By Dan Laxer
The Suburban

Pinay Quebec and other groups in the Filipino community came together to organize a vigil last Monday evening in Mackenzie-King Park.

The vigil was of course to mourn the deaths of those killed the weekend before in Vancouver.

As is now well-known, last Saturday, April 26 the Filipino community of Vancouver were celebrating the Lapu-Lapu festival when a 30-year-old man, who has since been arrested, drove his car into the crowd, plowing into celebrants, killing eleven people and injuring several others.

Several hundred people attended the vigil, including several of Montreal’s elected officials from all levels of government, and several representatives of the Filipino community.

“We grieve these losses and feel the pain of the families of the deceased,” said Jasmin de la Calzada of Pinoy Quebec. “Tonight’s vigil is about our own Montreal community’s process of mourning. Tonight is a venue to grieve, process what’s happened.”

CND-NDG Mayor Gracia Kasoki Katahwa told The Suburban “We have the biggest Filipino community in Quebec here in Cote des Neiges-NDG. For me it was important to tell the community that we are with them in this difficult moment.”

Norberto Mandin Jr. is the creator of Canadian Pinoy Radio-Montreal. He woke up to the news of the horrific incident, and started reaching out to friends in Vancouver right away, calling and texting. But he received no reply, which worried him. Eventually he found out that one of those killed was a friend.

“A celebration of pride of our culture, or our heritage ended in eleven lives lost,” adding “we are gathered today as one community demonstrating that despite this darkness in our community, we are one, we are together, and we will move forward.”

Projet Montreal leader Luc Rabouin was also in attendance, as were NDG-CDN councillors Despina Sourias and Sonny Moroz, and D’arcy-McGee MNA Elisabeth Prass. Anthony Housefather and Neil Oberman werr also there, just hours before the polls closed in the federal election.

Community members were laying wreaths and flowers before a banner that read “Luksang Bayan,” meaning “National Mourning.”

Stephanie Valenzuela, the Ensemble Montreal councillor for the Darlington district in the CDN-NDG borough, is a member of the Filipino community. She spoke emotionally, saying “tonight we gather as one in sorrow, in solidarity, and in strength.”

“If there is anything that we’ve learned from what happened on Saturday,” she added, “it’s that we continue moving forward with kindness and compassion in our hearts, because that’s who we are not just as Filipinos, but as Canadians.” n