OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez made the rather brazen suggestion that the recent slew of anti-Christian church burnings in Canada could be remedied through further “online” internet regulation.
Rodriguez made the comments before the House of Commons Heritage Committee on Monday, claiming that a forthcoming Liberal “online safety” bill would put an end to mass church burnings.
Conservative Party of Canada MP Marilyn Gladu pressed Rodriguez about his forthcoming “online safety” bill, which LifeSiteNews reported on yesterday, and why “faith-based communities” were “not in your mandate letter.”
This time last year, Justin Trudeau and his media allies were at the forefront of falsely accusing Catholic institutions of having buried Indigenous children in mass graves at various residential schools across Canada.
There was and is no credible evidence to support these wild accusations, but many Canadians are still unaware of the facts.
SIGN to demand an apology from Justin Trudeau for promoting the “mass grave” smear
The anger generated by the media at home and abroad saw over twenty Canadian churches burned, and extensive damage done to many more, but the record has never been set straight in what amounts to a disinformation campaign.
Terry Glavin at the National Post recently wrote a masterful piece that may go down in history as the definitive “debunking” of the assertions about the mass graves that never were.
Glavin points out that “nothing new was added to the public record” concerning the history of residential schools in Canada.
“The legacy of the schools had already been exhaustively explored in the testimony of hundreds of elders and a series of inquiries, public hearings, criminal cases, settlements and federal investigations going back decades. Most important of these efforts were the widely publicized undertakings of the 2008-2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC), and the content of its voluminous findings,” Glavin wrote.
“…[N]ot a single mass grave was discovered in Canada last year,” he added.
“The several sites of unmarked graves that captured international headlines were either already-known cemeteries, or they remain sites of speculation even now, unverified as genuine grave sites.”
“Not a single child” accounted for during the extensively researched commission “was located in any of these places,” Glavin underscored.
“In none of these places were any human remains unearthed.”
SIGN and SHARE the petition calling on Justin Trudeau to set the record straight.
Even Trudeau’s kneeling at what was reported upon as a just-discovered residential school burial ground was a lie – it was actually a well-known Catholic cemetery, but the media didn’t let these details get in the way of reinforcing their narrative.
Trudeau also called on Pope Francis to come to Canada and apologize for what had happened, as outlets like Reuters, the New York Times and scores more told the world that “nearly 1000 bodies” had been found in two mass graves.
Those online articles were quietly edited from “mass graves” to “unmarked graves”, but we still have the Twitter posts from major outlets like Reuters to prove the staggering level of misinformation.
SIGN: Justin Trudeau must tell Canadians the truth – there were no mass graves
According to an extensive investigation by Professor Emeritus Jacques Rouillard from the Université de Montréal: “The ‘discovery’ was first reported last May 27 (2021) by Tk’emlúps te secwépemc First Nation Chief Rosanne Casimir after an anthropologist, Sarah Beaulieu, used ground-penetrating radar in a search for the remains of children alleged by some to be buried there.”
“Her preliminary report is actually based on depressions and abnormalities in the soil of an apple orchard near the school – not on exhumed remains.”
Professor Rouillard opined that the unverifiable narrative of what could have amounted to child-murder has led to the false assertion of genocide, an assertion without any supporting evidence.
“By never pointing out that it is only a matter of speculation or potentiality, and that no remains have yet been found, governments and the media are simply granting credence to what is really a thesis: the thesis of the ‘disappearance’ of children from residential schools,” Rouillard wrote.
“And all of this is based only on soil abnormalities that could easily be caused by root movements, as the anthropologist herself cautioned in the July 15 press conference.”
The vast majority of Canadians have been misled by the media and Mr. Trudeau, believing the most incredible smears imaginable, leading to scores of attacks on churches around the country.
It’s time we heard the truth.
Please sign the petition today.
We are also cc’ing Canada’s Catholic bishops on this petition – they must also demand the record be corrected, lest Canadians continue believing the mainstream media’s disinformation.
For More Information:
How the world’s media got it wrong on residential school graves – National Post
Trudeau lied about the bogus mass grave story – LifeSiteNews
Trudeau’s narrative was a hoax – LifeSiteNews
**Photo: St. Jean Baptiste Church in Morinville burned to the ground on June 30, 2021**
“So, I’m looking at the December 16, 2021, mandate letter that is out on the web for you,” Gladu said, “If you weren’t aware that was in there. I would say is we’ve had 68 Christian churches burned to the ground, multiple attacks on synagogues and places of worship.”
“I would ask that your government take some action,” she stressed.
Rodriguez in response said that he did not at first understand her question, but then said, “The way I understood it is that you were talking specifically if we had a program for what happened to the churches, which is totally unacceptable.”
“But I would bring it to another level,” Rodriguez said.
“And this is why we need a bill, such as the one that’s coming, the online safety bill. A lot of it, not everything, but a lot of it starts on the web and that should not be there.”
On Monday, Rodriguez said more details about the new internet censorship bill would be announced “shortly.”
Rodriguez is a top cabinet minister from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s inner circle, and earlier in the week confirmed that the federal government by year’s end will try and bring forth a new version of its much-panned internet censorship bill that would target online speech.
His comments regarding church burnings come only days after a historic 122-year-old Catholic church in western Canada sustained unrepairable heavy damage after being set ablaze in what police say was an act of arson. Two men were arrested and charged in connection to the fire.
In December, LifeSiteNews reported how released notes showed Trudeau lamented the fact that social media content is hard to “counter,” leading to speculation that his government’s lapsed web regulation bill from last year may be resurrected.
That bill was known as Bill C-36, introduced in 2021, which critics warned would have censored bloggers and social media users and could have even opened the door to giving police the power to “do something” about online “hate.” This bill lapsed in Parliament after an election was called.
Yesterday, Rodriguez confirmed that a new version of Bill C-36 is in the works. This is although, under Canada’s Criminal Code, hate speech is already a crime.
Since the spring of 2021, well over 100 churches, most of them Catholic, have either been burned or vandalized across Canada. The attacks on the churches came shortly after the discovery of unmarked graves at now-closed residential schools once run by the Church in parts of Canada in the spring of 2022.
In January, another historic Canadian church, St. Joseph Lutheran Church, located in Hay Lakes, Alberta, was diminished to ashes in what police said was an intentional act of arson on New Year’s Eve.
Last August, LifeSiteNews reported about the destruction by fire of one of the oldest standing Catholic churches in Alberta. Police said the fire was a “suspicious” incident.