St. Paul’s Anglican Church (Gitwangak, BC) destroyed by second fire

Shortly after 10:30 p.m. on 01 July 2021, Canada Day, New Hazelton RCMP received a report of a fire at St. Paul's Anglican Church in the village of Gitwangak, on Gitxsan territory in northwestern British Columbia. By the time officers arrived, the blaze had engulfed most of the structure, and the more than century-old, hand-built Anglican church was destroyed. RCMP also reported significant damage to a neighbouring community hall.

Global News reported that this was the second fire at the same church in less than a week. A smaller blaze had broken out at the church entrance around 1:15 a.m. on 26 June 2021, causing limited damage before it was extinguished. CBC News reported that the RCMP deemed both fires suspicious and investigated whether they were connected to a wider cluster of church fires on First Nations land in the province that summer.

The fires fell within a national wave of fires and vandalism at Canadian churches that followed announcements about suspected unmarked graves at former residential schools. Gitwangak Band Chief Sandra Larin, whose mother was a residential school survivor, condemned the destruction while acknowledging the community's grief and anger, and said she deferred to the RCMP to determine whether the fire was set deliberately. A reward was offered for information leading to an arrest.

This was a domestic Canadian incident, not foreign state sabotage, hybrid warfare, or terrorism. It belongs to the summer 2021 surge of fires at Canadian churches, many on First Nations land, that coincided with reports of suspected unmarked graves at former residential schools. The RCMP treated both Gitwangak fires as suspicious, but no official cause was confirmed and, on the available reporting, no suspect was charged. Motive is therefore unestablished and should not be assumed. Notably, the church was Anglican rather than Catholic, on Gitxsan territory.