Members of the Filipino community in St. John’s watched videos on social media of the tragic car-ramming attack at the Lapu Lapu Day festival in Vancouver with shock and anger.
“You’re just watching, helpless, and you can feel the pain,” said Coco Sangcopan, who volunteers with the N.L. Filipino-Canadian Organization Inc.
On Saturday evening, a man drove an SUV into a crowd of festival-goers in Vancouver, killing 11 people, police said. Nearly 100,000 people were in attendance, as the festival holds significance for Filipinos across the country.
For group volunteer Katherine Salvador, the festival in Vancouver held a personal connection. She is from Lapu-Lapu City in the Philippines, where she would also celebrate the Filipino hero who fought against Spanish colonization every year on April 26.
“I felt devastated,” Salvador said. “It was supposed to be a day for celebration, supposed to be a day to be together with the rest of the community.”
Salvador said her husband’s aunt had a booth set up at the festival in Vancouver, but luckily she left the festival early.
Sangcopan said she spoke to a community leader in British Columbia to express her condolences, and they’re in shock.
“People were looking forward to this event because again, this is a celebration of a gathering of the Filipinos all across B.C,” she said. “Then it turned out to be tragic.”
N.L. Filipino community shocked by Vancouver festival tragedy
The community in St. John’s had plans to host an Independence Day celebration outdoors in June but is now looking to move the event indoors and strengthen security, Sangcopan said.
“I guess we have to be more careful as a community,” she said.
“We really don’t know what will happen because — and especially with Filipino gatherings — there’s kids, there’s families,” Salvador said.
The Filipino organization will be holding a mass and prayer vigil at St. Teresa’s Parish in St. John’s on Wednesday.
It’s encouraging members of the community to come say a prayer and offer candles to those who lost their lives in Vancouver.
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