After a series of church burnings enveloped western Canada following the discovery of hundreds of unmarked indigenous graves at the sites of residential schools in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and British Columbia, the head of a Civil Liberties Association tweeted, “Burn it all down.”
Trudeau’s RCMP don’t give a damn. Politicians are silent. And the head of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association says “Burn it all down”.
But we’re offering $10,000 for tips that lead to the arrest of the church arsonists. Go to https://t.co/1IVrtp1xXJ to help. pic.twitter.com/U0ONS0xmev
— Ezra Levant 🍁 (@ezralevant) July 5, 2021
Following the incendiary tweet from Harsha Walia, the executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, an indigenous Alberta lawyer echoed on Twitter, “Let me be clear, I would help her burn it all down. And that would light our way forward. And also, I would help defend anyone charged with arson if they actually did burn things.”
It’s sad what’s happening to @HarshaWalia.
But let me be clear, I would help her burn it all down.
And that would light our way forward.
And also, I would help defend anyone charged with arson if they actually did burn things.
— Naomi Sayers, Indigenous Female Elite (@kwetoday) July 4, 2021
“Subsequently, Sayers added: ‘PS. Burn it all down. Doesn’t literally mean burn it down. But just in case, I can also defend both civil and criminal,’” The Vancouver Sun reported, adding:
BCCLA president David Fai took five days before eventually tweeting the board’s confidence that Walia’s comments “were not meant to be taken literally but were a recognition that the system that created residential schools is so flawed that we need to ‘burn it all down’ and start over.” … Former BCCLA president Craig Jones called Walia’s statement “a new height of stupidity for the Perrier-provocateur set.”… Another former BCCLA president, John Russell, called Walia’s remarks “inflammatory and utterly irresponsible,” and turned in his membership.
Jenn Allan-Riley, the daughter of a residential school survivor, told a news conference on Monday, “Burning down churches is not in solidarity with us Indigenous people. Whoever is doing this, you’re going to wake up a very ugly, evil spirit in this country,” CBC reported.
On Wednesday, Rebel News journalist Ezra Levant told Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, “I’m reluctant to use the word ‘Kristallnacht,’ because we’re not there yet, That was the ‘Night of the Broken Glass’ in pre-Holocaust Germany, where they smashed and burned and killed Jewish synagogues. It was a precursor to the Holocaust. … Obviously, we are not that far gone yet. But what do you call it when literally dozens of churches are being systemically vandalized, torched?” as The Daily Wire reported.
“Often run by churches, the residential school program was a government-funded program in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that forced indigenous children into boarding schools to assimilate them to Canadian culture. Canadian churches and politicians have since apologized for the program,” The Daily Wire noted.
Levant fired, “Justin Trudeau, who is normally the first and the wokest, waited a week before saying anything. And he literally said, ‘That’s not the way to go.’ That was as tough as he got.”
Trudeau issued a statement this week saying, “It is a shame and indeed it is something that will prevent people who will seek solace in times of grief from being able to visit their own places of worship when they’ve been vandalized or burned. It is not the way forward.”