Sacred Heart Mission Church (Penticton Indian Band) destroyed by fire

In the early hours of 21 June 2021, the Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Penticton Indian Band land, in British Columbia's southern Interior, was destroyed by fire. According to CBC, a Penticton RCMP officer on patrol spotted flames coming from the wooden church at around 1 a.m. and found it fully engulfed; the more than century-old structure, which had stood since 1911, burned to the ground. About two hours later, Oliver RCMP were notified of a second fire at St. Gregory's Church on nearby Osoyoos Indian Band land, which also burned down. RCMP, through Sgt. Jason Bayda of the Penticton South Okanagan detachment, said both fires were being treated as suspicious and that investigators would weigh all possible motives if the cause was deemed to be arson.

The fires occurred amid a national reckoning over Canada's residential schools, weeks after the reported detection of unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Penticton Indian Band Chief Greg Gabriel acknowledged community anger but said that, if the fire proved deliberate, such action would not help. The Penticton Indian Band, alongside the Osoyoos Indian Band, expressed disbelief and anger, noting that the churches had served members seeking comfort and solace. RCMP later said surveillance footage showed a dark-coloured pickup truck near Sacred Heart Church shortly before the fire began, and investigators appealed for witnesses to contact the Penticton detachment.

This is a domestic Canadian incident. RCMP treated both church fires as suspicious and investigated possible arson, but no public attribution of responsibility or motive was confirmed in the cited reporting. The fires were part of a broader summer-2021 wave of fires and vandalism targeting churches, particularly on Indigenous land, that coincided with grief and anger following reports of unmarked graves at former residential schools. Local Indigenous leaders condemned the destruction even while voicing the community's pain, and RCMP cautioned against speculating that those responsible had any connection to the affected Indigenous communities.