When churches burn across Canada, do they make a sound? The answer, sadly, seems to be no.

It began near the town of Penticton, British Columbia, in the early morning of June 21.

Sacred Heart Mission and St. Gregory Mission, both located on Indian tribal lands, burnt completely to the ground.

A week later, two more churches came down, St. Ann and Our Lady of Lourdes, both in Lower Similkameen, BC. Sgt. Jason Bayda of the RCMP said at the time that fires at “four churches, all Catholic, all on indigenous land … is extremely suspicious.” 

Like a fire itself, the wave of church arsons spread across Canada’s westernmost province of British Columbia to its easternmost province of Newfoundland, touching all three northern territories. 

According to Olivia Torrone of the Catholic Civil Rights League (CCRL) who runs the Church Attacks Database, there have been at least 40 church arsons since the wave began in June 2021, and this is just Catholic churches. 

Non-Catholic churches are burning as well; in total nearly 120 churches in Canada have been vandalized, set ablaze, or burned to the ground, with a married couple living above one of them dying as a result. Yet, as of January 2024, only 12 people had been charged in relation to these — and just one person had been convicted.

Attempts have been made to track the church attacks across Canada, but there is no single official site monitoring the attacks, investigations of arrests. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has given Canadians mixed messages on the fires, calling them “unacceptable and wrong” on the one hand, while on the other calling the motive for the attacks “real and fully understandable.” 

Except, it’s possible what’s motivating at least some of these attacks is neither real nor understandable, but the result of unverified claims repeated constantly by the media and the prime minister which have never been walked back, despite the clear lack of evidence.

The wave of church attacks began after the Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation tribe near Kamloops, BC, made the shocking announcement on May 28, 2021 that they had “uncovered the remains of 215 children buried at the site.”

The remains, Chief Rosanne Casimi suggested, were “confirmed” and belonging to “missing undocumented [indigenous Canadian] children” as “young as three years old.”

The announcement garnered massive media attention, including from The New York Times, who in their reporting used the phrase “mass grave.”

While there is no consensus on the term, the phrase clearly evokes a criminal act, executed bodies piled up and disposed of without care —  a serious allegation requiring serious investigation. 

Except no such investigation had been made — or has yet to be made. 

The Canadian government has allocated $78.3 million in Canadian dollars to locate and commemorate children found at Kamloops, or other sites where similar claims of mass indigenous graves have been made. Thus far, they have found nothing. 

Yet the church burnings have continued.

The latest was just on Oct. 3. 

Meanwhile, the discourse around the authenticity of the mass graves has not rolled back — it has intensified. A new term has arisen to describe anyone who wonders whether or not there are even bodies on these sites — “denialists.”

Some members of government have even gone as far as to suggest criminalizing anything that might be interpreted as condoning, denying, downplaying facts related to the residential school system, which could include the existence of unverified graves.

If such a bill were passed, anyone convicted could serve up to two years in prison.

This is a completely untenable situation.

As the government clamors to confirm the graves’ existence, churches are being burned seemingly in their name.

Which is why comprehensive excavations of the graves must continue in order to verify whether these claims are true.

The first site to do so should be Kamloops, where the allegations began, and where Chief Casimir appears to be dragging her feet, avoiding the fact-finding efforts that could bring closure, for both Indigenous community and the churches and their congregants.

Meanwhile, the government could investigate the church burnings, if they cared.

No special rapporteur has been assigned.

No funds have been allocated. Local newspapers are not equipped to handle a massive national crisis of which they may not even be fully aware.

Can you imagine the uproar though if, say, even half a dozen mosques or synagogues had been burned to the ground across Canada? Because it’s the same thing — and it’s disgraceful. 

Terry Newman is a senior editor and columnist at National Post.