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Alberta

Two more historic churches in Canada set ablaze by arsonists

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

“These are absolutely despicable attacks on the Christian community”

Two historic Christian churches in Canada were intentionally set on fire late last week in what police said were suspected acts of arson.

The incident has Conservative political leaders calling for an end to “attacks” on Christianity after more than 100 churches having been targeted with arson or vandalism since 2021.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) say St. Aidan’s Church, known as Glenreagh Church, and Pioneer Church, a United Church, both located in Barrhead, a town 120 miles northwest of Alberta’s capital Edmonton, were destroyed by arson within only two hours of each other on the evening of December 7.

No one was reported to have been hurt in the fires, but both churches have been extensively damaged, likely beyond repair, despite the best efforts of the Barrhead Fire Services, which was onsite quickly.

Barrhead RCMP confirmed that an initial investigation has determined that both fires were intentionally set. However, an exact motive is not yet clear.

According to eyewitnesses on the ground, two older pickup trucks were seen fleeing the scene.

An initial investigation by fire examiners confirmed that both fires were deliberately set.

Local resident Edith Strawson, whose dad helped build St. Aidan’s Church over 100 years ago, and who got married in the church, as well as some of her kids, said, “We’re putting this back together.”

“We just can’t let that happen and just leave it,” she said as per a CTV report.

Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) Pierre Poilievre condemned the attacks.

“These are absolutely despicable attacks on the Christian community,” Poilievre wrote Friday on X (formerly Twitter).

“Police must find and arrest the criminals responsible for setting fire to these two churches.”

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, the leader of the United Conservative Party, said church burnings have “no place in Alberta” and those who destroyed the churches by arson need to stand for their “crimes.”

She also confirmed that the RCMP is investigating the church fires “as suspected cases of arson.”

“Images like these have no place in Alberta,” Smith wrote Friday on X (formerly Twitter).

“To the parishioners of these churches and to the Christian community across our province, I stand in solidarity with you against all forms of hate.”

Smith said that the church burnings “are condemned in the strongest possible terms and those perpetrating these crimes must be brought to justice.”

“I am closely monitoring this unfolding situation along with Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services Mike Ellis,” she added.

Since the spring of 2021, well over 100 churches, most of them Catholic, but all Christian have either been burned or vandalized across Canada. The attacks on the churches came shortly after the unconfirmed discovery of “unmarked graves” at now-closed residential schools once run by the Church in parts of the country.

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 of the schools.

Despite the church burnings, the federal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has done nothing substantial to bring those responsible to justice, nor to stem the root cause of the burnings.

Instead, a little over a month ago, Liberal and NDP Members of Parliament (MPs) struck down a Conservative Party of Canada motion that would have condemned incidents of church burnings and acts of vandalism.

In August of 2022, LifeSiteNews reported about the destruction by fire of one of the oldest standing Catholic churches in Alberta. Police at the time said the fire was a “suspicious” incident.

Despite the massive number of church fires in Canada, Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez in May made a brazen suggestion recently that the recent slew of anti-Christian church burnings in Canada could be remedied through further “online” internet regulation.

Those with any information on the church fires are asked to contact Barrhead RCMP at 403-780-674-4848.

Alberta

Alberta introduces bill banning sex reassignment surgery on minors

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith followed through on a promised bill banning so-called ‘top and bottom’ surgeries for minors.

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith made good on her promise to protect kids from extreme transgender ideology after introducing a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors.

“It is so important that all youth can enter adulthood equipped to make adult decisions. In order to do that, we need to preserve their ability to make those decisions, and that’s what we’re doing,” Smith said in a press release.

“The changes we’re introducing are founded on compassion and science, both of which are vital for the development of youth throughout a time that can be difficult and confusing.”

Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 “reflects the government’s commitment to build a health care system that responds to the changing needs of Albertans,” the government says.

The bill will amend the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”

It will also ban the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to kids 15 and under “except for those who have already commenced treatment and would allow for minors aged 16 and 17 to choose to commence puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes with parental, physician and psychologist approval.”

Alberta Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange, the bill’s sponsor, said the province’s legislative priorities include “implementing policy changes to continue our refocusing work, position our health care system to respond to pressures and public health emergencies, and to preserve choice for minors. These amendments reflect our dedication to ensuring our health care system meets the needs of every Albertan.”

Earlier this year, the United Conservative Party (UCP) provincial government under Smith announced  she would introduce the strong pro-family legislation that strengthens parental rights, protecting kids from life-altering, so-called “top and bottom” surgeries as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.

With Smith’s UCP holding a majority in the provincial legislature, the passage of Bill 26 is almost certain.

While Smith has done far more than predecessor Jason Kenney to satisfy social conservatives, she has been mostly soft on social issues such as abortion and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.”

This weekend, thousands of UCP members will gather for the party’s annual general meeting, where Smith’s leadership will be voted on along with many other pro-freedom and family policy proposals from members. Smith is expected to pass her leadership review vote with a large majority.

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Alberta

Alberta court upholds conviction of Pastor Artur Pawlowski for preaching at Freedom Convoy protest

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Lawyers argued that Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s sermon was intended to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, but the statement was characterized as a call for mischief.

An Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski is guilty of mischief for his sermon at the Freedom Convoy-related border protest blockade in February 2022 in Coutts, Alberta.

On October 29, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Gordon Krinke sentenced the pro-freedom pastor to 60 days in jail for “counselling mischief” by encouraging protesters to continue blocking Highway 4 to protest COVID mandates.

“A reasonable person would understand the appellant’s speech to be an active inducement of the illegal activity that was ongoing and that the appellant intended for his speech to be so understood,” the decision reads.

Pawlowski addressed a group of truckers and protesters blocking entrance into the U.S. state of Montana on February 3, the fifth day of the Freedom Convoy-styled protest. He encouraged the protesters to “hold the line” after they had reportedly made a deal with Royal Canadian Mounted Police to leave the border crossing and travel to Edmonton.

“The eyes of the world are fixed right here on you guys. You are the heroes,” Pawlowski said. “Don’t you dare go breaking the line.”

After Pawlowski’s sermon, the protesters remained at the border crossing for two additional weeks. While his lawyers argued that his speech was made to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, the statement is being characterized as a call for mischief.

Days later, on February 8, Pawlowski was arrested – for the fifth time – by an undercover SWAT team just before he was slated to speak again to the Coutts protesters.

He was subsequently jailed for nearly three months for what he said was for speaking out against COVID mandates, the subject of all the Freedom Convoy-related protests.

In Krinke’s decision, he argued that Pawlowski’s sermon incited the continuation of the protest, saying, “The Charter does not provide justification to anybody who incites a third party to commit such crimes.”

“While the appellant is correct that peaceful, lawful and nonviolent communication is entitled to protection, blockading a highway is an inherently aggressive and potentially violent form of conduct, designed to intimidate and impede the movement of third parties,” he wrote.

Pawlowski was released after the verdict. He has already spent 78 days in jail before the trial.

Pawlowski is the first Albertan to be charged for violating the province’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act (CIDA), which was put in place in 2020 under then-Premier Jason Kenney.

The CIDA, however, was not put in place due to COVID mandates but rather after anti-pipeline protesters blockaded key infrastructure points such as railway lines in Alberta a few years ago.

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