Canada: two more Catholic churches on First Nations reserves destroyed by fire

  • Investigators treating fires in British Columbia as suspicious
  • Anger over church’s historical role in forced assimilation

Two more Catholic churches on First Nations reserves in western Canada have been destroyed by fires that investigators are once again treating as suspicious.

Over the weekend, crews in southern British Columbia responded to early morning 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 churches, built from wood and more than 100 years old, were burned to the ground.

The fires come nearly a week after two other churches were destroyed , and amid growing anger over the church’s role in Canada’s campaign to forcibly assimilate Indigenous people.

In recent weeks, the country has been rocked by the discovery of nearly a thousand unmarked graves at the sites of church-run residential schools where Indigenous children were forcibly converted to Christianity and stripped of their original names, customs and language.

Canada's residential schools

Over the course of 100 years, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools in an effort to forcibly assimilate them into Canadian society.

They were given new names, forcibly converted to Christianity and prohibited from speaking their native languages. Thousands died of disease, neglect and suicide; many were never returned to their families.

The last residential school closed in 1996.

Nearly three-quarters of the 130 residential schools were run by Roman Catholic missionary congregations, with others operated by the Presbyterians, Anglicans and the United Church of Canada, which is today the largest Protestant denomination in the country.

In 2015, a historic Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded that the residential school system amounted to a policy of cultural genocide.

Survivor testimony made it clear that sexual, emotional and physical abuse were rife at the schools. And the trauma suffered by students was often passed down to younger generations – a reality magnified by systemic inequities that persist across the country.

Dozens of First Nations do not have access to drinking water, and racism against Indigenous people is rampant within the healthcare system. Indigenous people are overrepresented in federal prisons and Indigenous women are killed at a rate far higher than other groups.

The commissioners identified 20 unmarked gravesites at former residential schools, but they also warned that more unidentified gravesites were yet to be found across the country.

The Catholic church has faced calls for greater transparency over its role in the schools – and an apology from the Pope.

After the fires this weekend, the chief and council of the Lower Similkameen Indian Band said in a statement they were “in disbelief” and “angered”.

“[It] will be felt deeply for those that sought comfort and solace in the church.”

But the statement also acknowledged the “the grief and rage” many Indigenous communities were feeling across the country after 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.

On Friday, the Catholic Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, which operated 48 schools, including the two former schools where the graves were found, said it would release all documents in its possession.

Chief Keith Crow of the Lower Similkameen said in an interview with Castanet that the fires have been “devastating” for Catholics in the community, who recently had a service in the church two weeks ago – but warned communities were “in for more hurt now” as searches for unmarked graves have started in other communities.

“When all the rest of the residential schools start doing testing, there’s just going to be more and more pain that comes out; the 215 [graves found at the first site] was just a start.”

Contributor

Leyland Cecco in Toronto

The GuardianTramp

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