(LifeSiteNews) – Yet another historic Canadian Christian church has been reduced to ashes after being set ablaze.
Members of the Smoky Lake Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said two suspects, all indigenous, have been arrested in connection with a fire that destroyed All Saints Ukrainian Orthodox Church last weekend.
According to Sgt. Anita Doktor, detachment commander of the Smoky Lake RCMP, said police and the community are saddened to see a nearly century-old cultural building destroyed in such a manner.”
“We believe in preserving our history, no matter our beliefs, and want to highlight the fact that this is not something that should take place within our communities. We thank the surrounding detachments and specialized RCMP units for assisting in this investigation,” Doktor said.
Fire investigators believe that an accelerant was used to burn down the church in Bellis, Alberta. An investigation showed that stolen items in the cars linked the suspects to the church arson.
Initially, the RCMP were alerted to reports of both attempted and completed thefts from a vehicle. After some investigation, a police chase ensued, during which the suspects drove erratically to try to evade capture.
A stolen car was involved in the chase, while another suspect in another vehicle tried to flee as well, with some of the suspects fleeing on foot.
Eventually, the RCMP, with the help of dogs and drones, was able to locate and arrest two of the three suspects, one of whom is a youth. One suspect is still at large.
The suspects that were arrested are Sandy Dawn Marie White, 23, and Lazare Favel, 26, who both reside on the Saddle Lake First Nations.
They both are facing multiple charges, including arson, theft, break, flight from police, assault with a weapon, and mischief to cultural property.
One of the suspects, Favel, is still in jail waiting for a court date, with the other, White, already released on bail.
RCMP have asked anyone with information on the arson to call the Smoky Lake detachment or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477, or online at www.P3Tips.com.
In 2021 and 2022, the mainstream media ran with inflammatory and dubious claims that hundreds of children were buried and disregarded by Catholic priests and nuns who ran some Canadian residential schools. The reality is, after four years, there have been no mass graves discovered at residential schools.
However, as the claims went unfounded, since the spring of 2021, over 120 churches, most of them Catholic, many of them on indigenous lands that serve the local population, have been burned to the ground, vandalized, or defiled in Canada.
In October 2024, retired Manitoba judge Brian Giesbrecht said Canadians are being “deliberately deceived by their own government” after blasting the now former federal government of Justin Trudeau for “actively pursuing” a policy that blames the Catholic Church for the unfounded “deaths and secret burials” of Indigenous children.
Residential schools, while run by both the Catholic Church and other Christian churches, were mandated and set up by the federal government. They were in operation from the late 19th century until the last school closed in 1996.
While some children did tragically die at the once-mandatory boarding schools, evidence has revealed that many of the children passed away as a result of unsanitary conditions due to underfunding by the federal government, not the Catholic Church.
