the library which is part of the community center.

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Trent Ernst
And, and you know, there was there was a bunch of the people who work there were standing there going, oh, there's another reporter. There's another reporter. You can tell because they're all wearing the puffy jackets. Yeah. And, and there were I mean, there were, there were reporters that were doing a really, really good job. They were they were decent.

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Trent Ernst
They were respectful, but they were there were reporters who would see, like a ten year old kid wandering down the street, and they'd get up into the kids face and go like, tell me what happened. Who are you? What's your right? It's like you're ten year old kid. These are not people who have the ability to, you know, legally.

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Trent Ernst
Yeah. Right. To to say, yes, you can interview me or no, you cannot write you they're they're underage. So you need to talk to their right. And they were you know there were some. There was some. Well reprehensible sort of things like that. Apparently there was the after three days after the shooting, the, the safer schools had had kind of found everybody's cell phones and personal effects and brought it down to the local, the golf course to, to to hand it out to people.

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Trent Ernst
And apparently there were media kind of pretending to be parents standing in line, started going, wow, that was just sort of a a really weird thing. Oh, yeah. No. What what did you just say? Talk. Talk a little louder and into the lapel. Right. And so

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Trent Ernst
There's a bit of an anti media backlash that that has sparked up. But it was it was also amazing just the way that the community pulled together. Yeah. I have told told told this story many times. But after Covid I I'm not I'm not naturally a social person. And after Covid that kind of really pushed me sort of into my own little shell like to a point where, you know, people go high and I'd be like.

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Trent Ernst
And, you know, just sort of. And then they'd awkwardly put their hand down because I'd be like, I, you know, I'm physical contact. That's not that's not something I do. Yeah, right. But then, then after this I.

00;24;01;14 - 00;24;06;22
Trent Ernst
Yeah, I had a friend who's he's in a band with me and he'd been

00;24;06;24 - 00;24;19;26
Trent Ernst
were having some custodial issues. They were trying to figure out custody and they. So they went and stayed with, with with this family. I know. And he was he was just, you know, devastated.

00;24;19;29 - 00;24;49;00
Trent Ernst
So you know, I was like went up to him, gave him a big hug and he sent me a note saying, you know, I've he because he's, he's a hugger, right. Yeah. He, he's like I've hugged so many people but that one meant a lot. So and and it helped me, it helped me sort of, you know, there again, after Covid, I kind of did this and kind of closed in on myself and, and, and when this happened, I kind of looked up and went, oh yeah, there's a community here.

00;24;49;00 - 00;25;11;15
Trent Ernst
There's people that I care about who are hurting. And I'm not I'm not very good at showing how I care and how much I care, but I do care. So, you know, stop stop sitting there staring at your own belly button and, you know, go out there and, you know, talk to people and give people hugs and shake people's hands.

00;25;11;16 - 00;25;11;28
Trent Ernst
Yeah.

00;25;11;28 - 00;25;30;25
Tim Conrad
to our audience. Thank you for your support. And I have another request at the end of the podcast to help Trent and the Tumbler Ridgelines newspaper. Please listen for how you may be able to help this episode. I'm highlighting some of the places I've visited on a 3000 kilometer road trip last month, including a stop to see our guest.

00;25;30;26 - 00;26;10;00
Tim Conrad
Thank you to listeners and viewers in over 60 countries, including Canada, and people in these communities Jasper, Sherwood Park and Whitecourt, Alberta, Prince George and Williams Lake, British Columbia. Thank you for listening and sharing. Now back to traders of the Tumbler Ridgelines.

00;26;10;03 - 00;26;20;07
Tim Conrad
that it became a little unfriendly for the media because of the way they were acting. How was the community towards you then because you were known in this community. You've been here for a really long time.

00;26;20;08 - 00;26;24;10
Tim Conrad
So, yeah. So that reaction then did you get stuck in the middle of it?

00;26;24;11 - 00;26;47;01
Trent Ernst
No, I don't think so. But but I mean, the other thing for me, when, when I see when I see media behaving badly, what I do is I, I, I, you know, if I see people going like this, I back off. If I see people behaving badly, I, I go for my best behavior. So I basically what I was hoping to do was, was I was hoping there's in the library, there's a little little pot.

00;26;47;01 - 00;27;08;13
Trent Ernst
And I was like, I was hoping to establish that as sort of a, a Vatican City and say, look, what I want to do is I want to set up just in here. And if people want to come and talk and tell their stories, then, you know, allow them to do that. I unfortunately that didn't happen. So so I did.

00;27;08;14 - 00;27;30;29
Trent Ernst
But like I said, I really didn't want to be like in people's face. I was like, you know, you if you want to talk to me, you come talk to me. And because there's enough stuff happening, you know, on the level RCMP, emergency services, politics, you know, all those other things that that there's there's enough to tell a story.

00;27;31;00 - 00;27;46;15
Trent Ernst
You know, at the same time there, there there were stories that I, you know, I would have loved to have told or, you know, would have loved to have been been it would have I would have counted it a blessing to have have heard these people's stories.

00;27;46;19 - 00;27;47;25
Trent Ernst
But.

00;27;47;28 - 00;27;50;17
Unknown
that's that's not my decision to make. That's their decision to me.

00;27;50;22 - 00;28;08;29
Unknown
And on that note, you mentioned, like we were chatting earlier, you mentioned different names, family members of the victims, different people in town that are, you know, very much impacted or involved with it.

00;28;09;01 - 00;28;32;26
Unknown
You know, a sense when you said that, like you, this is how many people live in Tumbler Ridge. It's it's 500,500. Right. So you everybody knows everybody, right? I think I think that's safe to say. I mean, obviously there's some people coming and going that are workers when you're in a mining world, but the people that are that are here, that are have chosen to stay in this community, you know them, right?

00;28;32;27 - 00;28;52;21
Unknown
Like, I think you get to know the people, you bump into them in the grocery store or whatever, because it is a very small little town. And, and it's that's why I think that's what makes it so spectacular as well. So talk to me about how those relationships, what those meant as you went through this, this event.

00;28;52;25 - 00;28;56;18
Unknown
went, looked up and went, oh yeah, these are people, these are people that are hurting.

00;28;56;21 - 00;28;58;02
Unknown
again, you know, I'm

00;28;58;02 - 00;29;02;07
Unknown
a newspaper reporter. So newspaper reporters are supposed to be sort of above and outside.

00;29;02;07 - 00;29;06;11
Unknown
But yet this is my community. So I'm part of and on the inside.

00;29;06;13 - 00;29;08;17
Unknown
So

00;29;08;20 - 00;29;12;29
Unknown
you know, I'm just I'm just going to put the camera down and, and you know,

00;29;13;06 - 00;29;27;25
Unknown
I bumped into somebody who I haven't seen for, you know, a few months and was just driving through the campsite. And I was like, you know, we got talking and, you know, within within five minutes it turned, the conversation turned to what happened?

00;29;27;26 - 00;30;05;01
Unknown
What happened? Right. Yeah. And that's that's just the way it goes, right? It's. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's it's it's an unfortunate part that it will be part of Tumbler Ridge story. I think goal is as time goes, I think we'll see Tumbler Ridge shine through again. And because it is such a remarkable place and and I think it does, I was amazed with some of the parents of some of the victims and, and those that have even survived and and how.

00;30;05;03 - 00;30;22;19
Unknown
They've really stood up to say like that, that they want to make sure that we move on in a really good way from this. Yeah. And, and and to, to, to really show I think it's really shown to me.

00;30;22;22 - 00;30;46;01
Unknown
All that magic that we saw in Tumbler Ridge. And I think the, the magic is not just in what the gorgeousness that you're surrounded in. Yeah, but it's the people. It's the people that are here. I, we, we loved our interactions with everyone every time we came here. So you, you know a little bit about that. Well, what what the people bring.

00;30;46;03 - 00;31;11;04
Unknown
So one of the one of the emails that I got that I remember was, was one of the reporters who worked was, was working in Fort Mac, and he sent me a note saying, you know, I wish all the best for you, but, you know, but after just just know that after after Fort Mac happened, there was a lot of issues that kind of came came to the surface.

00;31;11;06 - 00;31;50;07
Unknown
Like, you know, there was there was people, you know, there was higher rates of spousal abuse, higher rates of alcoholism, higher rates of, you know, just these domestic domestic issues as people tried and failed to deal with what had happened. And that that's really been kind of my guiding light, both as a like as a reporter, but also as a community member, is to do whatever I can to prevent this town from falling into the pit to to prevent it from embracing the darkness.

00;31;50;07 - 00;32;14;09
Unknown
Because, because when there's when there's tragedy. Right. Our first our first instinct is to cuddle up. It's to its to protect ourselves. It's to. It's to stay away from people. And yeah, there's, there's, there's some good that comes out of that. But there's also a lot of good that comes out of being able to.

00;32;14;12 - 00;32;44;01
Unknown
Interact with people and say, you know what? I'm not doing all right. You know, my, the this my bass player that I was talking about when I was talking to him and he said, you know, I feel like a shittier version of me. I, I think back to that day, he was like, I say, he was he was out sitting on the road where I was, where I was reporting from, kind of trying to trying to get in contact with his kids.

00;32;44;04 - 00;33;24;24
Unknown
But he says that when he closes his eyes. This was a couple weeks ago, but he said when he would close his eyes, he would be there. He would be in the school. He would he would just kind of keep reliving that over and over, even though he wasn't a part of it. And so, you know what I can do to help make his life better, what I can do to help make anybody's life better and to avoid, you know, because I don't want to hear about, you know, people, you know, beating their spouses and and stuff after this, I want to I want to hear about people who are, yes, who are, who are

00;33;24;25 - 00;33;35;14
Unknown
grieving, but who are able to walk through that grief in a way that's.

00;33;35;16 - 00;34;18;14
Unknown
Not harmful, in a way that that they can come out the other side changed, but at the very least, being as good as they were before, if not better. Yeah. So yeah. And it's yeah, I mean, I certainly I always encourage people like to get to counseling to get to really take it take. Walk through the door and pick up the phone and call for the service that can help you get through things and, and talk it out of like I have been through trauma, so I know what it's like.

00;34;18;16 - 00;35;00;10
Unknown
And one of the things that's nice when you go to a professional, whether it's a counselor or whoever you're going to go to, you could say whatever you want to that person that's their job is to listen to that. And I think that was the nicest thing for me. It was like it was a safe space to say whatever was on my whatever was coming out of my heart, in my mind and, and, and so I think that's I want to commend you because I noticed with the when I looked the, the stories that you've been doing, you're talking about those sorts of things and you're, you are bringing them up and making them part

00;35;00;10 - 00;35;07;18
Unknown
of this story and starting to weave that in so that people don't feel alone, I guess, you know. So,

00;35;07;21 - 00;35;16;19
Unknown
yeah. Well, one of the things that I really wanted to do was find somebody like, I wanted to find the world's leading expert in trauma counseling.

00;35;16;26 - 00;35;23;20
Unknown
found one of Canada's leading experts in trauma counseling. But. But what she's doing is she's she's writing.

00;35;23;21 - 00;35;50;23
Unknown
Writing a story for the paper every week. Right now, we're just she's just walking through the seven stages of grief. But as part of that, I'm also doing a an interview with her. The paper is biweekly, so every two weeks I'll sit down and talk to her and just have people come in, ask questions, just, you know, say, you know, this is this is what this is how I'm feeling.

00;35;50;23 - 00;36;15;28
Unknown
Well, you know, okay, here's here's some things that you write. Here's here's how that, you know, it's it's okay because because it feels it feels so sometimes you feel so alone. Right. That's again it's that I'm going to nobody nobody understands. I'm going to I'm going to like come into myself. And I'm just not, not be, you know, sort of sort of hide from the world.

00;36;15;28 - 00;36;46;02
Unknown
But everybody in this town to some degree or another is going through this. Everybody in this town understands what they're going with. And even people who are not here, like just the just the impact that this has had across the province, across the country, across the world is just, you know, it's it's it's amazing the amount of goodwill that that people have for Tumbler Ridge.

00;36;46;04 - 00;37;09;19
Unknown
At the same time, there's also this, this sense that people are forgetting, right. Oh, you know, you'll you're from Tumbler Ridge. Tumbler Ridge. That sounds familiar. Oh, it's not that place where. Right. And that's not a that's not a bad thing either. One of the things that happened after, after the shooting was the town was, was nominated to be for craft hockey.

00;37;09;19 - 00;37;36;14
Unknown
Bill. Yeah. And we came in second place. And I talked to some people after we got second place and they were like, yay! We got second place because it was like, I don't know that I could, I could do that again. I couldn't do that media circus. All the all the attention that's focused on Tumbler, Ridge, all the all the people who are like in town, you know, this, this, this gave us it gave us something to work for.

00;37;36;14 - 00;37;52;06
Unknown
It gave us a sense of pride. It gave us something to focus on outside of ourselves, a chance to come together as a community. But at the same time, it was also to go to the next step. Might have been a little too much for people. Yeah,

00;37;52;13 - 00;38;11;27
Unknown
And so I want to go back to that influx of people. What? What did you see? What what types of organizations and what kind of. You know, what you mentioned is about 2500 population. What do you think the population grew to at its peak?

00;38;12;00 - 00;38;51;00
Unknown
It was probably at its peak. So the peak was when, when, when the Prime Minister and the leaders of all the, all the parties came to town for a vigil. And at the time, I mean, there were probably two, three, 400 extra people. Some of them were people from surrounding communities come to support the ridge. Yeah, some of them were people who used to live here, who came back to just to give good words and support the town.

00;38;51;01 - 00;38;59;02
Unknown
Yeah, a lot of reporters and a lot of a lot of.

00;38;59;04 - 00;39;24;15
Unknown
Support workers. Right. I mentioned all the all the people who had come to town. They were there were probably, I think, ten at its peak, counselors in the community center. But, you know, that day there was somebody showed up with a with a pair of pair of emotional support horses. And as I was walking back, walking over to the community center after the vigil, you know, here's just a couple of horses.

00;39;24;17 - 00;39;42;00
Unknown
Yeah. Want to come pet a horse? Sure. Yeah. They were just in town again a couple of days ago. Yeah. So. Yeah. And and. Yeah, there was definitely a sense of.

00;39;42;03 - 00;40;10;09
Unknown
Everybody, you know, there were, there were a few, I posted, so there were, there were the people who were killed, and then there was this other group that people people always ask about. There was, you know, in the original press release, it was like there was 25 or 27 kids who were treated at the hospital. Yeah. And they were like, oh, did they get shot?

00;40;10;10 - 00;40;27;28
Unknown
Well, no, these were mostly they were like, oh, I jumped over a desk and bruised my, my arm or something like that. They were but they were there were two other, two other kids that got shot that didn't die. One of which was.

00;40;28;00 - 00;40;30;28
Unknown
She recovered in about a week and came home.

00;40;31;01 - 00;40;54;25
Unknown
The other mayor is still in Children's Hospital in down in Vancouver. And slowly, slowly recovering. Her mom just posted a picture. So she's she's basically one side is almost like she's paralyzed. Yeah, but her mother posted a picture yesterday or the day before. And her her off.

00;40;54;25 - 00;41;30;08
Unknown
I was just slightly open and everybody was like, oh, I can see an eye and and right. And everybody's like this. But every once in a while there's somebody like, when this first happened, somebody posted, just let her die. Yeah, right. And stuff like that and some, some really distasteful stuff. So, so the for the first week, ten days, you know, probably had to, probably had to block 30 or 40 people on, on the, on the Facebook page.

00;41;30;08 - 00;42;05;04
Unknown
But at the same time there's, you know, 3000, 4000 who are there, you know, just wanting wanting to know what the information is, wanting the latest information. Yeah, just wanting to support these people. So yeah. Now, now the issue has actually become fake news and, and AI generated slop. Yeah. A weaker week or so ago, there was a story about, you know, eight year old was was clinically dead, then made miraculous recovery.

00;42;05;04 - 00;42;26;19
Unknown
And I'm like, okay, so she's 12. Yeah. She wasn't clinically dead. They they didn't they weren't in the operating room in Tumbler Ridge because there is no operating room in Tumbler Ridge. Yeah. They they did not have to, you know, she was not shot, you know, in the in the chest and cavity. She, she got hit in the throat.

00;42;26;19 - 00;42;58;17
Unknown
In the head. Right. All these all these, like wildly inherited, inaccurate bits of information as people are trying to use this as a way to sell advertising, make money. Yeah. Become more popular. Fisk. Gross. Yeah. And it's it's really, really annoying. Yeah. So. Yeah. So tell me, like what? Some what's a message that you would send out to the wider world about what you've learned from this incident so far?

00;42;58;19 - 00;43;24;18
Unknown
And, you know, maybe if there's something that you'd like to see different. I think the biggest, the biggest thing that I've learned is that you're stronger than you think. And not just not just for me personally, because, you know, one of my, one of my friends looked was, you know, took care of one of the victims for six months.

00;43;24;18 - 00;43;52;17
Unknown
I'm not I'm not directly related. Like, I knew I knew two of the kids to be able to say hi to on the street. Right. So, you know, it's I don't I'm not that intimately connected with the people, but watching watching my friends as they work through this. Yeah. It sucks. It's hard, but.

00;43;52;20 - 00;44;17;14
Unknown
You know, you can get through it. They say time. Time heals wounds. I don't know that time is is the only factor. I know people who've had who've had tragedy ten years ago, 15 years ago. And it's still it still lives with them. Yeah. So time isn't the only factor. There is definitely a sense where you need to.

00;44;17;16 - 00;44;54;23
Unknown
Be able to work through it. Usually. Usually that means talking to people, and that in itself can be hard. And and it's okay to to cry, to mourn. I mean, here we are, three months after the fact. And, you know, I've done this, done this interview on the Edge of Tears all the way through. Because even though even though it's it didn't directly affected me, it it directly affected the people that I care about and the community that I care about.

00;44;54;25 - 00;45;15;02
Unknown
And so, you know, I still I still, you know, feel, feel grief and loss for, you know, the people that I know and the people that that love, the people that were killed. And. Yeah, there was a there was a.

00;45;15;04 - 00;45;35;11
Unknown
13th birthday party for one of the victims and I was there and, you know, so people were telling, telling stories like, oh, he was he was this, he was that. He always had this great smile. And, there was this, there was this.

00;45;35;13 - 00;46;00;26
Unknown
Friend of the family who got up and was was talking about how how she had made a chocolate cake for his mother and and Abel. Oh, he loved his food, but so she's like, okay, here's here's his cake for your mom. Can you bring it? Bring it to her. She's like, oh, yeah, sure. Talk talk to his mom.

00;46;00;26 - 00;46;22;06
Unknown
A couple of days later said, what did you think of the cake? And it's like, what cake? The cake that I sent you. You didn't send me cake. Take a bell. It's like, did you eat the cake? Oh, yes, I did. It was so good. And you know, everybody's laughing. And it was just such a, you know, sort of because, you know, all the people, you know.

00;46;22;07 - 00;46;40;20
Unknown
Yes. He was he loved his food. He was. But but he was, you know, honest as the day as long. So yes, I totally ate it and, and you know, and he had this smile and she's like, oh, you know, okay, so I will make you can you, can you make me more cake, Auntie? It's like, yeah, okay.

00;46;40;22 - 00;46;54;22
Unknown
And then and then she stops and says, I never got a chance to and, and just that, that sort of just kind of goes, you know, it's sort of like. Yeah. And it's like and you're sort of like, oh.

00;46;54;24 - 00;46;59;29
Unknown
I've never done this type of event, but I've had the unfortunate.

00;47;00;02 - 00;47;31;27
Unknown
I'm from Nova Scotia. I woke up that morning of the Nova Scotia shooting. Still a little hard to to say this, but, And friend of mine informed me that that there was a shooting happening in Nova Scotia, and it's somebody that that the shooter is somebody that we knew. Okay. And and somebody I didn't know him well, but, and then, you know, a short time later started to get an understanding of the people.

00;47;31;27 - 00;47;38;12
Unknown
And I realized they knew some of the people that were that were victims. And.

00;47;38;14 - 00;47;57;10
Unknown
And so we, you know, that wasn't an event I was involved in, but it's one that hit very close to home, just like this one does. Given that we had such a close tie to this community in our time living in Grand Prairie and visiting here.

00;47;57;13 - 00;48;30;15
Unknown
And I think you have such an important job as, you know, all the journalists and the and then all the communicators and so on. And we capture these stories and, and make sense of them and piece them together so that other people can and can feel and understand them as best they can. Yeah. And I just want to commend you for the incredible work you've done through this, this tragedy.

00;48;30;15 - 00;48;35;16
Unknown
It's it's very difficult work.

00;48;35;18 - 00;48;40;15
Unknown
And on that note, I'm,

00;48;40;17 - 00;49;08;26
Unknown
I'm wondering if you have any sort of thing that you've learned so far, any lesson that you've kind of would like to share that would help others that may get into that position and how you kind of go through hour by hour and day by day to to continue doing this important work.

00;49;08;29 - 00;49;20;02
Unknown
So for me and I don't it's going to be different for everybody. But for me, I have I have a pile of metaphorical hats.

00;49;20;05 - 00;49;46;29
Unknown
I'm so because because I got into newspaper business by doing photography and writing. I'm also a photographer. So I have this photographer hat that I put on and I go, hey, how's it going? All right. Smiled as love. Hey, look. Right. And then you take that hat off and you put on your your reporter's hat, and there's a sense of when.

00;49;47;01 - 00;50;12;17
Unknown
Of that allows, allows me to compartmentalize things a little bit to be able to sort of go, okay, so I've got my I've got my reporter hat on. I can I can now talk to you without, you know, becoming a blueberry mess, like, you know, here, here, you're talking to me and I'm, as I said, I'm just on the edge of tears all the time from this.

00;50;12;20 - 00;50;37;16
Unknown
But if I, if I were, like, talking to you in the reverse and I had my reporter hat on and not the community member hat on, you know, it would be different because I would I would be able to have that little compartmental, you know, it doesn't mean that I'm going to live there all my life. It doesn't mean that this is the only part of the my personality that that exists, but it allows me to work through those, those situations.

00;50;37;19 - 00;51;01;08
Unknown
I also do, you know, as part of my job, I also need first aid training. And so, you know, when you do the training, it's like, oh, look, here's here's a severed foot. And you know, it's like, okay. But when you're when you're doing that, that first aid thing, you put on your first aid attendant hat and you're able to sort of work through things that way too.

00;51;01;10 - 00;51;28;02
Unknown
Yeah. So I don't know that that's a profound insight for the rest of the world. But it's it's one of the things that kind of allows me to work through this, you know, by being being able to say, okay, I'm Trent, the reporter and, you know, let's, let's I can I can interface with people on that level. Whereas as I'm Trent the human being.

00;51;28;04 - 00;51;53;03
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. And it's, it's yeah, I think that's a, it's a great way of putting it. And you do compartmentalize and you have a role, you have a job and you, you focus in on that job for that time. And then you shift into what's next. Right. What you need it next. And I will say for that first week, I could not do that job.

00;51;53;06 - 00;52;23;07
Unknown
I could not write anything. And I suppose I could I might have been able to sit down and power through. But my I found that what I, what I really wanted to do or what I was doing was I was getting on to Facebook and live streaming and just talking to people, asking questions. There's the RCMP is doing a press conference, so let's go watch this and then let's talk about it.

00;52;23;09 - 00;52;41;05
Unknown
So I actually the the the memorial issue, the one that came out right afterwards, it's 90% written by a friend of mine who lives in Chetwynd who used to run the paper there. So.

00;52;41;07 - 00;53;07;19
Unknown
Almost, almost all that I wrote for that one was the editorial. Yeah. Because that one I wrote like a week later, and by that time I was like, okay, I'm good, but but yeah, it's it's hard when, you know, when you're going through that, but it's also okay. Yeah. Yeah. And so my last question to you before we get to the final little bit is you've had a lot of interaction with the families.

00;53;07;19 - 00;53;32;15
Unknown
I've gotten that sense from you in our conversations. How have you navigated that with the families? Well, like I say, I, I haven't actually done done a lot, I've done some, but I have I have been very much like I say, if you want to come talk to me, that's your prerogative. So I mentioned that I wear a photographer's hat.

00;53;32;17 - 00;53;56;05
Unknown
So I've been to two of the funerals as a photographer specifically to document it as, as the, as a photographer for one, for one of them, I was just like, okay, I'm just going to take some pictures just so you have it to remember. Yeah. Right. And if you choose to, if you choose to post these anywhere, that's your choice.

00;53;56;05 - 00;54;04;08
Unknown
If you want, if you choose to send it to the paper, that's your choice. Yeah, right. I'm not going to do that.

00;54;04;11 - 00;54;27;00
Unknown
you've, you've gone through these last number of months. What do you see as you know kind of what your next steps are as you take. You are an important part of guiding this community through this. So what do you kind of see and what are you sort of thinking of? I mean, I know for you.

00;54;27;02 - 00;54;57;15
Unknown
We've chatted a bit already and it is a kind of a day to day thing. So I know that there's probably not a whole lot of, of strategic thinking, but what do you where do you think you're going to go? I think I sat down my my floor plan. I think it was 3 or 4 days after this happened because there were people sort of like I say, there were people saying stupid things online.

00;54;57;17 - 00;55;35;23
Unknown
And I made a post on Facebook saying, you know, we can have hard conversations. We can we can talk to people who disagree with us, but without turning into a he said she said, without it turning into a you suck. I you know, I know everything and your your opinion is completely invalid. Yeah. And so one of the things that I am trying to do is to leave space for those conversations, but also.

00;55;35;26 - 00;56;05;06
Unknown
Help people navigate those conversations with sensitivity. Right. So so the big the big issue right now is the government announced that they're planning on demolishing the secondary school and building a new one. And there are there's this there's this group of people who say that's the best outcome that we could have had. And there's this group of people who say, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

00;56;05;09 - 00;56;30;21
Unknown
And trying to find ways to talk to, you know, say, okay, let's let's not, you know, okay, we have differences of opinion, but let's just let's not form into camps. Let's not form into, you know, opposing organizations. We're all part of this community. And we can we can find ways to figure out how to express these opinions without, you know, throwing stones at other people.

00;56;30;22 - 00;56;47;15
Unknown
Yeah. Right. So, you know, when I'm, when I'm talking to this group, it's like, oh, but have you considered this argument? Have you considered this argument? I'm not, I'm not, I'm not part of this group, but or I'm not part of that group, but have you seen, you know, when I'm over here. What about this? What about this?

00;56;47;16 - 00;57;15;11
Unknown
Right. You know how many for talking to the people who think this is the worst idea? How many? How many kids are you willing to leave behind them? Yeah, right. There are there are kids who have stated point blank that they are not going to go back to that school. Yeah. And they ask them, well, what if we took in, like completely changed it up, knocked down all the walls, rebuilt it on the inside, and they're like, maybe, but I don't know.

00;57;15;13 - 00;57;32;14
Unknown
And so are we willing to like, how many how many kids are we willing to say, okay, well, you know, whatever, you don't need your education. Anyways, we're going to continue on at the school that we've got.

00;57;32;16 - 00;57;52;17
Unknown
You know, is it one, is it five, is it ten, is it 20. Like, at what point in time do we say, We, we've got the school, but there doesn't seem to be anybody there. What's wrong? Yeah. So, Yeah. So, so I mean, but it's a it's a big issue, right?

00;57;52;19 - 00;58;26;26
Unknown
Because because it's going to cost a lot of money. And that money could be better spent just in this community to, to get better health care outcomes, to get better mental health care out. Yeah. Because mental health is I mean the, the the reports have not been released but but the but currently the the everybody thinks that one of the biggest things is that if, if the shooter had had better mental health supports, this might not have happened, might have, but it might not have.

00;58;26;28 - 00;58;44;07
Unknown
Yeah. And you know, it's hard to you can't go back but it can't come. But if we were to, if we were to put, put some of that money into getting better mental mental health supports, maybe we could prevent something like this from happening again. Yeah. Right. So there's and there's legitimate arguments on both sides. There's good arguments on both sides.

00;58;44;07 - 00;59;10;14
Unknown
There is no right decision. There is no wrong decisions. But you still need to make a decision. Yeah. There are there are decisions that have benefits and there are decisions. But that same decision will have consequences. And if you choose the other, if you choose the other position, that decision has benefits and that decision has consequences. Yeah. And and navigating that is is hard.

00;59;10;14 - 00;59;15;06
Unknown
But at the at the end of the day I think it's worthwhile. Yeah.

00;59;15;09 - 00;59;19;19
Tim Conrad
Let me tell you about Tumbler Ridge, which I have called Canada's Hidden Gem for over a decade.

00;59;19;21 - 00;59;23;21
Tim Conrad
This place was put on my bucket list and despite multiple visits, it's still there.

00;59;23;23 - 00;59;45;08
Tim Conrad
We fished there, choosing between gloriously beautiful rivers or lakes. We've hiked there, including unreal, the Unreal Shipyards, and Titanic Trail, which takes you through incredible stone formations and mountain views that make your heart skip beats. We wandered above and down below the 70 meter canoe, so falls and another half dozen waterfalls nearby.

00;59;45;09 - 01;00;05;07
Tim Conrad
It's a spot you can go for short hikes and see many waterfalls tucked into wilderness. We've put our hands and feet and dinosaur foot tracks along the rivers and touch fossils in their museum. We have sat and just soaked in the view for hours as time stood still. It's a bit of a trip to get to Tumbler Ridge and absolutely worth every minute once you get there.

01;00;05;09 - 01;00;15;06
Tim Conrad
I beg you, put Tumbler Ridge on your bucket list and send me the stories and images of your adventures. Learn more at.

01;00;15;08 - 01;00;19;19
Tim Conrad
To. This was not a paid advertisement, just me sharing my love of Tumbler

01;00;19;22 - 01;00;27;26
Tim Conrad
what advice would you give. You know we usually see information officers in in large emergency or crisis.

01;00;27;26 - 01;00;50;28
Tim Conrad
But you sometimes you see communicators and yourself as a journalist and a reporter. How do you what advice would you give them to to help them perform their job better in a crisis? Some sometimes that people are more important than the story.

01;00;51;00 - 01;01;08;19
Trent Ernst
Right? If you like like the worst thing, the worst thing I can, I can imagine doing is going up to somebody say, so your son was just killed. How does that make you feel? Yeah. How do you think it makes it feel? Right. So.

01;01;08;22 - 01;01;44;06
Unknown
Yeah, there are there are ways to have those. Again, there are ways to have those conversations. But being willing to willing to have those conversations with humanity and with compassion is important. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And what is a book, documentary or resource that you recommend to those that are managing this sort of situation? Oh that's fascinating. Is there something that you've leaned on?

01;01;44;06 - 01;02;21;11
Unknown
Is there something that I mean, I've been the people that I've been kind of keep going to as the Canadian Association of Journalists. Yeah. They have supports there. They actually donated financially to the paper. So and he mentioned note that in any mention of the but also a couple of weeks after this, they had they had a, a you know, how a seminar basically exactly this and it felt like they, they did it almost specifically for me.

01;02;21;12 - 01;02;42;22
Unknown
Right. There were other people who showed up, but it was like, you know, how how do you journalism in times of crisis, journalism in times of trauma. How do you how do you work through that? So yeah. Yeah. So so for for reporters, the Canadian Association journalism and just more broadly like for what I do, I'm not part of any association.

01;02;42;23 - 01;03;04;25
Unknown
Right. I'm just me kind of doing this. I'm too small because I publish once every two weeks. I can't join the local or the provincial organization because you need to be a weekly. Well, I can't afford to be a weekly, so. Yeah, but so, but so having if you can having those associations. Those people that you can relate to.

01;03;04;26 - 01;03;12;17
Unknown
And if you can't, having friends and people who who understand what you do to talk to. Yeah.

01;03;12;17 - 01;03;20;03
Unknown
how did you maintain your mental well-being in the most intense moments.

01;03;20;05 - 01;03;25;22
Unknown
So the night of the of the.

01;03;25;24 - 01;04;01;02
Unknown
The Mark Carney being in town for the vigil after the big I life basically dragged me down to the community center and went, hi, here. This this person needs mental. But but I discovered actually so I, I don't know if I mentioned that before, I, before I started the newspaper, I was sort of struggling to find what to do with my life because who wants to be in the newspaper business, especially in a town of 2500 people?

01;04;01;02 - 01;04;25;06
Unknown
You cannot make a living doing this. Yeah, right. I freely admit I am not making a living doing this, you know? But. So I'd been one of the things that I tried was to, was to be a substitute teacher. So I literally worked with a grade seven class, a class that was, you know, this was but but like six years ago.

01;04;25;08 - 01;04;47;13
Unknown
Yeah. But while I was there, I, they did have a mental health support worker who would come to town. And you know, I would talk to him just about things in general. So we'd talk a lot about books because because I love books and, and and so we've got and he was one of the people who was at, who was counseling that first week.

01;04;47;13 - 01;05;25;25
Unknown
And I was like, okay, I know you want me to talk to people, but I want to talk to Miguel, right? Because I know him, I trust him, I understand him. So, and so there's I've talked to some counselors. Part of it is I'm kind of doing the back door counseling sessions. I mentioned that I have Christine Dernederlanden, who's one of, you know, who's who's a well-known trauma and grief expert, and she is doing these stories for the paper, and I'm using that as a way to, you know, it's kind of free counseling.

01;05;25;26 - 01;05;47;02
Unknown
Yeah. And then we, you know, once, once every two weeks we sit down and we talk about, you know, what she's previously written. And so. Right. It's a little bit I mean, I don't get to, you know, Boyce my things. But you know, I get to I get to hear all the, all the good advice and all the all the things that you should be doing and then going out and not doing any of them.

01;05;47;03 - 01;06;08;13
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's it. I mean, it is challenging when you're in this phase of things. Obviously, I want to encourage you to get out there and take care of yourself and do the things. And you've got your wife and your support network and, and listen to them and they're looking out for you. But at the same time, I'm, I am, you know, a little bit ADHD.

01;06;08;14 - 01;06;38;16
Unknown
Right. And there is there's a part of that where having like for me as a writer, deadlines focus me. Yeah. So but as a, as a as a human having causes also focus me and I try and find ways to say this in ways that that don't come across as being arrogant. But this, this help focus me. Right?

01;06;38;17 - 01;07;02;14
Unknown
I talked about how I was very navel gazing, you know, after Covid, and this kind of forced me to kind of look up and look at the rest of the people around me. And so that that in of itself is has been a not a good the shooting was not a good thing. But I this has been an outcome for me that that is positive.

01;07;02;18 - 01;07;22;17
Unknown
Yeah. You know there's also negative outcomes but yeah. So, so being able to, to communicate with the, with the people in town and say, you know, even if it's just saying like this morning I did a today in Tumbler Ridge. What you need to know booty yoga has been canceled for the rest of the month. It'll pick up back in.

01;07;22;19 - 01;07;44;22
Unknown
Right. Just even stuff like that, you know, it can be you know, there are times where where it's really profound and really deep, meaningful conversations. But sometimes it's just like, hey, you know, if you if you if you were planning on going to yoga tonight, it's counseling. Yeah. Right. So and that has.

01;07;44;24 - 01;07;51;28
Unknown
It's not you know, I'm not saying I'm throwing myself completely in my work and baring my head, but but that has that has helped me.

01;07;51;28 - 01;08;10;26
Unknown
So yeah. Yeah yeah you're right. Yeah it does. It keeps you focused and then it gives you the. Yeah. And just it's a wonderful thing to hear some of that and I, I rolled into town last night and I had to do the quick run to the store for a couple of things.

01;08;10;26 - 01;08;22;29
Unknown
And that was the only time I was in town and, and, and just, I was like driving around and, and and did a little walk around very quickly.

01;08;23;01 - 01;08;50;09
Unknown
As as fresh and new as this event is, it was nice to see some of the things that I always saw in this town, the folks getting at the restaurant and finishing up for the day. And and I actually saw familiar faces coming out of the restaurant and, and so it just. Yeah. Like I think that's I can't impress that upon people enough to, to try to get into some of the normal steps, force yourself into them if you can.

01;08;50;09 - 01;09;17;14
Unknown
And and it can feel I know it can feel almost like a betrayal when when you, when you're like, I. I'm. I'm feeling good. I'm. I'm laughing. I'm enjoying myself. But that's not the worst thing. Abel Sr, his daughter, he posted a picture of her smiling and said, the smile has come back. This is. This is progress.

01;09;17;15 - 01;09;41;20
Unknown
Right. Yeah. You know, it's again, it's okay to mourn, but the hope is to not stay there. You don't. You don't live in sorrow. Yeah. It's a place where, you know, for for ever, you know, forever and ever. You're going to keep going to that door and maybe going into that room for, you know, a few minutes, a few hours, but you need to be able to come out of there too.

01;09;41;20 - 01;10;04;22
Unknown
And, you know, experience joy, experience happiness, experience life as it was meant to be lived. Yeah, yeah. It's not it's not the life that you were hoping it would be. You know, it's changed, but, you know, make that bring that change on to be a part of you and and just move forward. Yeah.

01;10;04;25 - 01;10;08;29
Tim Conrad
How can people follow along with your your publication?

01;10;09;01 - 01;10;18;26
Tim Conrad
Tell us about that. Okay. I produce a newspaper called Tumbler Ridgelines. Like the ridgeline of a mountain.

01;10;18;29 - 01;10;30;28
Tim Conrad
A lot of people think I'm talking about the truck. I'm not talking about the truck. I was I was trying to truck. I think I do like the truck. No, the truck is the truck. I named it after the after the.

01;10;30;29 - 01;11;01;09
Tim Conrad
Because there was there was there was a there was a newspaper here before that I was working at. So, so anyways the the so Tumbler Ridgelines. Com is the website. I try and get everything up there but I, I it's basically a one man show so I'm still trying three months on after doing kind of daily daily news or I'm trying to figure out how to get things to post from YouTube to the website, and I haven't figured that out.

01;11;01;15 - 01;11;09;09
Tim Conrad
So every day I do something on YouTube called Today and Tumbler again, it's under Tumbler Ridgelines

01;11;09;11 - 01;11;23;00
Tim Conrad
I'm despite my dislike of social media in general and Mark Zuckerberg and specifically, yeah, I do. I am fairly active on Facebook as well. Yeah.

01;11;23;03 - 01;11;34;14
Tim Conrad
So there's a Tumbler Ridgelines Facebook page, and I sort of toss a little bit in like none of them is the same.

01;11;34;16 - 01;11;45;23
Tim Conrad
They all have slightly different, different things. So, yeah, yeah. If you want to follow everything, you'd have to follow all those things. And then as a photographer, I'm eye for detail photography.

01;11;45;24 - 01;11;56;06
Tim Conrad
it's wonderful to talk to you. Thank you for taking this time together. And and I just I, I want to commend you for the work that you've done.

01;11;56;08 - 01;12;32;00
Tim Conrad
We don't always sign up for these things. I, I've often said with for me, I'm in the wrong place at the right time and and so that happened to you. You've stepped up. I have been so impressed with the work that you have done through this incident, and I've been following along throughout and raising this community up through this darkness and, and, and to just show, show that the community will live on and and and we'll get through this.

01;12;32;00 - 01;12;39;24
Tim Conrad
So yeah. Thanks so much, Trent. This interview is going to end with a hug, my friend.

01;12;39;26 - 01;12;43;28
Tim Conrad
Thank you very much. The sound of.

01;12;44;01 - 01;12;54;05
Tim Conrad
This interview was not planned. It just happened. I want to thank Trent for his openness and honesty, and especially for taking on the role of helping the community move away from darkness.

01;12;54;08 - 01;13;20;14
Tim Conrad
Trent's publication is small, and he could use any support we could give him as he navigates the next few years. He doesn't know this, but I'm looking for your support to improve his operation. Outside this interview, I learned he could use a boost in equipment and knowledge so he could do the important work ahead as best possible. And I'm asking if you have any audio video equipment that or maybe services you could donate to.

01;13;20;15 - 01;13;45;08
Tim Conrad
Please reach out to me. This isn't a sponsorship opportunity. It's one where I'm asking for your help with no expectations of anything in return. Just good kindness. Time to help with such things as connecting his website to YouTube or giving a little coaching and support. Perhaps there's financial support to ensure his publication and platform are strong and able to support the path to community healing.

01;13;45;14 - 01;14;07;03
Tim Conrad
You'll find these things at Communications Podcast help, where you can learn more and maybe help lift up Trent and others in his community. Every little bit helps. Thank you for joining me on this episode of the wildfires, Floods and Chaos Communications podcast. Man, you stand here. Me later.

01;14;07;05 - 01;14;11;07
Trent Ernst
Shout out to Naomi Larson. You're the best.