I was with my family waiting for our order at a restaurant when I received the call. We left the festival area just as the main stage acts were in progress and the crowd had grown to an impressive size.
Our children have been on their feet all day, it was dinnertime, and they were growing restless and hungry. I was going to help with the breakdown of tents and other cleanup later that evening, so we were satisfied with leaving early especially given how well the festival went and how everyone was in such high spirits.
Mass Casualty Incident
"Mass Casualty Incident" - These were the words I heard distinctly. "RJ, something terrible has happened. There's been a mass casualty incident and there are people dead. Children too."
After we made sure our children were home safe, my wife and I rushed back to 45th and Fraser.
Mable Elmore's constituency office on 45th and Fraser became a makeshift crisis response centre. It was the natural gathering place for everyone given it was the central hub used earlier in the day for volunteers and festival organizers. Hundreds of people had been filing in and out and around that office all day.
The energy throughout the day had been of stress, joy, exhaustion, satisfaction, and then in the evening of shock, grief, and disbelief. The sounds of sobbing and news reports hung in the air as people would watch coverage of what happened on their mobile devices. The echoes of radio chatter were faint but ever present in the background as police and other first responders continued to piece together the events of the evening. In comparison, the constant buzzing of my phone was jarring from the hundreds of messages I'd receive that evening.
Aftermath of a tragic event
While we were trying to take stock of the health and well-being of our community partners, vendors, volunteers, friends and family, we became aware of emerging pockets of rumors, insinuation, misinformation, conspiracies, and outright opportunism looking to exploit the tragic events and the community's response to it.
We held a press conference the following morning because I felt it was our responsibility to not be silent and allow potentially harmful narratives to take hold. Even though we didn't have all the answers, I felt it was important for our collective trauma to have a distinct first step towards healing and that meant exposing my grief, anger, and uncertainty about it all. I wanted to make sure that people understood that it was OK to not be OK and, despite the immensity of the tragedy, that we are going to undertake the hard labour of putting the pieces back together. Shortly after the press conference, I went for a walk by myself and sat on the sidewalk by the police tape near the incident, I broke down and cried.
The rest of the day was surreal. We met with the mayor, premier and prime minister. I shared some remarks during a vigil in a public park with a bunch of dignitaries along with heavy security present, rooftop snipers included. I spoke to local and international press outlets all day and tried to be as present as I could be for the Filipino BC team and my family. I hadn't slept since the night before the festival, and I still don't really know how I was able to muster the energy for that day. At one point, I was slumped down, sitting against a lamp post near the emerging makeshift memorial near 41st and Fraser and was being ushered to move out of the way by the prime minister's security detail.
Rising to Meet an Unprecedented Challenge
I'm extremely grateful for the outpouring of love and support from quite literally everyone. It is, at times, overwhelming and I still find myself getting emotional thinking about all the messages and conversations I've had since that day. I'm also proud of how the Filipino BC team has responded to this crisis as we've taken real, tangible steps to mount a scalable and sustainable response to address the short- and long-term challenges brought on by this unprecedented tragedy.
We recognized that in a matter of weeks our organization had to become what we originally planned to be in years if we wanted to help the victims and all those impacted in the way we felt they deserved. We needed to mount a response that even the most established institutions would find challenging. The difficulty was compounded by the sheer exhaustion carried by the event organizers in successfully pulling off an event of this size and scope in the months prior and then having to nearly instantly pivot to organize a coherent crisis response.
Beyond First Aid: Addressing the Hidden Wounds of Trauma
Our gratitude extends to the first responders, various government agencies, community organizations and other nonprofits that have lent us their people, expertise, and experience. Through this generosity, we've been able to address some immediate but potentially overlooked needs of people that would've otherwise suffered in silence. The issue of mental healthcare has come into sharp focus as the community at large is recognizing that addressing this is an integral part of the equation in bringing about justice.
Filipino BC continues to do the work to take care of the people impacted by this tragedy. While we're far from perfect and we're not the only ones doing the work, we find ourselves in the unique position to identify and highlight the systemic gaps in the formal response and long-term support for victims of a social disaster like this. The Filipino community has been underserved for a long time and there's a growing recognition of this. We're having conversations and creating meaningful relationships with other racialized communities so we can collectively advocate for creating long lasting solutions that serve us all.
Grief can be messy, and recovery rarely takes a linear path. More stories will emerge and a life altering event like this can cause ripple effects that we do not yet see or anticipate. The work is far from over but I'm hopeful we'll emerge stronger together. May we continue to find and foster the kindness and compassion in ourselves in our journey towards healing, so this event isn't just defined by what we lost but also by what we find in our shared humanity.
About the Author
RJ Aquino is a community organizer, activist, and father of three based in Metro Vancouver. Born in the Philippines, he brings firsthand understanding of the immigrant experience to his advocacy work.
As chair of Filipino BC, RJ champions Filipino culture and heritage while ensuring community voices are represented in civic life. He served as board director of the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society and Collingwood Neighbourhood House. He also co-founded OneCity Vancouver, a grassroots political organization working toward an affordable, sustainable, and liveable city for all residents.
RJ has served on Vancouver’s City Planning Commission and advocates strongly for affordable housing, immigrant rights, and racial equity. When not organizing, he works in the tech sector. His approach to community building emphasizes grassroots organizing, cultural preservation, and creating inclusive spaces where everyone can thrive.
Maple Bamboo Network Society, publisher of CanadianFilipino.Net, wishes to thank United Way British Columbia (United Way BC) for providing a grant through its Kapwa Strong Fund to commission this journalism project called “Healing Through Kapwa: A Storytelling and Solidarity Series for the Filipino Community” following the unfortunate event that unfolded after the Lapu-Lapu street festival in Vancouver on April 26, 2025.
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