HAMILTON—Carnage at a Filipino street festival in Vancouver cast a pall over the final day of the federal election campaign, as party leaders expressed shock and sadness for those killed when a man drove a vehicle into a crowd on Saturday night.
Mark Carney, the Liberal leader who remains prime minister during the campaign, said he was briefed overnight by his national security adviser Nathalie Drouin and Public Safety Minister David McGuinty. He said police have described the incident as a “car ramming attack” and that the suspect who allegedly drove the car is believed to have acted alone.
“Currently,” Carney said, “we do not believe that there is any active threat to Canadians.”
The Liberal leader and prime minister was visibly emotional, his voice wavering as he expressed shock and said he joined Canadians who are “heartbroken” over the incident at the Lapu Lapu Day celebration.
“Last night, families lost a sister, a brother, a mother, a father, a son. Those families are experiencing every family’s nightmare,” Carney said.
“To them and to the many others who were injured, to the Filipino-Canadian community and to everyone in the broader Lower Mainland (and) Vancouver, I would like to offer my deepest condolences and my wishes for strength and compassion in this tragic time. I know that I join all Canadians in mourning with you.”
Vancouver police have reported that 11 people were killed after a man drove into a crowd at the Lapu Lapu Day street festival. A 30-year-old man was arrested at the scene, police said in a statement, later adding that “we are confident that this incident was not an act of terrorism.”
Interim Vancouver Police Chief Steve Rai, at a Sunday news conference, said dozens of people were injured, that the number of dead could rise, and called the incident “the darkest day in Vancouver’s history.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre visited the Christ the Living Stone Fellowship in Mississauga, with his wife, Anaida Poilievre, where he mourned with members of the Filipino-Canadian community.
“I know many of you are shocked and heartbroken and saddened about this senseless violence,” the Conservative leader said.
“Ana and I just wanted you all to know that our hearts are with you today. All Canadians are united in solidarity with the Filipino community. All Canadians are united with you in mourning the loss of these treasured lives.”
Later, at what is expected to be Poilievre’s final campaign rally, the Conservative leader told an Oakville crowd to “unite as Canadians” to honour the victims and their families, and to “take inspiration from the lives that they lived.”
It was the New Democrats’ Jagmeet Singh who expressed the most personal response to the attack: the NDP leader had attended the festival the night before, and had departed the event moments before the tragedy.
Speaking to reporters in Penticton, B.C., in front of a group of supporters and candidates who, like the leader, were fighting back tears, Singh recalled the joy he witnessed at the event.
“I keep on thinking about the kids that I met, the joy. I was there literally minutes before this happened, and I can’t stop thinking about how much happiness was there, and then to have such a horrific thing happen, I keep on replaying it,” Singh said as his voice broke.
“We don’t know the details about what happened, but … clearly the Filipino community right now is feeling targeted,” said the NDP leader, who later said he believed his attendance at the festival was not related to the attack.
The incident caused all campaigns to grapple with how to finish out the campaign on Sunday, as party leaders prepared to rally supporters at events and whistle stops across the country.
A source from the Carney campaign, speaking on condition they not be named, said the Liberals had cancelled large rallies that had been scheduled in Calgary and Richmond, B.C., on Sunday.
The Liberal leader was holding a smaller event in Saskatoon with a group of Liberal supporters, and was then expected to attend another small event in Edmonton. The rest of the day’s campaign tour, originally envisioned as a cross-country blitz through four provinces, was up in the air as the party decided whether it was appropriate for the campaign to stop in B.C. after the horrors of Saturday night.
“We are in continued conversation with Vancouver and B.C. authorities and will have more to share about the day’s further plans in the hours ahead,” a Liberal source said.
The NDP, meanwhile, cancelled several campaign events that were scheduled in B.C. on Sunday, while Poilievre was expected to proceed with whistlestops in Ontario before ending the day in his Ottawa-area riding of Carleton.
With files from Star staff
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