Suspicious fires in western Canada destroyed two more Catholic churches on First Nations reserves after the shocking discovery of nearly 1,000 unmarked graves of Indengious schoolchildren studying in residential schools.
According to the Guardian newspaper, firefighters in southern British Columbia were deployed to tackle blazes at St. Ann’s Church on Upper Similkameen Indian Band land and the Chopaka Church on the lands of the Lower Similkameen Indian Band. Both of the churches, which burnt to the ground, were made from wood and over 100 years old.
The incident came less than a week after two other churches were destroyed as outrage over massacres in church-run residential schools in an effort to forcibly assimilate Indigenous peoples raged across the nation.
Last week a First Nation community in Canada's Saskatchewan province said it had found the unmarked graves of 751 people near a former Catholic boarding school. The announcement came less than a month after the discovery of the remains of 215 children in a mass grave near another school where Indigenous children were forcibly converted to Christianity and stripped of their original names, customs and language.
The findings have sent shockwaves throughout the world, with many leaders calling for the Catholic Church to apologize for aristocracies. U.N. human rights experts urged Ottawa and the Vatican to conduct a full and prompt investigation into the discovery. Pope Francis expressed his pain over the discovery of the remains of hundreds of Indigenous students and pressed religious and political authorities to shed light on "this sad affair". However, the pope fell short to offering the apology sought by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Following the fires, the chief and council of the Lower Similkameen Indian Band said they were “in disbelief” and “angered.”
“(It) will be felt deeply for those that sought comfort and solace in the church,” it said in a statement, acknowledging the "grief and anger" experienced by many Indigenous communities across the country following the discovery of unmarked graves by the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation in British Columbia and Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan.
“This is a symptom of the intergenerational trauma our survivors and intergenerational descendants are experiencing, there are supports to help deal with these emotions in a more healing way,” the Lower Similkameen said.
