As Canadians struggle to come to terms with the deaths of 11 people in a horrific attack on Vancouver’s Filipino community this weekend, Calgarians will be given a chance this week to come together to mourn.
The city’s Filipino community is helping to organize a vigil in front of Calgary city hall at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30.
A message posted on social media urges Calgarians to, “Bring a candle, a prayer, and your heart. Together, we heal.”
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek also offered up her condolences in a post on social media, calling the attack “a senseless act of violence,” adding, “My heart is with the Filipino community.”
The owner of Paolos Filipino Restaurant in Calgary said the community is shocked and saddened by the tragedy.
“It’s hard. It’s hard to accept the fact that there’s 11 Filipinos who died in that incident,” said Rose Enriquez.
“It’s kinda hard to decipher — to process at first.”
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Despite the overwhelming sense of grief, Enriquez said the Filipino community is used to overcoming hardship.
“You should learn some things about what really happened,” said Enriquez. “We as Filipinos — we’re very resilient with that kind of hardship. We have to learn something from it.”
The president of the University of Calgary Filipino Students’ Association, Ayra Bukhari, said the community will deal with the grief by leaning on each other.
“The Filipino community is one of the most welcoming out there — we accept everyone, we want everyone to be involved in our culture and that’s really the essence of the Philippines,” said Bukhari.
“We have a word called Kababayan — the word encapsulates being together and togetherness and being there for one another.”
Calgary’s Filipino community is estimated to include about 75,000 people.
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