Earlier this week, in the wee hours of the night, an arsonist infiltrated the majestic Église catholique Saint-Simon-et-Saint-Jude church in little Grande-Anse, N.B. and started a fire on the church’s lower level. Maybe it was luck, maybe it was divine intervention, but the fire failed to spread throughout the magnificent structure, and it was eventually extinguished.
And thank goodness for that. Too many churches in Canada these past few years have been vandalized and firebombed — more than 100, in fact. One could make the case that this grim trend is perhaps the most overlooked and underreported story in our nation’s recent history. Much of this desecration is ignored by the mainstream media and dismissed by certain members of the political class. Or worse: Do you remember when Justin Trudeau’s best buddy, Gerald Butts, posted on Twitter that the attacks on these churches were "understandable"?
The reason for this agreeable demeanour toward arson attacks on churches had everything to do with reports of mass graves of Indigenous children at Catholic residential schools. This proved to be a hoax, but Butts and his ilk — no doubt subscribing to anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism, etc. — maintained the false narrative. Shameful. Especially given that some of the churches being torched were situated on native reserves.
Now it's open season on Jewish schools and synagogues. Is this "understandable" as well for those who are pro-Hamas in their political leanings? If, God forbid, an arson attack had been carried out against a mosque, would these same apologists be so nonchalant? Not likely. We wager Justin Trudeau would cut short his surfing safari in Tofino, B.C., and fly directly to the scene of the crime for a press conference condemning Islamophobia.
The bottom line is that all places of worship should be respected and the law of the land must be obeyed. Too bad not everyone sees it that way.
