Just two of 33 blazes at Canadian churches since May 2021 have been ruled as accidental
A monument outside former Kamloops Indian Residential School, where remains of 215 Indigenous children were found, at Tkemlups Powwow Arbour in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada on May 23, 2022 © Getty Images / Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
A spate of fires at Christian churches in Canada could be linked to the discovery of suspected mass graves of indigenous children on the grounds of residential schools previously operated by the Catholic Church, CBC has reported.
At least 33 churches were destroyed or badly damaged by fire between May 2021 and December 2023, the Canadian broadcaster said in a report on Wednesday, with just two of those having been ruled by investigators as accidental. The network added that 24 of the fires were cases of suspected arson, while several more remain under active investigation.
Citing researchers and community leaders, CBC stated that factors including Canada’s colonial history and the discovery of potential unmarked burial sites on Residential School grounds are thought to have been the motivation for many of the suspected arson cases. This includes the possible discovery of the remains of more than 200 indigenous children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in the province of British Columbia in May 2021.
Thousands of other suspected unmarked graves have been identified since 2021 in Canada, though no remains have been physically exhumed – including at the Kamloops site.
Canada’s residential school system, in operation from the 1830s and 1990s, was made up of government-sponsored religious establishments intended to forcefully assimilate children from the North American country’s indigenous population into Euro-Canadian culture. It is estimated that about 150,000 Indian, Inuit and Metis children between 4 and 16 attended the schools – many of whom were subjected to abuse.
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While many people who went through the system became devoted followers of Christianity, the Residential School system has formed deep divides in Canadian society over the church’s role in their formation, and the attempted erasure of indigenous culture.
“[Churches] are on fire because no one’s really addressing the truth,” Paulina Johnson, a researcher at the University of Alberta, told CBC of the cases of suspected arson. “This isn’t to say that the arsons and the fires are justified, but it speaks to a bigger symbolic reality.”
Johnson, who comes from an indigenous background, added: “It gives them a voice. Because for the longest time, Canada hasn’t really acknowledged us.”
A May 2021 survey of the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School using ground-penetrating radar had revealed the possible remains of 215 children buried in unmarked graves – with some thought to have been just three-years-old. In the weeks following the announcement, 11 churches in western Canada were destroyed by fire in cases determined to be arson by investigators.
In 2015, a commission established to identify the impacts of Canada’s residential schools concluded that the system amounted to “genocide.” Pope Francis, on a visit to Canada in 2022, apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in the system, and also acknowledged it as genocide.
