OTTAWA – In the early hours of October 3, 2024, fire swept through the historic Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Allégresses Church in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. The 110-year-old Catholic building collapsed as firefighters battled the flames, but the wooden structure stood little chance.
Local police suspect the fire was set on purpose. This incident adds to a troubling trend across Canada: a rise in attacks on Christian churches. Since May 2021, at least 112 churches, most of them Catholic, have been vandalized, set alight, or defaced.
Despite the numbers, the issue has drawn limited coverage in major news outlets. Many Canadians remain unaware of how widespread the problem has become.
The surge in church attacks started after reports of unmarked graves at former residential schools, many run by the Catholic Church. In May 2021, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation said ground-penetrating radar found 215 possible burial sites near the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia.
Soon after, more reports surfaced in Saskatchewan, with 751 unmarked graves linked to the Marieval Indian Residential School. National media focused on these findings, which led to public outrage and renewed debate about Canada’s colonial history and the role churches played in residential schools that forced over 150,000 Indigenous children to attend from the 1800s until 1996.
The reaction came quickly and, in many cases, violently. Between June and July 2021, a dozen churches burned, several of them on Indigenous lands. On June 21, 2021, Sacred Heart Church in Penticton and St. Gregory’s Church in Mission, both in British Columbia, were destroyed by fire.
Days later, a suspicious fire levelled St. Jean Baptiste Church in Morinville, Alberta, which had been a key part of the local Francophone community. By December 2023, the CBC reported that 33 churches had been destroyed by fire since May 2021, with 24 confirmed as arson. True North, a conservative news outlet, put the number even higher, counting 112 targeted churches, including 60 marked with graffiti reading “dig them up” and “return them home”.
Despite these figures, the topic has faded from most major news stories. Philip Horgan, president of the Catholic Civil Rights League, said, “If mosques or synagogues were burning at this rate, it would be a national scandal.” His group has tracked 85 Catholic church attacks since 2021.
He also pointed to what he called a lack of coverage from major news outlets. A 2024 study from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission showed only 32% of Canadians trust the media to report facts accurately, a view echoed by many who feel the church attacks are underreported to avoid stirring more division.
The reasons for these attacks are not simple. Some people blame anger over residential schools, where thousands of Indigenous children died due to illness, neglect, or abuse. However, recent digs, including one at Pine Creek in August 2023, found no human remains at claimed grave sites, which has raised doubts about earlier mass grave reports.
Critics believe that dramatic media stories have fuelled anti-Christian feelings, and say far-left activists used the moment to attack churches. In June 2021, Harsha Walia, then the head of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, tweeted “burn it all down”, a statement that divided public opinion.
There is no agreement on who is responsible. Chief Clarence Louie of the Osoyoos Indian Band, whose community lost St. Gregory’s Church, blamed local youth, telling CBC, “I don’t think white people came here and burned this down.”
Police have only made arrests in nine out of 33 church fires, and motives are unclear in most cases. A 2024 Alberta RCMP report showed a 260% increase in Catholic hate crimes, but investigations are slowed by limited resources and poor coordination.
Many Indigenous leaders have spoken out against these acts. In 2021, the Penticton Indian Band condemned the destruction of Sacred Heart Church, which had served as a community centre since 1911.
Former Gitwangak First Nation chief Chastity Daniels called the loss of St. Paul’s Anglican Church a blow to local history. Jenn Allan-Riley, a survivor of the Sixties Scoop, stated, “Burning down churches is not in solidarity with us Indigenous people.”
Political leaders have offered only muted responses. Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the 2021 church fires “unacceptable,” but said the anger behind them was “fully understandable.” Critics argue his comments encouraged more attacks.
In February 2024, a motion by Conservative MP Corey Tochor to condemn a church arson in Regina was shut down by Liberal and NDP MPs. Bill C-411, an “Anti-Arson Act” proposing tougher penalties for attacks on religious buildings, remains stalled in Parliament.
The impact on local communities is clear. Parishioners like Heather Knockwood, whose church in Indian Brook, Nova Scotia, was damaged in 2021, spoke of a deep loss. “When a church is ripped away, it’s horrible,” she said. For many, these buildings are not just places of worship but also centres of community life and history. With no national inquiry or task force launched to address the crisis, many congregations feel left behind.
This string of church attacks raises pressing questions about reconciliation, religious freedom, and the role of the media. Unless there is a serious effort to investigate these incidents and share the stories of those affected, the problem will likely continue out of the public eye.
