RCMP Investigating Fourth Alberta Church Fire in December

File photo of police tape. Andri Tambunan/AFP via Getty Images

There has been a fourth church fire in Alberta this month suspected of being caused by arson, this time destroying the Beiseker Seventh Day Adventist Church, according to the RCMP.

On Dec. 20, the Airdrie Integrated Rural RCMP received a report of a fire at the church near the village of Beiseker, which is located about 50 kilometres northeast of Calgary. Fire crews from the Rockyford Fire Department responded to the incident after receiving a call at 6 a.m., but by the time they arrived, the church was fully engulfed in flames, RCMP said in a release.

Deputy Chief Darcy Burke told Postmedia that while the 35 personnel from several fire departments went into “defensive mode”  to protect the other surrounding structures, the church was destroyed.

A Rocky View County fire investigator later that day determined the incident was due to arson.

Mr. Burke said community members have been impacted by the loss of the church. “We did have some local parishioners come through the scene to see what happened. It’s a very tight-knit community, and they were very impacted by losing their church. It’s the centre of their community.

“During the Christmas season, it causes even greater grief for those affected.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said on X that his thoughts were with the church and community members, “mourning the loss of their church at the hands of an arsonist.

“This is the 4th church in two weeks to be targeted by acts of violent anti-Christian hatred,” he added.

On Dec. 15, a suspected arson also took place at the old church adjacent to the St. Gabriel Catholic Church in the northwestern community of Janvier. Two churches in the community of Barrhead also caught on fire less than two hours apart on Dec. 7, with both buildings being extremely damaged.

The wave of cross-country church arsons began in 2021 after the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation claimed ground-penetrating radar had uncovered the possible burial sites of 215 children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, B.C. The sites have not yet been excavated to confirm.

A total of 83 churches in Canada have been vandalized, burned down, or desecrated since the discovery of the possible burial sites in Kamloops.