More churches burn down on indigenous Canadian land

Two more Catholic churches have been burnt down within Indigenous communities in west Canada on Saturday.

The two British Columbia churches, St Ann’s Church and Chopaka Church were completely destroyed by fires which started within an hour of each other. Officers are calling this “suspicious”.

The destruction of these two churches comes after two other churches in the province, the Sacred Heart Church and St. Gregory’s Church, were both destroyed last Monday as Canada celebrated National Indigenous People’s Day. Liquid accelerants are believed to have been used, one fire official said.

“The investigations into the previous fires and these two new fires are ongoing with no arrests or charges,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt Jason Bayda said.

Lower Similkameen Indian Band Chief Keith Crow told Canadian public broadcaster CBC that he heard early on Saturday about the fire at the over 100-year-old Chopaka Church. He said that many in their community were members at the church and were very upset.

“I’m angry,” he told CBC. “I don’t see any positive coming from this and it’s going to be tough.”

Crow said it was a hard time for his community as they are only just dealing with the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at the sites of religious residential schools which were government-funded and tasked with the forces assimilating of indigenous peoples in the 19th and 20th centuries.

According to the Calgary Herald, Crow was on his way to the Kamloops Residential School to support the community after the remains of 215 Indigenous children were found there last month.

A further 751 unmarked graves were found in Saskatchewan at the site of the Marieval Indian Residential School which was also operated by the Roman Catholic Church.

Indigenous groups have demanded a nationwide search for more graves. More than 150,000 children were taken from their homes and placed in these school between 1863 and 1998.

“If you’re hurting at this time, please reach out to somebody and make the call,” Crow told the Herald. “There is a lot of upset people and it’s… heartbreaking.

“Luckily, no one was injured and the fire here was contained before it spread to any of the neighbouring homes.”