Conservative MP Marc Dalton

From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Arson targeting places of worship would be punishable by “imprisonment for a term of not more than 14 years and to a minimum punishment of imprisonment for a term of five years”

A new bill be a Conservative MP has been introduced into Parliament and seeks to create specific criminal offenses for setting fires to churches and for starting wildfires.  

On June 21, Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Marc Dalton introduced a private member’s bill which would amend the Criminal Code to include specific offenses for arson targeting places of worship and starting wildfires.  

“This enactment amends the Criminal Code to create an offence for causing a wildfire and an offence for causing damage by fire or explosion to a place of worship,” a summary of the legislation reads. 

“It also requires a court to consider as aggravating circumstances, in the context of arson by negligence, the fact that it resulted in a wildfire or the destruction of a place of worship,” it continues.   

Under the new legislation, arson targeting places of worship would be punishable by “imprisonment for a term of not more than 14 years and to a minimum punishment of imprisonment for a term of five years” for the first offence.  

“For each subsequent offence, imprisonment for life and to a minimum punishment for a term of seven years,” the legislation stated.  

The legislation also outlines consequences for starting wildfires of fines up to $250,000 and life imprisonment.   

The bill comes after a devastating fire at St. Anne’s Anglican Church in Toronto destroyed priceless artwork earlier this month, and following last year’s wildfire season, which the mainstream blamed on “climate change” despite the fact that the vast majority of fires were human-caused.

Built in 1908, St. Anne’s, a Byzantine-style building, burned almost to the ground in a matter of hours. While the fire at St. Anne’s has not been confirmed to be caused by arson, over one hundred Christian churches have been intentionally set ablaze or otherwise vandalized in the last number of years.

The attacks began shortly after the federal government and mainstream media promoted the still baseless and inflammatory claim that hundreds of indigenous children were killed or improperly disposed of at the sites of residential schools once run by the Catholic Church. The claims, which are promoted by Trudeau and mainstream media, continue despite not one body having been found.  

This is hardly the first time a Conservative MP has introduced legislation to condemn the ongoing church burnings, but each time the legislation has been dismissed by Liberal and New Democratic Party (NDP) MPs. 

In February, Liberal and NDP MPs quickly shut down a Conservative motion to condemn an attack against a Catholic church in Regina, Saskatchewan. The motion was shut down even though there was surveillance footage of a man, who was later arrested, starting the fire.

Similarly, in October, Liberal and NDP MPs voted to adjourn rather than consider a motion that would denounce the arson and vandalism against 83 Canadian churches, especially those within Indigenous communities.  

Despite this, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has yet to openly condemn the arson attacks, instead saying in 2021 that it is “unacceptable and wrong” for churches to be burned, but adding that the burnings are also “understandable.” 

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has taken a similar approach to Trudeau, even running a report recently that appeared to justify the dozens of attacks against Catholic churches.