B.C. MLA says Lapu Lapu survivors don't want festival as anniversary looms

MLA Mable Elmore wipes away tears while visiting a memorial near the site of an attack where a vehicle was driven into crowd at a street festival Saturday night in Vancouver, Sunday, April 27, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Rich Lam

VICTORIA — A member of British Columbia’s legislature who was at the scene of last year’s deadly ramming attack at the Lapu Lapu Day festival is calling for this year’s event to be cancelled, saying the community is still traumatized.

Mable Elmore, who is of Filipino descent, said she signed a petition calling for a pause on the festival, scheduled for April 19, after listening to survivors of the attack and families of victims.

“People are traumatized,” she said.

“People are still continuing to recover. So, we have to be very mindful, and very sensitive to that,” Elmore said in an interview on Monday.

Eleven people died and dozens were injured when an SUV plowed through crowds at last year’s event.

The petition calls on the event’s organizer, Filipino BC, to rethink this year’s festival, saying postponement would be a sign of respect, and that survivors are still healing from physical and emotional wounds.

“By delaying the festivities, we not only acknowledge the pain and loss that members of our community feel, but also show solidarity with the actual victims as we work through the collective grief and hardships left in the attack’s wake,” it reads.

Filipino BC said this year’s festival, which it calls the Lapu Lapu Day of Togetherness, will focus on reflection and remembrance in the morning, then shift toward arts and culture in the afternoon.

Celine Loriot, a Filipino BC board member, said in a statement that the festival will carry both grief and love.

“This is not about moving on from what happened, but about moving forward together, with survivors, families, and the broader community, to reclaim space for healing, cultural pride, and collective care,” she said. “We want people to know that however they choose to engage, or even if they choose not to, that choice is respected.”

But Elmore, the MLA for Vancouver-Kensington, said survivors and families have made it clear they do not want the event amid their current grief, and she is encouraging people to instead attend a community gathering and dinner on April 12.

She said survivors and families have made it clear that they want to mark the occasion with profound respect for the deceased and those who are living with the physical and emotional scars from the incident.

“I see the April 12 commemoration supported by every single victim and survivor that I have spoken to, and the broad community coming together,” Elmore said.

The Lapu-Lapu Society of BC is organizing the event in co-operation with the United Filipino Canadian Associations in BC. The gathering also pays tribute to first responders who came to the immediate rescue and others who assisted victims and their families.

The Lapu Lapu Day of Togetherness will take place indoors at the Italian Cultural Centre in East Vancouver, instead of the outdoors site of last year’s attack, near John Oliver Secondary School about six kilometres away.

Organizers say in the statement that the impact of the attack “continues to be deeply felt, and that healing looks different for everyone.”

Adam Kai-Ji Lo is charged with 11 counts of second-degree murder and 31 counts of attempted murder.

Elmore, who became B.C’s first MLA of Filipino heritage in 2009, was on the site as Lo was apprehended by bystanders.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 16, 2026.

Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press