Filipino community at odds as Vancouver fast-tracks Lapu-Lapu Day tragedy memorial event

Filipino community organizers are conflicted after the City of Vancouver’s decision to hold a memorial event for the victims of April’s Lapu-Lapu Day street festival attack this month.

Local group Filipino BC says it didn’t know there was an urgent motion going to council on Tuesday and doesn’t feel the voices of the community are being heard.

“While we understand the city’s desire to create space for collective mourning and healing, it is critical that this process centres the voices of the families and affected communities,” Filipino BC said in a statement, adding that its focus right now is to continue supporting victims, their families and anyone else who was affected.

“We believe the City of Vancouver should prioritize emergency recovery funding. While we are supporting families by connecting them with financial aid, providing temporary accommodations and other services, we have not engaged with them about a memorial event.”

It has been fewer than 40 days since the vehicle-ramming attack on the Lapu-Lapu Day Filipino street festival in Vancouver that killed 11 people and injured dozens more.

Meanwhile, United Filipino Canadian Association of British Columbia (UFCABC) President Christian Cunanan says the coalition of over 60 duly-registered societies gives the event its “full and unwavering support.”

In a statement Wednesday, he said the initiative was announced by Mayor Ken Sim during a community engagement session at Langara College last month, including representatives from Filipino, Hogan’s Alley, Latincouver, and Vietnamese groups.

“As a community, we are united in our commitment to support all efforts aimed at healing and rebuilding. We will continue to work closely with the City of Vancouver and other community partners to help ensure the success of each initiative being organized in response to this tragedy,” said Cunanan.

“We are united in our commitment to support all efforts aimed at healing and rebuilding.”

“communication breakdown” in the City Council

At Tuesday’s council meeting, there was a lengthy back-and-forth between councillors about the motion, which was brought forward by Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung, on behalf of Mayor Ken Sim, who was absent.

In an interview with 1130 NewsRadio, however, Councillor Mable Elmore admitted that the City Council members made a mistake; “there was a communication breakdown.”

“We were told very clearly by by Vancouver Police Department’s Victim Services Unit that it was inappropriate to characterize the event as a memorial event,” she said.

“We are characterize the event [now] as a benefit concert.”

Elmore explains that that was not the wording that came forward in the urgent motion to City Council yesterday, unfortunately. “And so that is being corrected.”

The motion surrounded the event, called “Come Together: Vancouver Strong,” which will take place at Rogers Arena in June. However, a date has yet to be set.

Kirby-Yung was pressed on why there is such urgency to approve the plans, given that the tragedy happened just weeks ago.

Filipino BC disagrees with Councillor Kirby-Yung

“It is not lost on me that we are now in June, and this is typically Filipino Heritage Month,” said Kirby-Yung.

“It is fitting, I think, to host this event in the month of June, which is the intention, and hence the time sensitivity. A steering committee has been established to work on this memorial event with representation from Filipino BC, Hogan’s Alley, Latincouver and other community members.”

But Filipino BC says that’s not true.

“The Vancouver Police Department’s Victim Services Unit is responsible for speaking with families about a possible memorial and relaying their perspectives to the city. We are in regular contact with the City of Vancouver, but Filipino BC does not sit on the community steering for the memorial event,” said the group’s statement.

Multiple councillors, including Pete Fry and Lucy Maloney, both questioned if the community was being consulted and were on board to put the matter over to another day to be discussed, if needed.

“Obviously, it would have been great to have folks speak to this and have input from the community as necessary,” said Fry.

“But I trust the mayor’s office and the mayor working on this to have done that due diligence and that this can proceed in an appropriate manner.”

Maloney echoed the sentiment from Fry.

“[Fry] assumes good intentions on behalf of the mayor’s office and I absolutely do as well, I would just like the opportunity to talk to a few community members about it before I put in the position of voting on it.”

Elmore shares this opinion, “I hope for the concert a lot of people to come together and support each other. That is what we need.”

She does not defend the mistakes and says everybody is coming with good intentions.

“Lessons learned,” she sums up, “make a phone call before putting a statement out.”

“It’s about centering the victims and families”

Councillor Lenny Zhou was not in favour of delaying a decision and pushed to proceed on Tuesday. Councillors voted unanimously to approve the event.

Mayor Sim tells CityNews he’s surprised by Filipino BC’s position.

“We want to be very, very sensitive to the needs and the feelings of all communities that have been affected by the incredibly horrendous incident,” said Sim.

“But obviously, if Filipino BC feels there’s a disconnect there. We would be more than happy to revisit the issue with them.”

Sim says a City of Vancouver team and the executive director of Filipino BC met as recently as Friday.

He described the event as a “benefit concert” to honour those impacted by the tragedy and raise money for the victims.

“We’re consulting with a whole host of community groups to find the best time — being very sensitive to the needs of the community, and we won’t waver on that.”

In a follow-up statement Wednesday afternoon, Filipino BC says its “concerns are not with communication with Filipino BC, as mentioned in the statement, we attended the community roundtable and spoke with the City recently. This is not about any one organization, it’s about centering the victims and families.”

“We were not consulted on the content and specifics of the motion, which was for a memorial event and not a benefit concert. We heard from the community, including victims and families, that while they are in support of a benefit concert, the motion for a memorial event felt inappropriate and ill-advised. They also told us an event in June feels too soon,” Filipino BC Chair RJ Aquino said.

Aquino affirmed that the group is of the understanding that the City of Vancouver had not reached out to the victims and families before Tuesday’s motion.