Fire destroys two other churches in Canada
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls on Pope Francis to apologize on the ground for atrocities against indigenous peoples in Canada
Quell: DPA/Sean Kilpatrick
After a fire a week earlier, Catholic churches in Canada’s indigenous territories were again destroyed. Officials are investigating whether there are any links to the controversy over mass graves in the country – as pressure mounts on the church.
wooWeeks after the remains of 215 children were found at a former Catholic boarding school for Indigenous children in Kamloops, Canada, two more Catholic churches nearby were destroyed by fire. The Canadian Federal Police said fires broke out within an hour early Saturday morning at both St.
“Both churches were destroyed,” said a statement from police, which classified the fire as “suspicious.” It will be investigated whether it is related to the church fire in the cities of Penticton and Oliver, about 50 kilometers away a week ago. The investigation into the Penticton and Oliver fires is still ongoing.
A few weeks ago, the remains of 215 secretly buried children were discovered at the site of a former Catholic children’s home in Kamloops, in the western Canadian province of British Columbia. This discovery caused a stir in the whole country.
Soon after, 751 more graves were discovered at another former boarding school for indigenous children long run by the Catholic Church, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked Pope Francis to apologize. During a conversation, he stressed the importance of the head of the church “apologizing to indigenous Canadians on Canadian soil,” Trudeau said on Friday (local time).
The Catholic Church leadership is very proactive about what steps to take next. The day before, the discovery was announced by representatives of the Caucasus people. The facility, south of the city of Regina in central Canada, operated from 1899 to 1997. In the 1980s the Caucasians acquired the facility from the Catholic Church. It is still not clear whether it is only about children’s graves or adults are also buried there, it said on Thursday.
In Canada, by 1874, about 150,000 native and mixed couple children had been separated from their families and their culture and placed in church homes to force them to adapt to white majority society . Many of them were abused or sexually abused in homes. According to previous information, at least 3,200 of these children died, most of them from tuberculosis.
