Trudeau’s New Low

Known for their ethics of non-violence and the forgiveness of enemies, how easy it is for people who hate Christians to persecute them. Now if Jesus had advocated violence and conquest as a way of spreading the faith and had given his blessing to armed resistance and terrorism, potential persecutors would leave Christians well alone. Yes, I know about the Crusades, the Thirty Years’ War and forced conversions to Christianity in ancient Germany and medieval Russia, but Christians have managed more or less to uphold the teachings of their Lord. If you are not convinced, try to think of the last time a Christian donned a rucksack of explosives and blew himself and everyone around him to kingdom come because he thought that girls dancing and singing along to their favourite pop star were God’s and therefore his enemies? You get my point.

North Korea is top of the league for persecuting Christians, but there is a nation that is rising through the ranks-one that probably none would suspect of having such a dubious distinction. That nation is Canada. Yes, Trudeau’s dystopia has become even more dark, dangerous and dispiriting. This is the nation where not only do people with physical disabilities feel under pressure to be euthanised and free speech is curtailed; it is also the place where arson attacks on churches have become a regular outrage.

Since June 2021, 113 churches have been razed. This is not a matter of arson alone, as a married couple living above a church that was set ablaze were killed. A Winnipeg man by the name of Alex Donald Courchene has since been accused of their deaths and faces the charge of two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of arson disregarding human life.

The church burnings began after the Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation tribe near Kamloops, B.C., announced on 28 May 2021 that they had discovered the remains of 215 children buried in a mass grave at the site of Kamloops’ now closed residential school for Indigenous Canadians. This school and other residential schools which are now also long defunct were run by Christian missionaries to indoctrinate the native children into the Western style of life against their parents’ wishes. Tragically, some children suffered physical and sexual abuse in these schools. Now evidence appeared to have been found that children had died from the abuse.

However, despite the Canadian government setting aside $78.3 million in Canadian dollars to verify children’s remains at Kamloops and other former sites of residential schools, no mass indigenous graves have been found. But the church burnings have continued. Clearly, some people on the extreme left cannot accept that these church schools were not guilty of fatalities and the arsonists among them still feel justified in burning churches down and on one occasion taking lives.

So reluctant are so-called progressives to accept the lack of evidence of child deaths, they have coined the term ‘denialists’ for anyone who even questions whether there are bodies on the former school sites. Some members of government have even gone so far as to suggest criminalising anything or anyone who might be downplaying facts related to the residential school system, which could include being sceptical about the existence of mass graves.

So how does Prime Minister Justin Trudeau relate to all of this? Well, he has condemned attacks on churches as ‘unacceptable and wrong’, and his government has made money available to improve churches’ security. Good. However, he has also stated that one of his ‘personal reflections’ is that he ‘understands’ the anger against churches for their schools’ historic crimes:

That last point is a reckless thing to say, for it will encourage those angry arsonists to continue their deadly and destructive campaign. It would have been better if he had said that anger over past crimes should not lead to crimes in the present, for Christians in Canada today cannot be held responsible for historical abuse they did not commit. Would Trudeau have said he understood the anger of arsonists if they were targeting mosques? Not in a million years. His thinking is as much two-tier as the smug Stalinist robot currently re-charging in Downing Street. Trudeau could have added that according to the 2011 Canadian census, 63% of indigenous Canadians identified as Christians, thus burning down churches is a very strange way of showing support for them. But he did not. Like all so-called progressives, he puts people into hermetically sealed boxes: either you are an Indigenous Canadian or you are a Christian Canadian. It is the same thinking that animates Dawn Butler: either you are black or you are a conservative. At the next election, Canadians of whatever heritage really ought to send Trudeau packing.

Peter Harris is the author of two books, The Rage Against the Light: Why Christopher Hitchens Was Wrong (2019) and Do You Believe It? A Guide to a Reasonable Christian Faith (2020).

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