Deadly California shooting casts pall over Canadian Lunar New Year festivities

By The Canadian Press on January 22, 2023.

VANCOUVER – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his “heart breaks” for the people whose Lunar New Year celebrations were “violently attacked” and whose lives were forever changed after a mass shooting in California.

A gunman killed 10 people and wounded 10 others at a ballroom dance studio in Monterey Park, Calif., a city on the eastern edge of Los Angeles composed mostly of Asian immigrants from China or first-generation Asian Americans. The attack came following a Lunar New Year celebration Saturday night.

Trudeau, who is attending one of Canada’s largest Lunar New Year parades in Vancouver’s Chinatown, says it is nice that everyone can gather to celebrate the Lunar New Year in-person for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But he says news of the shooting has also caused sadness amid what should be a joyful time.

He says he is sending condolences to the families and friends of those who were killed and is keeping the victims in his thoughts.

His remarks come as thousands of Canadians gather to kick off the Year of the Rabbit across the country today.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 22, 2023.

– With files from The Associated Press

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