The latest victim of a string of church fires throughout Canada is a Coptic Orthodox church in Surrey, British Columbia.
The fire broke out at St. George Coptic Orthodox Church around 3:30 Tuesday morning. The local detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the church was the scene of an attempted arson last week, when a woman igniting a decoration on the front door was caught on a security camera.
"We will be investigating both of these incidents separately, and this time there is no indication that these two incidents are linked, but we will be looking very closely at both the circumstances,” Sgt. Elenore Sturko with the Surrey RCMP told CTV News.
Sturko acknowledged that police are aware that there have been other church fires since June, in the wake of renewed attention to the history of Canada's residential school system, its treatment of Indigenous Peoples, and the involvement of Churches in the government-backed program.
“We don't have any information to suggest [this] is related to any of those other incidents at this time, but our officers, and the Surrey Fire Service, are treating this as suspicious at this time,” Sturko said.
Medhat Elmasry, a church board member, said the church has been there since the 1990s and more than 380 families attend it. The church was also home to a daycare center.
“It feels really bad, because… it's our life, our churches, our life. We spend a lot of time in our church,” Elmasry told CTV News. "I'm sure we're all heartbroken at the moment.
He added that many of the items inside of the church are irreplaceable, such as saints' relics.
Assuming the fire was deliberately set, Elmasry said he would ask the perpetrator, “What have you achieved? What did you do this for? You targeted a peaceful community, a peaceful church.”
A list of incidents so far:
