Another Canadian church has gone up in flames. This time, the historic Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Allégresses Catholic church in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, was devastated by a fire on Thursday.
Municipal officials have not responded to True North’s requests for comment. However, local media noted that the fire chief “refused to speculate on the causes or origin of the blaze.”
No injuries have been reported, as the Church, which dates back to 1914, was empty at the time of the fire.
The Journal de Quebec stated that “several testimonies” collected on-site mentioned the presence of flames in a container near the church.
One of the church’s bell towers was destroyed during the fire, and “major damage” to the building’s structure has been reported.
According to the city of Trois-Rivières’s Facebook, emergency crews were on the scene of the “unfortunate fire” Thursday at around 3:40 p.m. The post said the flames were being tamed but urged residents to avoid the area.
Residential developer Georges Mouradian purchased and is constructing the church as a “revitalization project.” In an interview with La Presse on the scene, Mouradian said it was underway to be converted into 40 to 50 homes.
He said the first stage of the construction project was due to end the day following the fire and that the construction projects are now on hold pending the investigation.
Mouradian announced another project in May attached to the church that was set to accommodate forty additional units.
On the scene, Mouradian reportedly told the local paper La Nouvelliste that the church was not insured as one cannot get Church property insured.
The paper also reported that police evacuated neighbouring businesses and helped evacuate 11 Franciscans who lived next to the Church. The Red Cross attended to the Franciscans after the evacuation.
Though the cause and toll of the fire have yet to be identified, the church fire adds to the list of over 110 churches that have been damaged by fire or vandalism since the reported discovery of unmarked graves in at an Indian residential school in Kamloops, B.C.
No bodies have been found on the site of the residential school or any of the other reported sites of unmarked graves across Canada, and the claims of mass killings of residential school students are disputed.
Following the slew of church fires directly following the discovery of irregularities in the soil at the residential school, which ignited a country-wide “decolonization” process, several politicians excused the Church burnings.
Justin Trudeau famously said in July of 2021 that the anger fueling the arsons of Christian places of worship was “fully understandable” due to Canada’s “shameful history.”
Trudeau’s former secretary Gerald Butts echoed the line as well. When asked if he was defending the crowd celebrating the burning of churches, he said their actions “may be understandable.”