Members of Winnipeg’s Ethiopian and Eritrean communities gathered to mourn a newcomer couple who died in a fire in the city’s North End last month.
About a hundred members of Winnipeg’s Ethiopian and Eritrean communities showed up for the vigil honouring Geda Gemechu and Zenabu Gula Saturday evening, outside the three-story building on Atlantic Avenue where they were living in after coming to Canada less than a year ago.
The couple, originally from Ethiopia, arrived in Winnipeg after spending more than two decades as refugees in Kenya.
Kebeto Wako, their cousin, told those gathered at the vigil Saturday that the couple — like him — came to Canada to escape violence, trusting the country’s reputation as a peacekeeping nation.
“If it is like this, why not to die in my homeland?” Wako said. “It is the same. What’s the difference?”
The couple lived in one of the building’s five suites, all meant to provide affordable housing for newcomer families. The property is owned by the House of Covenant International Church, which held its services on the ground floor.
Community feeling targeted, pastor says
Firefighters and police responded to the fire shortly before 3 a.m. on Sept. 14. Police said in a news release that the couple was pulled out of the building and taken to hospital in critical condition, where they were pronounced dead.
Police announced about a week later 28-year-old Alex Donald Courchene had been charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of arson disregarding human life in connection to the incident.
Pastor Yohannes Engida said that in the days leading up fatal fire, there were two other arson attempts.
First, an object on fire was thrown through a window on a Sunday morning, Engida said. Then about a week later two insurance people working in the building late night chased away somebody who came in and tried to douse the building in gasoline, he said.
The workers reported the second incident to police, Engida said, adding that his congregation fears they’re being targeted.
“Everybody is devastated, you know. It’s a tragic death.… Everybody’s heart is broken,” the pastor said. “We would like just to worship God without any fear.”
Earlier this month, B.C. MP Marc Dalton brought up the attack in parliament while calling for more protections amid a series of fires targeting places of worship in recent years.
Dalton has put forward private member’s bill that would introduce a minimum five-year sentence for people who damage places of worship by fire or explosion, with a harsher penalty for repeat offenders.
Local MPs Leila Dance and Terry Duguid attended the vigil, as well as the leadership of several Christian congregations in the city. Duguid told the crowd that officials at the federal and provincial level are working to address the community’s concerns.
Ali Saeed, co-founder of the Ethiopian Society of Winnipeg, said the vigil sends the message that targeting places of worship is unacceptable.
“Even though I’m from the Muslim community, it concerns me [as a] human being,” he said.
“Many people are very disappointed and upset.… It’s not only the Ethiopian community, the whole African community.… Those people [were] new for the society and without any reason, they lost their lives.”
An insurance company has deemed the building a total loss, the church said. The congregation is now raising money to find a new home.
Wako said the family has been left devastated.
“Our children, emotionally, from that day, they are not eating food even,” he told people at the vigil.
“They ask me … ‘Why these people [had that] happen to them? What happened? Why? They are Christian. They are good people. They didn’t hurt anybody. Why did it happen? Why God did that?’… I don’t have an answer.”