Liberals 'don't give a damn' that places of worship burned to the ground

The Trudeau government confirmed that hundreds of Church arsons followed uncorroborated claims of “mass graves” at a Kamloops residential school. 

Between 2010 and 2022, there have been a staggering 592 police-reported arsons at places of worship, resulting in damages of at least $10,000, according to the federal data tabled in the House of Commons. 

The figures were tabled at the request of Conservative MP Marc Dalton who asked, “What are the statistics related to incidents of burning places of worship?”

Some 423 police-reported burnings occurred at places of worship since 2015, the year the Truth and Reconciliation Commission published a report claiming 4,100 children died at residential schools. 

As reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, arson attacks averaged as few as 13 a year before the report.

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) November 7, 2024

Police counted 90 arson attacks in 2021, the same year the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation of Kamloops discovered 215 alleged graves. No remains have been unearthed at the Kamloops site, with investigations to take upwards of two decades to complete.

The First Nation received a $7.9 million federal grant for this fieldwork, but later revised their claim of 215 skeletal remains to some 200 “potential burials.”

Those who dare question the results of ground-penetrating radar, or ask why shovels have yet to hit the ground, risks being called a “denialist,” reads a National Post column.

“Some members of government are so passionate about Canadians and Indigenous groups never seeking out answers to what these anomalies are that they’d like to criminalize even the suggestion that these might not be graves, or that there may be some graves which are the result of epidemics of disease, rather than evidence of genocide,” it said.

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) September 19, 2024

An incident map from True North showed at least 96 churches had been destroyed, burned, or vandalized in Canada since the spring of 2021.

Many Indigenous leaders condemned the anger that persisted as unwarranted, unmitigated destruction. 

“To burn things down is not our way,” said Perry Bellegarde, the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. 

“Our way is to build relationships and come together.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau added: “The destruction of places of worship is unacceptable and it must stop.” 

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) January 22, 2024

As of January 2024, only 12 people had been charged with burning churches since the controversy first emerged, with one conviction, reported CBC News.

Months later, Dalton tabled Bill C-411, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (arson — wildfires and places of worship), to address Trudeau’s weak response. If found guilty, an individual would spend a minimum of five years in jail for a first offence and seven years for any subsequent offences. 

However, no parliamentary committee to date has examined arson attacks on places of worship. An Ottawa think tank, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, published a May 5 commentary on the reluctance to discuss arson.

“These sacred places are more than just places of worship,” said the commentary, The Woke Silence Over Church Burnings Is Deafening. “They help to create a sense of community, places where families and friends gather to celebrate and to mourn.”

“Canadians have been extremely reluctant to condemn the crimes,” said the commentary.

Alex Dhaliwal

Calgary Based Journalist

Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.