OTTAWA – Federal police yesterday said they are investigating “suspicious” fires that destroyed two Catholic churches built around 1910 in indigenous communities in western Canada.
The Sacred Heart Church on Penticton Indian Band land and St Gregory’s Church on Osoyoos Indian Band land in the Oliver area of British Columbia province went up in flames around the same time, between 1am and 3am.
Their destruction comes weeks after the unmarked graves of 215 children were found in nearby Kamloops at one of the many boarding schools set up a century ago to forcibly assimilate Canada’s indigenous peoples.
The discovery at the Kamloops Indian Residential School shocked Canadians, and renewed calls for Pope Francis to apologise for abuses at the schools run by the Church on behalf of the federal government.
Sgt Jason Bayda said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating the two fires.
“Both churches burned to the ground, and police are treating the fires as suspicious.”
Although too early to conclude arson, he said: “We are sensitive to the recent events” in Kamloops.
Earlier, Bob Graham, chief of the volunteer fire department in Oliver, told public broadcaster CBC: “We believe, by looking at the scene and the surroundings, that there was a liquid accelerant used.”
Of the blaze at St Gregory’s Church, which left the wooden structure gutted, he said: “Early indications are that it was set.”
Some 40km north, Chief Greg Gabriel of the Penticton Indian Band said investigators are sifting through blackened rubble and reviewing surveillance footage for clues on what sparked the Sacred Heart Church fire.
“It’s hoped that they will find something that they can use to determine the cause, and maybe, who’s responsible,” he told CBC.
About 150,000 indigenous, Inuit and Metis youngsters were taken from their communities and enrolled in Canada’s residential schools, where students were physically and sexually abused by headmasters and teachers, who stripped them of their culture and language.
Today, those experiences are blamed for a high incidence of poverty, alcoholism and domestic violence, as well as high suicide rates, among the nation’s indigenous communities.
“There’s a lot of anger in every indigenous community across Canada after those 215 innocent children’s graves were discovered,” said Gabriel.
“I’m not saying this may be the cause of our church going up in flames, but there’s a lot of anger.” – AFP, June 22, 2021
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