Saturday, April 26. Thousands of people, especially families with young children, flocked to the local Lapu-Lapu festival on Fraser St. in Vancouver. The festival honours Datu Lapu-Lapu, the indigenous chieftain who fought the Spanish conquistadors who arrived in the Philippines in 1521.
In 2023, the province of British Columbia officially proclaimed April 27 as Lapu-Lapu Day in the province, the first in BC and in Canada. MLA Mable Elmore, who made this proclamation possible, underscored that “the legacy of Lapu-Lapu runs deep in the psyche of Filipinos and lives in their deep-seated value of bayanihan, a communal desire and the act of helping one another and being connected with others.”
In April 2024, the first ever Lapu-Lapu block party festival was organized by the group Filipino BC with the help of MLA Elmore. This year, the bloc party festival was blessed with the sun shining the whole day; it was bigger this second year and featured a parade, lots of cultural activities like dances and performances, Filipino products on sale, food trucks and food tents.
Photo credits: vancouver.anglican.ca and cpac.ca
No one could have predicted that the local festival which started on a high and jubilant note would end with as a tragedy, a “mass casualty event” created by a young man and his SUV. The concert had just ended which marked the end of the festival when the SUV entered the food truck area and plowed through the crowd of people at high speed. Screams and images were recorded on cell phones and went viral.
Sunday, April 27. The Fraser St . and 41st avenue and several blocks southbound remained cordoned off with the yellow crime-scene tape.
The little church of St. Mary the Virgin South Hill on Fraser Street, just blocks from the site of the tragedy, opened its doors to the community. The Sunday morning worship service was also a prayer vigil organized with Migrante BC and Bayan BC to remember and pray. Healing prayers were also asked for the grieving families and for those individuals who got hurt/injured and for those witnesses who were traumatized because of this incident. Among the crowd were MP Don Davies, Atty General Nikki Sharma, MLA Adrian Dix, former mayor Gregor Robertson, indigenous leader from the Musqueam nation Wade Grant and Premier David Eby.
The Reverend Expedito Farinas called the incident “heartbreaking beyond words. We will support each other through this unbearable pain and continue to include them in our prayers.”
Later that day, Prime Minister Mark Carney, Premier David Eby and MLA Mable Elmore, and Mayor Ken Sim visited St. Mary the Virgin to light a candle and offer flowers at the memorial altar.
At the site of the tragedy, people and families laid their bouquets of flowers, teddy bears, messages, candles at the corner fence to remember the people who died and were injured. That night, everyone was invited to the Kensington Community Centre to gather in solidarity and support. Hundreds came to light candles and offer flowers and to hear from the festival organizers, city and provincial officials.
Migrante BC in its statement declared that the festival “was meant to be a celebration of our history and unity. Instead, it has become a moment of deep grief and concern for our community. Migrante BC stands ready to assist in any way we can and to support efforts for healing and accountability.”
Monday, April 29. The Vancouver Police said that most of the 11 who died were women. The youngest was a five-year-old little girl whose father and stepmother were also killed. The oldest, a 65-year-old man.
As more details are known and published, everyone hopes that the number of fatalities does not increase. Everyone hopes that the injured get well, including those who witnessed the event. Everyone is reminded that the trauma of the event will continue to cast its dark shadow, thus the need to connect, to heal, and recover.
It is important to know that there is community support and resources following the Lapu-Lapu festival tragedy and these are readily available. Community members have also declared additional support services through counselling, safe spaces to connect and talk, managing grief, etc.
I end with the call of Migrant BC : “We call on the Filipino community to come together — to offer strength, compassion, and support to one another during this difficult time.”
By Erie Maestro
