For Bennet Miemban-Ganata, owner of a popular Filipino restaurant in Vancouver, the arrival of spring means a season of fiestas, bringing both good business and celebrations of culture.
From Filipino Restaurant Month in April to Filipino Heritage Month in June, there would be colorful clothes, folk dances and traditional food like crispy lumpia, marinated and grilled pork belly, and beef stew. And of course, there would be togetherness for Vancouver's rapidly growing Filipino community.
All that made Saturday night's vehicle-ramming attack on a large crowd at a Filipino block party all the more devastating.
A black Audi SUV barreled down a closed, food-truck-lined street and struck people attending the Lapu Lapu Day festival, which celebrates Datu Lapu-Lapu, an Indigenous chieftain who stood up to Spanish explorers in the 16th century.
Eleven people were killed, including a 5-year-old girl and her parents. Thirty-two people were hurt. Seven were in critical condition and three were in serious condition at hospitals on Monday, Vancouver Police Department spokesperson Steve Addison said.
