WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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all natives were forced to go to church

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colonization right we're on a journey to

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the scene of a crime I'm with Clarence

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Louie the longtime chief of the ooous

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Indian band he's been down this road in

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BC Southern Okanagan many times as the

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history of the Catholic Church here

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weighs heavily on him I mean I'm pissed

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at the church I got no I got no respect

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for the church that cross has done so

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much damage I mean caused so much grief

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and killed so many people not just

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native people there's something he wants

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to show us just the building itself I'm

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not talking about the religion or or the

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symbolism of that it's just the old

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historic building this is an amazing

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site here are born

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sheep past the Rolling Hills of sage

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Russian sheep this is the one that got

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burnt down oh my goodness

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it looks fresh we come to a

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clearing this is what's left of the

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historic St Gregory's Catholic Church

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charred Rubble bits of scrap metal and

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the cement staircase that once led to

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the front door you've walked up these

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steps a few times as a child yeah I

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didn't like it we were forced to come in

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here we were heathens right we were

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Savages we had to come in here and have

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the white white man save our

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souls that's what we were

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taught built in

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1915 this historic church once stood as

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a Gathering Place the church bells would

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ring on Sundays there were potluck

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dinners and celebrations here but in the

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summer of 2021 it was burned to the

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ground so when I got the call I wasn't

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upset I wasn't teed or anything I was

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upset that some res punks um did arson

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whoever did it didn't ask for permission

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from the rest of the community of the

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chief and counsel they did it under the

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cover of darkness and I called not arson

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never found out who did it nobody knows

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who did it we can

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guess I don't think white people came

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here and burnt this down I'll just make

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sure nothing lights on fire in the early

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hours of the morning members of the pon

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Indian band spotted Flames it was the

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second Church to burn that night this

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one in Penticton just a 1hour Drive Away

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was the first who's to say you know

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there there will not be other similar

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types of

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incidents this is where it all started

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June 22nd 2021 the dark of night Sacred

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Heart Church in panon went up in Flames

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just a few hours later the church in Aus

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was burned then later that week two more

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churches in the South Okanagan destroyed

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by fire and that was just the start of a

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series of church fires that have

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destroyed historic structures right

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across

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Canada We examined media reports

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followed up with police fire and local

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authorities we checked court records to

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learn the circumstances in each case

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based on our investigation we found 33

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churches in Canada which had been fully

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lost to fire since May 2021 more than

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double the number from the previous two

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years years and only two were ruled

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accidental nine of the fires led to

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arson charges 12 people in total at

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least six are from the indigenous

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communities where the churches were

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burned five have yet to face trial a

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local youth was convicted in this fire

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on the kahian creation in

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Alberta in other cases such as this one

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and Sir BC the arson were attributed to

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mental health issues the RCMP says it

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found nothing to link any of the

00:04:06.200 --> 00:04:09.799
fires the surge in church fires began

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following the discovery of potential

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unmarked Graves on the site of the

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former camls residential school the news

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stirred up long simmering anger and

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resentment with the church particularly

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in the Indigenous Community finding

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these uh unidentified Graves

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unidentified bodies in the ground there

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course natives are going to be pissed

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off some punks takes you know they they

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go out and do stupid things I can

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understand why they did it but I still

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don't support it no matter if this is

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just a building it's something that

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means to everybody in this Village

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initially the churches set Ablaze were

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on indigenous lands churches on fire

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completely destroyed smaller sometimes

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unused often in remote areas but that

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summer fires erupted in churches big and

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small throughout Canada

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Manitoba

00:05:06.479 --> 00:05:09.320
saskatch then Alberta in a place where

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the Catholic faith runs deep s John

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Baptist Church was an iconic structure

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in morville Alberta a town of 10,000 a

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third of them Catholic just before

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Canada Day 2021 the 17-year-old Landmark

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went up in flames in the middle of the

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night igniting outrage

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burning down Faith communities targeting

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them with this these acts of violence

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and intimidation is not reconciliation

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it's not the way forward it is a

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dangerous and violent criminal

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act so this is from the West version Ron

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kust is a former Fire Chief and fire

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investigator now he's heading the

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community's efforts to replace the

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historic church the three days when I

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was on site working with the the

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official investigators the bishop was on

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site with father and we're talking about

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okay um retrieve the bells so we could

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potentially use them or send them away

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to be recast so we're able to retrieve

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what we could but the structure had

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burnt so hot and so intense that I

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couldn't even find a piece of the a

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Pew nor could they find an official

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cause the fire remains suspicious no

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suspects no arrests

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just this big empty lot where the church

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once

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stood at the University of Alberta in

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Edmonton Paulina Johnson has been

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looking into the church fires and why

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they're happening I think for many

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indigenous

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peoples it gives them a voice because

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for the longest time Canada hasn't

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really actually acknowledged us I am Dr

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Pina Johnson and I am the aunti is in

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she's an assistant professor and

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podcaster her work is a deep dive into

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the injustices faced by indigenous

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people and how some fight back the

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church fires they're much more than just

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arson it's a greater symbolic kind of

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narrative of Canada and Canada's

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relationship to indigenous peoples which

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is really lacking it's on fire because

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no one's really addressing the truth of

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what indigenous peoples are facing so it

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leads to a larger conversation that

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needs to be had

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had back in morville faith remained

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strong parishioners mourned the loss of

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their church now they just want to move

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on without pointing fingers we don't

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know how the incident started and we

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don't know who is a part of starting

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that and so therefore why would we

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single out one part of of a community

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and Target them for

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it the goal is to rebuild a tradition

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church and retake its place in the main

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street of the community to bring back

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the bells which were heard through the

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town for more than a

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century you don't go around and burn

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stuff down there's other ways to display

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your anger and emotions on the ooous

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Indian band there is no such effort to

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rebuild what now with this site it's uh

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it it it looks relatively untouched all

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we're probably going to do one of these

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days is get rid of all these Ash is and

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all this debris here and just leave it

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at that chances of of us building

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another church when there's only three

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to five churchgoers in this whole

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Community that's not going to happen and

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even if we did build it the r punks

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would come and burn it down again

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probably

