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The father of a student killed in a school shooting in southern Alberta almost 27 years ago says forgiveness was at the heart of how he tackled the tragedy.
Retired reverend Dale Lang lost his 17-year-old son, Jason, after the teen was shot by a fellow student in a hallway at W.R. Myers High School in Taber, Alta., about 300 kilometres southeast of Calgary, in 1999.
The 14-year-old shooter, who also wounded another student, was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder and sentenced as a youth to three years in jail and seven years of probation.
“In our case, God granted us the grace to be able to forgive the boy who killed our son, and that was hugely important for us,” he said in an interview Wednesday.
He shared his story again after a mass shooting Tuesday in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., left nine people dead, including the 18-year-old shooter.
Police said the shooter killed her mother and 11-year-old stepbrother at a home in the town before gunning down a teacher and five students at the high school and taking her own life.
Lang said he doesn’t know enough of the details about what happened in B.C. to speak directly about it, other than to say it’s a tragedy.
“I’m very sad to know that Tumbler Ridge will be going through some difficult days ahead, to say the least, and particularly the families that have lost people,” said Lang.
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“That’s a terrible tragedy that no one should have to go through.”
In a small community, he said, everyone will be very affected. “It’s going to be part of the picture in the life of the community now for years and years to come.”
The process of grieving can be different for everybody, and it takes time, he added.
In his experience, forgiveness was the beginning of not getting “stuck in a place of anger and bitterness.”
He drew strength from his relationship with God, he said.
“(It) is hard to explain to people, because it was so painful and so tragic. And even in the midst of all our tears, we were still able to begin the process of healing.”
He said one of the things that was useful for him and his wife was returning to the high school where Jason was shot to welcome kids back into their classrooms.
The Taber shooting was the first deadly high school shooting in Canada in about 20 years. It came eight days after a mass shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., where two students killed 12 students and one teacher before taking their own lives.
“It was a time when people, and young people, needed to feel like the world wasn’t falling apart on them,” Lang said. He added that students also needed to know they were cared for and could get through it.
“Over the years, we’ve had the kids that were in the school contact us or talk with us and let us know that it was a meaningful time for them in a difficult situation,” said Lang.
Lang wrote a book about the killing titled “Jason Has Been Shot!” along with his son Mark.
Lang said it’s something that wasn’t easy to put to paper, but he believes it was cathartic and brought comfort and healing to a lot of people.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 12, 2026.
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