EDMONTON — With another plot of unmarked graves found
in British Columbia, and a Roman Catholic church burnt
to the ground, Wednesday became one more in a series of
dark days.
About 30 minutes outside Edmonton, in Morinville,
Alta., residents watched in the early morning hours as
a century-old Roman Catholic church’s steeple and roof
collapsed, surrounded by flames in what Alberta Premier
Jason Kenney labelled a potential “hate-crime.”
A church outside of Edmonton burned to the ground early
Wednesday morning. It's the latest fire at a Canadian
church and coincides with the discoveries of hundreds
of graves in recent weeks at the site of former
residential schools.
Several hours later, a site believed to contain some
182 sets of human remains in unmarked graves — the
third such site revealed over the past month in this
country — was flagged near the location of a former
residential school in Cranbrook, B.C.
Both events come at a moment of tension in Canada where
many are facing the realities of the residential school
system that existed for most of the 20th century and
which claimed the lives of at least 4,000 Indigenous
children.
Even though speculation has been widespread, no
official connection between a string of church burnings
that have happened across Canada in recent days and the
unmarked grave sites has been made.
But for Arthur Noskey, the Treaty 8 First Nations of
Alberta grand chief, churches need protecting, and
during a meeting Wednesday, he and other Indigenous
leaders discussed having their members appointed as
security to do so.
Their reasons for offering that security, however, are
not simply about protecting buildings, Noskey
suggested.
“These are potential evidence sites,” he told the Star.
“We’ll be talking to our members directly and our
elders as well.
“I know everybody’s hurting and the whole nation is in
an uproar, but you know, for us, the truth is coming
out.”
Treaty 8 covers the northern half of Alberta, as well
as a swath of British Columbia and Saskatchewan, and is
comprised of 39 First Nations communities.
Sites of former residential schools — there were 25 in
Alberta — also need to be protected, said Noskey.
There have been a series of church fires since the
discovery of 215 unmarked graves near a former
residential school in Kamloops in B.C. and another site
where 751 unmarked graves were flagged on the Cowessess
First Nation in Saskatchewan.
After RCMP said Wednesday that they are investigating
the “suspicious” fire that levelled the St. Jean
Baptiste church in Morinville, the Alberta premier said
it appeared to be a hate-crime and called it
“unacceptable.”
“These attacks targeting Christian churches are
attempts to destroy the spiritual sites that are
important to people of faith across Alberta, including
many Indigenous people,” said Kenney.
He added that he instructed Alberta’s justice minister
to work with police in the province to step up
“monitoring and protection of potential target sites.”
A photo taken by a Morinville resident shows the St.
Jean Baptiste church burning early Wednesday morning.
Catherine Murton Stoehr, a historian of Canadian
colonialism and treaties, slammed Kenney’s comments as
“monstrously irresponsible” and labelled them “an
invitation to all non-Indigenous Canadians to go down a
road of profound self-delusion and moral atrophy.”
“No one has murdered Catholic children and hidden their
bodies in the ground,” she said, adding that Kenney
seemed to be promoting a “spectacular false
equivalence.”
“He’s changing the subject, and this is a political
strategy that we have come to accept in this country,”
she said.
In Morinville, a neighbour whose house is next-door to
the church, also wasn’t ready to go as far as Kenney.
“I’m really sad that it’s come to this,” said 28-year-
old Justin Hogg. “But I don’t know that Jason Kenney
should exactly determine that it was a hate-crime
before it’s investigated.”
Hogg has fond memories of being a kid and going to the
church. He recalled being in awe of the murals and the
architecture. For his whole life, the church bells have
rung every single day, but “that’s just gone now,” he
said.
“I’m really hurt,” said Hogg. “I’m not saying it was an
intentional act, but if it was, it absolutely could
have come at the cost of hundreds of lives with all
those condos and housing in the area.”
Iain Bushell, Morinville’s general manager of
infrastructure and community services, said the fire
was so fierce that firefighters could not enter the
114-year-old building and the roof collapsed a short
time later.
Once the inferno had been extinguished, the church was
a pile of rubble.
“Certainly the timing is unfortunate, given that it is
a rather iconic Catholic Church in our community and
with the timing of sad events that have been uncovered
in the country, right now,” Bushell said.
Paul Terrio, the Bishop of St. Paul, put out a
statement saying that it was with “a sad heart that we
learn the historic parish church of Morinville burned
to the ground early this morning.”
“The pastor, Fr. Trini, says that at 11:00 last night
after watering his garden and praying at the Grotto
beside the church everything appeared normal,” the
statement reads.
“But after 3 a.m. this morning, he was awakened by a
loud noise and then saw flames in the basement of the
church.”
Four small Catholic churches on Indigenous lands in
rural southern British Columbia have been destroyed by
suspicious fires and a vacant former Anglican church in
northwestern B.C. was recently damaged in what RCMP
said could be arson.
In Nova Scotia, police have also deemed a church fire
on the Sipekne’katik First Nation “suspicious,” after
an early morning blaze Wednesday damaged part of a
Roman Catholic Church there.
Earlier this week, in Gleichen, Alta., which is just
east of Calgary, RCMP said they were investigating a
potential arson attempt at Siksika Catholic Church that
took place just after midnight on Monday, although it
had been put out before any serious structural damage
took place.
Tensions between the Catholic Church and Canadians have
no doubt risen since the grim discoveries of the
unmarked graves and some have called on Pope Francis to
come to Canada and deliver an apology.
But Noskey had a blunt message for the Pope: “Don’t
even set foot in Canada.”
“(An) apology is going to do nothing,” he said. “If I
went and took your kids out of school, or anywhere, and
abused them in school and in the process, come tell you
… ‘I’m sorry,’ what does that do for you?”
Still, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry
Bellegarde confirmed on Wednesday that a delegation of
Indigenous leaders will travel to the Vatican and seek
an apology from Pope Francis.
“The Anglican Church has apologized. The Presbyterian
Church has apologized. United Church has apologized,”
said Bellegarde at a virtual news conference.
“This is really part of truth and part of the healing
and reconciliation process for survivors to hear the
apology from the highest position within the Roman
Catholic Church, which is the Pope.”
With files from Steve McKinley and The Canadian Press
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