Some 200 people showed up at a public multi-faith funeral service in Ottawa Sunday to mourn the six people killed more than a week ago in the city’s Barrhaven suburb.
Organized by the Buddhist Congress of Canada (BCC), the service at the Infinity Convention Centre paid tribute to the victims: a family of newcomers to Canada from Sri Lanka and their friend.
According to police, four children and two adults were killed inside a suburban townhouse in south Ottawa on March 6.
Darshani Dilanthika Ekanayake, 35, was killed along with her three daughters — three-year-old Ranaya, four-year-old Ashwini, and two-month-old Kelly — and her seven-year-old son Inuka.
The body of a family friend, 40-year-old Gamini Amarakoon, who’d recently arrived in Canada from Sri Lanka, was also found at the scene.
Dhanushka Wickramasinghe, the family’s father, survived the attack. He was injured with an edged weapon and taken to hospital.
The Wickramasinghe family at daughter Ranaya’s third birthday party earlier this month. From left: father Dhanushka Wickramasinghe; two-month-old daughter Kelly; daughters Ashwini, 4, and Ranaya, 3; son Inuka, 7; and mother Darshani Dilanthika Ekanayake, 35. (Facebook)
Buddhist monks from Toronto and Ottawa led prayers and performed traditional funeral customs at Sunday’s service.
They also thanked Ottawa’s first responders for their work.
In a video message played at the funeral, Dishani Asangika Fernando, Amarakoon’s wife, thanked him for being “a lovely husband [and] an amazing father all the time.”
“I have a lot to tell, but right now I am speechless,” she said.
“You [came here] to give a good future for our kids. But all our dreams just faded away in a way we never thought of.”
Buddhist prayer opens Ottawa funeral for mass killing victims
The Buddhist Congress of Canada held a public multi-faith funeral service in Ottawa to pay tribute to a family of newcomers to Canada from Sri Lanka and their friend who were killed in the Barrhaven suburb.
‘We are still devastated’
Before the funeral, BCC president Naradha Kodituwakku told CBC News Network the tragedy is deeply affecting Sri Lankan and immigrant families in Barrhaven.
“For them to come here and have their life ended in such a short term … we were devastated. We are still devastated,” Kodituwakku said.
Pradeep Balasubramanian, who is Sri Lankan and lives in Toronto, came to the funeral to pass on a message from his family to Wickramasinghe and his relatives.
“Get well soon, and we will be with them always,” Balasubramanian said.
Pradeep Balasubramanian, who is Sri Lankan, came from Toronto to attend the public funeral. He wanted to pass on a message of support to Wickramasinghe, who survived the attack, and his relatives. (Safiyah Marhnouj/CBC)
‘Your community is with you,’ says mayor
Bhagya Jayaweera said she’s been following the news since the killings happened, but standing in front of the hearses for the victims “made it very, very real.”
Jayaweera said she wanted to pay her respects and offer peace to the victims’ souls.
“A whole family ripped apart … their father was taken away from them. I can’t imagine,” she said.
Several Canadian dignitaries spoke at the funeral, including Liberal MPs Gary Anandasangaree and Chandra Arya, Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod and Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe.
“I want you to know your community is with you,” Sutcliffe told the victims’ families. “We must pull together as a community in a time like this.
“There are more difficult days ahead. This will be an unimaginable time for these families in the days and weeks and months ahead … we will honour the memories of your family members.”
Dhanushka Wickramasinghe, right, takes part in Sunday’s funeral service. Wickramsinghe survived the attack that led to the deaths of his wife, their four young children and a family friend. (Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press)
Suspect in protective custody, lawyer says
Febrio De-Zoysa, 19, has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.
De-Zoysa was living with the family when he allegedly killed them late at night. He was also a former student at Algonquin College.
A court sketch of 19-year-old Febrio De-Zoysa, who has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. (Lauren Foster-MacLeod)
His lawyer, Ewan Lyttle, told reporters on Thursday that De-Zoysa is in protective custody due to the seriousness of the charges against him,
Lyttle said Thursday it was too early to talk about a mental health assessment.
None of the charges against De-Zoysa have been proven and court has not heard any evidence surrounding the circumstances of the crimes.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
