Two other churches burnt down in Canada | The case of Catholic boarding schools which forcibly recruited children from indigenous peoples

In Canada, two more churches were set on fire after hundreds of unidentified graves were found near a former Catholic school for boys and girls in the first towns in the west of the country. Authorities are trying to determine if the events “are linked” to the fires of two other churches which occurred “on June 21 in Penticton and Oliver”, which took place after the identification of a mass grave with the remains of 215 children natives also near such a school.

The fires over the weekend broke out barely an hour apart in churches in Santa Ana and of Chopaka, both located in the territories of the Indigenous peoples of British Columbia. “Both churches were destroyed,” Sgt Jason Bayda of the Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.

The events are believed to be related to the recent Discovery of more than 750 unidentified graves on the site of a former boarding school of the Catholic Church in Marieval. Another similar event occurred a few weeks ago, when a mass grave was identified with the remains of 215 boys and girls from the indigenous peoples of Canada, near another such school, which illustrates the ordeal suffered for decades by the indigenous childhoods of this type of institution.

The authorities consider that fires are “suspect” and They research “if they are related to the June 21 churches in Penticton and Oliver”said the sergeant.

The grave findings rekindled the trauma suffered by some 150,000 Native American, Métis and Inuit children who were taken from their families, languages ​​and cultures and forcibly conscripted into 139 residential schools across the country until the 1990s. ‘between them suffered ill-treatment. or sexual abuse and more than 4,000 have died, according to a commission of inquiry which concluded that Canada had committed “cultural genocide”.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized for his country on Friday, asked the Pope to do the same and did not rule out a criminal investigation. At a press conference, he again referred to the “terrible mistakes” of Canada, which for several centuries has pursued a controversial policy of forced assimilation of indigenous peoples.