Another fire at Catholic church under investigation, this time in Alberta

SIKSIKA FIRST NATION, ALBERTA – Police are investigating a fire at a Roman Catholic church in an Indigenous community east of Calgary.

RCMP say officers were called to the Siksika First Nation Catholic Church shortly after midnight.

They say no one was in the church and the Siksika fire department was able to put out the flames before there was any major damage.

Police in British Columbia are investigating four recent fires that destroyed Catholic churches in that province’s southern Interior, and Catholic churches in Saskatoon and Edmonton were vandalized with red paint in the past week.

Hundreds of unmarked graves have bee recently discovered at two former residential schools — one in B.C. and the other in Saskatchewan — that were operated by a Catholic religious order.

RCMP say a preliminary investigation indicates the fire at the Siksika First Nation was deliberately set.

They’re asking anyone with information to come forward.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 28, 2021