Vancouver’s Lapu Lapu festival, meant to be a celebration of Filipino pride, ended in a wail of sirens and screams.
Eleven people died and many more were hospitalised after a man drove an SUV through the crowd.
“A lot of us are still numb. A lot of us are still angry, confused, sad, devastated – and some of us don’t know how to feel, what to feel,” said R.J. Aquino, chairman of Filipino B.C., the organisation that put on the festival.
He spoke at a vigil attended by hundreds of people from across the Lower Mainland on Sunday night.
“Honestly, I’m kind of all of the above right now,” he added.
That was the sense I got from talking to people in the neighbourhood around the festival site all day: an intense mix of shock, sorrow and fury.
Take two Filipino friends I met on the street where it happened, Roger Peralta and Bjorn Villaruel.
They both arrived in Canada in 2016 and were having a fabulous evening at the festival, listening to the music and eating the food of their homeland.
“Suddenly I hear this unimaginable noise,” Bjorn said.
“It was a loud bang,” Roger said.
Both men describe seeing bodies bouncing off an SUV just meters away from them.
“I did not run away,” Bjorn said. “I actually followed the vehicle, because I felt like I could stop him.
“It was horrendous. A lot of people are just lying on the street and crying and begging for help.”
Almost a day later, Roger said he had not been able to sleep and was in shock, seeing flashes of the horror in his mind over and over and finding himself having to stop and cry.
But he also talked of a strong Filipino spirit that he said will lift the community.
“We have in our culture Bayanihan,” he said. It translates as a spirit of unity and cooperation among Filipinos.
“When you meet another Filipino, even if you don’t know them, you greet them, you feel like they’re family, even if you’re not.”
The Premier of British Columbia, David Eby, paid tribute to the Filipino community.
“I don’t think there’s a British Columbian who hasn’t been touched in some way by the Filipino community.
“You can’t go to a place that delivers care in our province and not meet a member of that community.
“Our long-term care homes, our hospitals, child care, schools. This is a community that gives and gives.”
Bjorn, who works at a hospital as a magnetic resonance imaging technologist, agreed.
“We are very caring people,” he said.
Both he and Roger were furious the SUV got into the crowd in the first place. They said they felt let down by Canada.
Premier Eby said he feels that rage too.
“But I want to turn the rage that I feel into ensuring that we stand with the Filipino community,” he said in front of a police cruiser blocking access to the crime scene.
“This event does not define us and the Filipino community or that celebration.”
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