CBC News has examined 33 Canadian churches that burned to the ground since May 2021. Just two were ruled accidental.

Investigators have determined that 24 were deliberately set while others are still under investigation. Some researchers and community leaders suggest Canada’s colonial history and recent discoveries of potential burial sites at former residential schools may have lit the fuse.

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  • @Kepabar
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    -246 months ago

    The programs these churches run are typically filling in gaps in social programs that the government doesn’t have the political mandate to enact.

    If these churches were taxed you’d see their charities diminished while the funding went to some pork belly spending project, or at the very least not related to what services the church is suddenly not providing.

    Not all government spending is a net positive.

    • @otp@sh.itjust.works
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      fedilink
      86 months ago

      Like I said, I wish there were stats on that.

      You say “typically”. I think you mean “ideally”, or maybe even “traditionally”.

      I think churches should be required to prove their charity like other non-taxable organizations, or they should be taxed like businesses.