A vigil for the six victims of a deadly mass stabbing in Ottawa is expected to take place today.
The vigil is scheduled for 11 a.m. in Palmadeo Park, near the home in the suburb of Barrhaven where two adults and four children were killed Wednesday night.
Thirty-five-year-old Darshani Ekanayake and her four children, the youngest only two and a half months old, were killed, as was a 40-year-old family friend who was staying with them.
The father, Dhanushka Wickramasinghe, was the sole survivor and is in hospital recovering from injuries sustained in a struggle with the suspect, who faces murder charges.
Community members and members of the local Buddist clergy visited with Wickramasinghe in hospital on Friday. They say he has expressed compassion for the 19-year-old charged with murdering his family.
“He understands he’s a child as well,” said Naradha Kodithuwakku, a former president of the Sri Lanka Canada Association of Ottawa. “I’m not like that, I’m not able to set my mind like that, but you can see the kind of person he is.. a strong person, definitely a better person than me.”
Naradha Kodituwakku of the Buddhist Congress of Canada, who visited him in hospital, said Wickramasinghe has felt the community’s support.
The Buddhist Congress of Canada has also set up a fundraiser on the GoFundMe platform to support the victims’ families.
The Sri Lankan High Commission says it is in shock, noting that the father was just in their office last week trying to get a passport for his two-month-old daughter. Now, they are working on visas for his family.
Plans for a funeral are underway but community members say Wickramasinghe would like to see his family laid to rest in their new home, Canada.
Files from Xiaoli Li were used in this report
