Nova Scotia RCMP report suspicious fire at Catholic church at First Nations community
Posted Jun 30, 2021 9:11 am.
Last Updated Jun 30, 2021 9:53 am.
INDIAN BROOK, N.S. — Police in Nova Scotia are investigating a fire that damaged the Roman Catholic church in a First Nations community north of Halifax.
The RCMP in Indian Brook, N.S., say the fire at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Church was reported this morning at 4:20 a.m. and is considered suspicious.
The church serves the Sipekne’katik First Nation, about 64 kilometres north of the port city.
RCMP spokesman Cpl. Chris Marshall says the province’s fire marshal has been called in to determine the cause of the fire.
Earlier today, a Catholic church in northern Alberta was destroyed by what RCMP are calling a suspicious fire.
The Mounties say the fire was reported just after 3 a.m. at St. Jean Baptiste Parish in Morinville, about 40 kilometres north of Edmonton.
READ MORE:
- Church near Edmonton burned to the ground; Mounties, fire dept. investigating
- RCMP investigate fire at Siksika First Nation Catholic Church
Four small Catholic churches on Indigenous lands in southern British Columbia have been destroyed by suspicious fires, and a vacant former Anglican church in northwestern B.C. was recently damaged in what RCMP said could be arson.
The fires happened less than a month after the discovery of what’s believed to be the remains of 215 children in unmarked graves at a former residential school site in Kamloops, B.C.
Last week, the Cowessess First Nation in southeastern Saskatchewan announced that ground-penetrating radar detected 751 unmarked graves at the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 30, 2021.
The Canadian Press
