Church Burnings In Canada

Perhaps one of the biggest, but most under reported, stories of the summer has been the string of vandalism and serious arsonist attacks on churches of various denominations across Canada.  

The wave of attacks began after the story of 215 unmarked graves near the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, BC hit national media and then a similar report of 751 unmarked graves were reported at the Marieval Indian Residential School operated by the Roman Catholic Church in Saskatchewan. 

Initially the arsonist and vandalism attacks appeared to be isolated to churches on reserves but as the summer progressed, off reserve churches were targeted with an historic  St. Jean Baptiste Church in Morinville, AB, which was a centre point to the community, being burned to the ground in the early morning on June 13th. On July 19th St. George Coptic Orthodox Church in Surrey BC, a church with no direct connection to the residential school history, was also targeted and burned to the ground.  

To date, it is reported that 21 churches spanning from BC to Nova Scotia have been the target of arson and dozens more than that vandalized in some way.  

Joining me today to shed some light on how all of this has been impacting those targeted by the arsonist attacks is Steven Faltas, a deacon from St. George Coptic Orthodox Church who was one of the first members of the congregation to be called when the fire broke out.  Joining him is BC Member of Parliament Tamara Janzen who personally attended a vigil that the church held after the burning occurred.  

I appreciate you joining us for this very important conversation. Let’s get to it.

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