On any ordinary day, the neighborhood of South Vancouver opens with the sounds of life, but on Saturday it was not an ordinary day. It was a celebration of the Filipino culture, and the music of a live concert resonated in the streets when families aligned in food trucks and children touched.
Sunday was strangely silent.
“It gives me chilling,” Franchesca Gabo said, taking everything.
Mrs. Gabo, 20, left the festival shortly before a driver attacked her SUV in the mass of people, killing 11 and hurting more than 30.
Now, she had come, jug, tieding an IMPOMPTU vigil of people who looked at the police tape and tried in vain to absorb the hardness of what had happened.
“It was a happy day yesterday,” said Gabo. “Everyone was celebrating.”
The authorities say that the reason for the attack did not seem to be terrorism. But beyond that he had emerged on the suspect in custody that is not a 30 -year -old man with a history of mental illness. Now, he is accused of murder.
It knew more about the victims at the festival that celebrated Lapu Lapu’s day.
The youngest was Katie Le, a 5 -year -old girl who was killed with her parents, Richard Le, 47, and Linh Hoang, 30, according to local news reports. Mr. Le, Andy’s son, andy survived due to a last minute decision to jump the festival in favor of the task, said the relations.
A school board in a nearby suburb said that a counselor named Kira Salim was also among the dead. “The loss of our friend and colleague has left us all shocking and disconsolate,” he said in a statement.
And the increase in funds began to help the injured people in the attack and to replace the remains of at least one victim who was killed.
More than 960,000 people in Canada are of Filipino descent, according to the government, with approximately half of life in Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary. In June 2023, a government report took note of the solid representation of the Philippines in the sectors of trades, medical care, service and business administration.
“The Filipino Canadians are among the most working people in Canada,” the report said.
Many arrived in Canada through foreign workers programs, including a live caregiver program that was executed between 1992 and 2014 and helped to reassure around 75,000 Filipinos.
Angelo Cruz, who grew up in the neighborhood where the place of the Tok festival said on Monday that his mother, despite having a master’s degree in science, worked as a babysitter until she has residence and helps the rest of the family to immigrate.
“You make that sacrifice, let go potentially raise your own son, because you are because your son has a better life,” Cruz said.
But Lapu Lapu’s day is intended to be a break of all that.
“It was the only time we wanted to express our setback and have fun, and we could get that,” said Cruz, a human resources administrator who grew up in the community where the festival was a hero. “That was heartbreaking for me.”
The edge of the neighborhood was decorated with a yellow, navy blue, white and red, the national colors of the Philippines, thought that the streets are covered by a mixture of businesses and restaurants not only Filipinos but also Vietnamese food, China and India.
On Sunday, Mr. Cruz and his family left Pin, a restaurant that serves his traditional favorites such as Pancit Wordak, a garlic dish and a shrimp dish, and the spring rolls of Filipinos known as Lumpia. Then they went to the vigil sites.
In one of them, Arturo Macapagal, a nurse from the operating room that is or in the neighborhood, took a moment to say a quiet sentence, united by a priest.
“Every time it meets, especially the Philippine community, it is about food and happiness and joy and laughter and camaraderie,” Macapagal said.
When Prime Minister Mark Carney came to present his respects, the crowd exploded in “Amazing Grace”.
In the midst of mourning, life continued.
Music criticized the street of the proud Pinoy Life Store, a center for special food products. Buyers sailed shelves that transported dry fish called yours, heavy jasmine rice sacks and sweet corn fries. A poster announcing the Lapu Lapu Festival was still attached to the door.
