47-year-old Renuka Amarasinghe was a single mother
By Somasiri Munasinghe
Canadian Sri Lankans along with a large number of communities in the country and people from all over the world got together to support a seven-year-old son of a single mother who was mowed down by a killer truck driven at high speed on a crowded sidewalk in Toronto on April 23.
Sri Lankan Renuka Amarasinghe, a single mother of 47, was one of 10 people killed when the white rental van driven by a 25-year-old man Alek Minassian, mounted the sidewalk of a crowded Toronto street speeding at 60-70 km. A total of 15 people also were injured in the mayhem that lasted 20-odd minutes. Renuka, a Sinhalese, was working at the nearby school of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) as a nutritional assistant. She is said to be the third person to be knocked down by the truck. Most of the victims are women.
The massive show of support from the two major Sri Lankan communities for Renuka’s six-year-old son is unprecedented. A successful Tamil business woman expressed her willingness to adopt the child, Diyon, while a social worker from Brampton, also a Tamil woman, says she is prepared to take him ‘under her wings.’
A GOFUNDME page started by the Lotus Youth Council of Toronto Buddhist Temple in Scarborough collected $209,649 in one day. It now stands at $303,312.
More than 5000 incredibly generous people from Canada and other countries contributed generously to exceed the target beyond expectations, with Sri Lankan Tamil community members forming a large group of donors along with Muslim and Burgher communities.
There was also a massive number of messages from the Sri Lankan community comforting the seven-year-old boy. He is at the moment under the care of the family who owns the apartment where the boy lived with his mother. The estranged husband of Renuka is in Toronto but Diyon has never seen his biological father as he had left Renuka while she was pregnant with him. Renuka did not have any relatives in Canada and she had told a good friend in New York to look after her son if something happened to her.
Venerable Ahangama Rathanasiri, president and chief monk of the Toronto Mahavihara Buddhist Meditation Centre in Scarborough, said Renuka visited the temple regularly and her son attends the Sunday religious school. The monk said that he spoke to her at a festival organized to celebrate Sinhala New Year last weekend, a day before she met with her gruesome fate. “She was a very kind and generous lady and devoted her time for bringing up her child in a good manner,” he said adding that Diyon does not have a clear idea of what happened to his mother. He said she baked cookies for the children who attended the Sunday classes at the temple.
He added that the community came to know that she was a victim of the truck attack only after police recovered her cellphone from the crime scene. She had started her new job in a nearby school on the same day.
Ven. Rathanasiri said that representatives from the temple are planning her funeral as they are unable to repatriate her body back to Sri Lanka, where she has a family – mother, sister and a brother – in Horana, a city about 45 minutes’ drive east of capital Colombo, adding that he expects family members – probably her mother and the sister – to be present at the funeral. Travel arrangements are being made.
Her body has not been identified officially and according to press reports it might take a few more days.
Toronto police said that Minassian, the suspect, is alleged to have published ‘a cryptic post on Facebook minutes before he began driving the rented van’ praising Elliot Rodger, a 22-year-old Californian man who killed six people and injured a dozen more during a deadly rampage in California in 2014. Minassian had attended basic army training in Canadian forces for 16 days before requesting to be voluntarily released.
He is a member of a misogynistic online hate group made up of men calling themselves ‘incel’, short for “involuntarily celibate,” and the community that uses the label is typically dominated by men voicing frustration about their lack of sexual relationships, sometimes blaming women for their failures with the opposite sex.
The Toronto police officer who apprehended the suspect, identified as Const. Ken Lam, has come under praise locally and internationally for the tactical and professional way he handled the situation even when the unarmed suspect feigned as if he was trying to shoot him several times.
In a 37-second video going viral, the officer is heard saying ”Come on, get down,” after drawing his weapon. “Kill me,” the man says in between making quick-draw motions with his arm. “I have a gun in my pocket,” the man says. “I don’t care. Get down,” the officer responds. “Get down or you’ll be shot.” The officer did not fire. He holstered his gun and took out a baton as he inched toward the suspect who threw the object in his hand and laid down on the sidewalk where the officer handcuffed him.
Police officially listed the names of eight women and two males perished in the attack. They are: Renuka Amarasingha, 45 of Toronto, Andrea Bradden, 33 of Woodbridge, Geraldine Brady, 83 of Toronto, So He Chung, 22, a student from Korea, Anne Marie D’Amico, 30 of Toronto, Mary Elizabeth Forsyth, 94 of Toronto, Ji Hun Kim, 22 of Toronto, Dorothy Sewell, 80 of Toronto, Chul Min Kang, 45 of Toronto, Munir Abdo Habib Najjar, 85, who was visiting from Jordan The number of people injured in the attack has also grown to 16 after police identified two people who came forward since the beginning of the investigation. Though injured in the attack, they were not taken to the hospital. At least 12 injured people remain in hospital.
The city of Toronto has also established a fund-raising effort, dubbed Toronto Strong, that had raised more than $1.5 million by Friday afternoon.
