Canada: Fire destroys two church buildings in Indigenous reserves

Two Catholic church buildings in Indigenous communities in western Canada have gone up in flames in a single day, native media reported Saturday.
Two related fires in British Columbia have been reported lower than every week in the past, following the grim discoveries of a whole lot of unmarked graves at former Catholic-run Indigenous residential faculties.
What we all know concerning the fires
Responders reported that the St. Ann’s Catholic Church on the Upper Similkameen Indian Band was set on hearth.
Shortly after, the Chopaka Catholic Church on the Lower Similkameen Indian Band was additionally set ablaze, broadcaster CTV reported, citing federal police.
The two church buildings have been burned to the bottom, in response to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Canada’s nationwide police power.
Authorities contemplate the 2 fires “suspicious, and are looking to determine any possible connection to the church fires in both Penticton and Oliver on June 21, 2021,” RCMP Sergeant Jason Bayda mentioned in a press release.
The Penticton and Oliver fires — about 50 kilometers (30 miles) away — are nonetheless underneath investigation, in response to the AFP information company.
RCMP had issued a press release after final week’s hearth, stressing that investigators “won’t speculate on a motive” regardless of the sensitivity to latest occasions.
What are the Indigenous mass grave discoveries?
Using ground-penetrating radar mapping, over 1,000 unmarked graves have been found at former Indigenous residential faculties in Canada earlier this month.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has apologized for Canada’s coverage of Indigenous assimilation that utilized at 139 of those faculties throughout the nation till the Nineteen Nineties.

In such faculties, youngsters have been separated from their households and taught to observe the traditions of the European colonizers, together with adopting Christianity. Violence and sexual abuse have been widespread.
In 2008, the Canadian authorities formally apologized for the inhumane situations.
AFP contributed to this report.