Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and some Indigenous leaders say they understand people are angry about the discovery of unmarked graves at former residential schools, but burning churches is not the way to proceed.
“This is not the way to go. The destruction of places of worship is unacceptable. And it must stop,” Trudeau said at a housing announcement in Ottawa Wednesday.
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde says the Indigenous way is not to burn things down.
Rather, he says, it is about building relationships and coming together.
Several Catholic churches have recently been vandalized or damaged in suspicious fires following the discovery of unmarked graves at former residential school sites in British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
This morning, a historic Catholic church in Alberta was destroyed by fire and a Catholic church at a First Nation in Nova Scotia was damaged by flames.
