• Conservatives propose a bill that aims to increase punishment on arsonists who attack places of worship

• The bill comes amid an uptick in arson incidents against churches, which followed the unproven report that 215 Indigenous bodies were “discovered” at a former residential school site

• Amid the uptick in church attacks, Prime Minister Trudeau said anger against churches was “fully understandable”

The federal Conservatives have proposed Bill C-411, called the “Anti-Arson Act,” in a bid to curb attacks on religious institutions, the vast majority of which have taken place against churches.

Conservative MP Marc Dalton proposed the private member’s bill in response to the concerning trend.

“592 places of worship have been burned be arsonists since 2010,” he stated in a video that lays out the rationale for the bill.

RCMP revealed last month that between 2010 and 2020, each year there were between 13 and 58 arson cases on religious institutions reported to them.

However, in 2021, and just after legacy media falsely stated that mass graves were “discovered” at the former sites of residential schools in Canada, the number of arson incidents skyrocketed to ninety. In 2022, seventy-four instances were reported. 

The bill seeks to amend the Criminal Code to establish a distinct offense for causing damage by fire or explosion to places of worship, and covers all types of places of worship, including churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques.

If the bill is passed as currently written, the penalty to first-time offenders would be a minimum of five years in jail, and repeat-offenders would be subjected to a minimum of seven years.

Attack on churches 

The 2021 uptick in church attacks was seen as backlash to the widely-reported and condemned “discovery” of 215 “unmarked graves” at an old school in Kamloops, British Columbia.

Archeologists made this conclusion not after having done an excavation, but through the use of radar technology. They later admitted that their assertion they discovered “unmarked graves” was hasty, and changed the term to “anomalies.”

Nonetheless, the media’s absolute worst interpretation of the anomalies inspired protests and terrorist arson across the country. 

During the wave of church arson incidents across Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the attacks were “unacceptable and wrong,” but added, “I understand the anger that is out there. It is real and it is fully understandable given the shameful history that we are all becoming more and more aware of and engaging ourselves to do better as Canadians.” [Emphasis added]

To this date, no excavations of that Kamloops site have occurred. Local elders have cited intergenerational trauma as the reason for leaving potential proof of a genocide buried.

Manitoba excavation turns up nothing but rocks and dirt

In August, the excavation of a Catholic church basement on the grounds of a former Manitoba residential school yielded no evidence of human remains, despite the same radar technology suggesting that 14 anomalies existed.

The results of the four week excavation at the former Manitoba residential school site were announced quietly on a late Friday afternoon.

Last year, a motion calling for all political parties to condemn the nationwide attack on churches in Canada was denied by NDP and Liberal MPs, with one saying doing so might “trigger” Indigenous Canadians.