People participated in the live vigil, and a car drove into the crowd at the Lapu Lapu Festival in Vancouver on April 27, 2025.
tHis Lapu-Lapu program in Vancouver on Saturday was a celebration of Philippine legacy, but an attack that killed at least 11 people and injured dozens of people has lifted the community out of the tragedy.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, along with his election rival, conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., also expressed sympathy after the attack.
The suspect was arrested and faced murder. Police said his motive is not yet known.
British Columbia Prime Minister David Eby, home of about 174,000 Filipino descent, described the local Filipino community as “no love, no love except giving, no love”: “The grief now, unity with the Filipino community is not just the Varangoville community, not just the Vancovo province, not only the British Columbia country, but also the international nation.”
“We feel very distressed,” Provincial Councilman Mable Elmore said in a press conference on Sunday. “The Filipino community will show true resilience and we will be with the support and love of the broad community, the support and love of the public from British Columbia and around the world.”
The Philippine Consulate in Vancouver provides a hotline for those affected. But it also warns those who want to help oppose unverified fundraising campaigns that have seen donations.
“The attention of the Philippine consulate has attracted attention, and some have established GoFundMe pages that claim to raise funds to support victims of the Lapu-Lapu Day incident, using the consulate's official information as a screenshot as a background as part of its material on the above Fundraising Page,” the consulate warned that it did not create any effort or all-inclusiveness. “The public is also advised to be vigilant and cautious to avoid being hurt by immoral and malicious actors who are trying to exploit this tragedy that has been trapped in the Filipino community in British Columbia.”
Joel Castro, 44, who attended and witnessed the attack at the festival, told Time: “Personally, I think I was a little traumatized. It's not something you can easily forget.” But he added that so far, “what I'm seeing now is solidarity … solidarity from other politicians, other countries.”
Local community leaders told Time that the Vancouver Philippines community has gathered resources to support its members, asking those who want to help from afar to exercise patience.
Erie Maestro, 72, said: “There are sharks – did I not know they are Filipinos?
“This is only the first day after the incident. People are still trying to find out who was killed and who was injured.” He told Time because the victim has not been publicly identified.
The Master stressed the importance of “co-alignment” in terms of emotional and specific support.
“A lot has been done within the community,” said Sammie Jo Rumbaua, a board director of the local cultural organization Mabuhay House Society. “The focus is on victims and families and how to provide the help people need now.”
Mabuhay House compiles and shares a list of resources, including websites built by local organizers to coordinate requests and support within the community to respond to attacks.
“Please note that our form does not have any currency requirements and we just want to connect people together,” the website said, although it facilitates links with several Gofundme fundraisers “to go directly to affected families.”
The organizer of Lapu-Lapu Festival, British Columbia, Philippines, has also released contact details for its social media page contacts. “In addition to experiencing this trauma, we are now committed to supporting our community,” the organization said in its post. “We also want to make it clear that we are blocking the viewing and sharing of videos that are currently circulating.”
Contact Us Please visit letters@time.com.
