(LifeSiteNews) – A man who was charged with arson after trying to burn down a historic Catholic church earlier this year was handed only a one-year jail sentence for his crime but has also been banned from being able to possess firearms for life.
On April 9, a court sentenced Jordan Willet, 31, to 278 days in jail for intentionally or recklessly causing damage by fire or explosion to property and for not complying with a probation order. In February, LifeSiteNews reported that Willet had been arrested and charged with starting a fire at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Regina, Saskatchewan, on February 9.
He pleaded guilty to both charges and also received an 18-month probation sentence along with a lifetime firearm prohibition.
Over the weekend, Fr. James Hentges, the parish pastor, said he was “relieved he is in custody and is not a threat.”
The parish had posted footage of the February 9 attack on social media and put out a plea for anyone who had information on the event to report it to police.
The video footage of the attack, taken from a doorbell camera, shows Willet, in a mask, pouring fuel on the church before setting it on fire.
Fire investigators determined that the blaze was caused by a direct act of arson.
Since the spring of 2021, more than 100 churches, most of them Catholic, have been burned or vandalized across Canada. The attacks on the churches came shortly after the unconfirmed discovery of “unmarked graves” at now-closed residential schools once run by the Church in parts of the country.
In 2021 and 2022, the mainstream media ran with inflammatory and dubious claims that hundreds of children were buried and disregarded by Catholic priests and nuns who ran some of the schools.
Despite the church burnings, the federal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has done nothing substantial to bring those responsible to justice or to stem the root cause of the burnings.
The claims, which were promoted by Trudeau among others, lack any physical evidence and were based solely on soil disturbances found via ground-penetrating radar.
In fact, in August 2023, one such site underwent a four-week excavation and yielded no remains.
Despite the lack of evidence, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and others have continued to push the narrative, even running a report recently that appeared to justify the dozens of attacks against Catholic churches.
In January, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre not only condemned the rash of church burnings in Canada but called out Trudeau for being silent on the matter.