The outburst on Tuesday, one of the country's deadliest mass casualty events in recent history, brought to Canada the type of mass shooting more common in the neighbouring United States.
Six people were found dead inside a high school in the town of Tumbler Ridge in British Columbia, two more people were found dead at a home believed to be connected to the incident, and another person died on the way to hospital, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Tuesday.
At least two other people were hospitalised with serious or life-threatening injuries, and as many as 25 people were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
The suspected shooter was also found dead from what appears to be a self-inflicted injury, police said, adding they did not believe there were any more suspects or ongoing threat to the public.
Police said the shooter was a woman - an unusual development as mass shootings in North America are almost always carried out by men.
A police active shooter alert said the suspect was described "as female in a dress with brown hair".
Police Superintendent Ken Floyd later confirmed at a press conference that the suspect described in the alert was the same person found dead in the school.
"We are not in a place to understand why or what may have motivated this tragedy," Floyd said.
He added that police are still investigating how the victims are connected to the shooter.
Police did not say how many of the victims were minors.
Tumbler Ridge is a remote municipality with a population of around 2400 people in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in northern British Columbia, approximately 1155km northeast of Vancouver.
Images of the town show a snow-covered landscaped filled with pine trees.
"Multiple injuries and multiple deceased were inside the school as officers progressed through the scene," Floyd told reporters.
"We're still triaging other victims, and I don't have updates on whether that number could rise. The scene was very dramatic, and there are multiple victims that are still being cared for," Floyd said.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was devastated by the shooting and suspended a planned trip to the Munich Security Conference.
"I join Canadians in grieving with those whose lives have been changed irreversibly today, and in gratitude for the courage and selflessness of the first responders who risked their lives to protect their fellow citizens," he wrote on X.
"I am devastated by today's horrific shootings in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. My prayers and deepest condolences are with the families and friends who have lost loved ones to these horrific acts of violence."
British Columbia Premier David Eby called it an "unimaginable tragedy."
In April 2020, a 51-year-old man disguised in a police uniform and driving a fake police car shot and killed 22 people in a 13-hour rampage in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia, before police killed him at a gas station about 90km from the site of his first killings.
In Canada's worst school shooting, in December 1989, a gunman killed 14 female students and wounded 13 at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, before committing suicide.
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