Churches Aflame in Canada

Early Wednesday morning, a historic Catholic church in Alberta was destroyed by fire. What remains of the St. Jean Baptiste Catholic church will be levelled. (David Bajer/CBC)

"They were both intentionally set, no doubt about that."

"I'm aware of the fires at the other churches on reserves. It could be related."

Tim Littlechild, director, emergency services, Siksika Nation, Alberta

"We have a pretty good guess this was done because of the Kamloops Indian Residential School and finding of the burial sites of 215 children."

"I can understand it. I don't like the Church. I don't believe in the Church."

"Many residential school survivors hate the Church with a passion -- but I have never heard any of them ever suggest people turn to this."

"There is a proper way of displaying anger. I mean, I'm angry about it. I talk to a lot of residential school survivors and sure, there is a lot of hatred and bitterness and anger -- but that still doesn't mean you go and do arson."

"We think it is the same group of punks that burnt all of them down. And the young people that burned down these churches never went to residential schools."

Chief Clarence Louie, Osoyoos Indian Band, northern British Columbia

"These churches represent places of worship for community members as well as gathering spaces for many for various celebrations and times of loss."

"It will be felt deeply for those that sought comfort and solace in the Church."

"We understand the grief and rage felt by others across Indian country to support the discovery of unmarked graves at Kamloops. This is a symptom of the intergenerational trauma."

Lower Similkameen band statement, Upper Similkaeen Indian Reserve, British Columbia 

Fire consumes a church at Gitwangak near New Hazelton, B.C. A number of fires have destroyed Catholic and Anglican churches across the country. (Submitted by Chasity Daniels)

 

There has been an unstoppable epidemic of church torchings. Along with the defacing and pulling down of statues all over Canada. States of former British notables who had a hand in colonizing Canada for the Crown. Statues of Queen Victoria who reigned at the time. A statue of the current Queen of England and of the Commonwealth of which Canada is a part; Queen Elizabeth II. The defacing of statuary whose presence is seen as offensive to some people considering themselves anti-colonialists has been taking place in the United States and Great Britain itself.

But burning down churches, symbols of the oppression and indignities and racism suffered by Indigenous Canadians appears to be a very Canadian specialty. Courtesy of some among the First Nations populations whose contempt and hatred for the Roman Catholic hierarchy, its churches and its history of Catholic orders operating the infamous residential schools across the nation where mandated by law passed in the 19th Century, First Nations children attended residential schools. 

The residential school system set out by agreement of the federal government that it would be of great benefit both to the First Nations and to the country to prepare aboriginal youth to take their place in the greater Canadian society with all the benefits accruing to both, by tutoring First Nations children in the values of European culture and the social weal. To accomplish this, the children were forbidden to speak their native language, informed that their inherited culture and status with it was inferior to that of other Canadians.

At the residential schools children complained of insufficient food and food of inferior quality; many were always hungry. Childhood diseases sweeping through Canada took their toll of the general population of the young, but did so with a fury among aboriginal children whose living conditions were sub-optimal, and whose access to medical care was less than ideal. A greater number of First Nations children died of consumption than those among the general population. And it was the recent 'discovery' of unmarked graves at a number of residential school sites that shocked the nation and ached the hearts of First Nations.

About 30 minutes outside Edmonton, in Morinville, Alta., residents watched in the early morning hours as a century-old Roman Catholic church’s steeple and roof collapsed, surrounded by flames. The Star

 

Soon after the revelations of a series of such discoveries, churches began burning. Mostly located on reserves themselves, they represented the religious devotion of the tribes themselves. Leaving them bereft of their source of comfort at a time when comfort was badly needed. The irony being that since the Roman Catholic Church's various arms operated most of the residential schools in the country, and to them fell the ignominy of blame for the revelations of violent punishment meted out to children, including beatings and rape, they nonetheless serve as founts of faith to those in emotional need on reserves.

Some of these churches are landmarks, beloved and valued. Some of them are over a century old. Some were disused, but most maintained their function and were important to the lives of First Nations people. The reserve bands who now face the loss of their dedicated churches are in shock at the attacks on "landmarks and historical gathering places". On June 21 -- National Indigenous Peoples Day == an RCMP detachment was notified that St.Gregory's Church about 100 kilometres south of Kelowna, B.C. where the first unmarked graves on property of a former residential school were discovered, was on fire.

Two hours earlier further north the Penticton RCMP detachment's patrol officer saw fire rising from the Sacred Heart Church on the Penticton Indian Band reserve. By the time the patrolling officer pulled up the wood church was engulfed in flames. Another two churches were burned the following weekend. Those church torchings are taking place all over the country now, one after another. Police are looking for witnesses, for clues, for identities of the malefactors. 

"They are not justified, of course, but these kinds of acts occur when some individuals feel like traditional modes of protests and activism have fallen on deaf ears", explained Amarnath Amarasingam, a specialist in violent extremism and sociology of religion at the school of religion in the department of political studies, Queen's University. "To burn things down is not our way. Our way is to build relationships and come together", stated the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Perry Bellegarde.

A fire destroyed the century-old Catholic church in Morinville about 30 kilometres north of Edmonton Wednesday, June 30, 2021. (David Bajer/CBC)