Victims of attack remembered as teacher who found safety in Vancouver, energetic five-year-old [Video]

A trans teacher-counsellor who moved to Canada from Brazil so they could more safely be queer in public and an energetic five-year-old who was about to graduate from kindergarten are among those who were killed when a vehicle barrelled into a crowded street festival in Vancouver.

Kira Salim, 34, was identified as a victim in the festival attack by the New Westminster school district, which said the death has left friends and colleagues shocked and heartbroken.

Mx. Salim, who was trans and non-binary, arrived in New Westminster from Brazil three years ago looking for a safer place to be queer and out, friends said.

“They were such a big, energetic, beautiful, smiling human,” said Nadia Sorban, who met Mx. Salim when they taught at the American School in Rio de Janeiro a decade ago.

“It doesn’t feel fair for someone so caring and full of life to have been taken …