WATCH: Poilievre vows crackdown on “terrorist” church burnings

Poilievre is criticizing the Liberal government’s “deafening silence” on a wave of church attacks across Canada, arguing that Christians have become the country’s most targeted faith group.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is criticizing the Liberal government’s “deafening silence” on a wave of church attacks across Canada, arguing that Christians have become the country’s most targeted faith group for hate-based violence.

Responding to a True North question during an Ottawa press conference on cutting grocery taxes, Poilievre addressed the arson and vandalism targeting Christian churches.

“This anti-Christian hate has got to stop,” Poilievre said, calling the destruction of churches “100 terrorist attacks against Canadian places of worship.”

Since the 2021 residential school announcements, True North’s church attack incident map, hosted on Juno News (see below), has documented at least 118 incidents of Christian churches being burned, vandalized or desecrated.

Despite the scale of the crisis, no federal inquiry has been launched.

“You hear almost nothing from the Liberal government about this,” Poilievre told True North. “Christians may be the number one group that is victims of hate-based violence, but of course it’s not politically correct to say that.”

A Sept. 21 crime spree in Bellis, Alberta, left the century-old All Saints Ukrainian Orthodox Church destroyed by arson. RCMP arrested two suspects from Saddle Lake First Nation, charged them with multiple offences, and continue to search for a third at large.

Poilievre accused the government of enabling the surge in attacks by reducing penalties for arson and failing to allocate police resources effectively. He argued that Liberals have been more focused on targeting “farmers, duck hunters, and professional sports shooters” than cracking down on violent crime.

If elected, Poilievre pledged a tougher stance: mandatory prison terms for extortionists, stronger laws against hate crimes, deportation of foreign criminals, and reallocation of resources toward police and border services.

“Canadians of all faiths, including Christians, deserve to worship in peace,” he said.

The issue has largely flown under the radar in legacy media, despite more than 100 churches across Canada being reduced to ashes or defaced with graffiti in the last three years.