A Conservative private member’s bill would require vandals and arsonists to compensate owners of churches and other religious properties for damage, amid federal data documenting hundreds of incidents at places of worship.MPs took up Second Reading debate on Bill C-255, An Act To Amend The Criminal Code, which would impose mandatory compensation for a first offence and propose minimum jail sentences for subsequent offences.“This bill provides mandatory compensation to the victim for the first offence, and mandatory minimal jail time as well as compensation to the victim for subsequent offences,” said Conservative MP Kelly Block (Carlton Trail-Eagle Creek, Sask.), sponsor of the bill.“I want to state up front I am aware the concept of compensation to the property owner, which I am preparing to add, is novel,” she said.Blacklock's Reporter said the legislation would require vandals and arsonists to “compensate the property owner” for actual damages involving buildings or structures including churches, mosques, synagogues and temples. It also proposes up to two years in prison for multiple offences.Block said the motivation behind an attack should not affect whether victims receive compensation.“It should not matter what motivated the attack,” she said. “The impact on the victim is still the same.”Liberal MP Chris Bittle (St. Catharines, Ont.) said he would vote against the legislation despite supporting its stated goal.“We all have an interest in protecting both public and private property from these criminal acts,” said Bittle. “The bill’s objectives are laudable.”“However, after careful consideration I intend to vote against this bill,” he said.Bittle argued mandatory compensation was “not necessary given the authority of sentencing judges to order restitution to victims.”.Conservative MP Bob Zimmer (Prince George-Peace River, B.C.) pointed to church fires across the country in supporting tougher measures.“The rise of persecution against the Christian church across Canada has really been profound,” said Zimmer. “We have seen more than 100 churches burned in the last 10 years in Canada alone. It is a modern-day form of religious persecution and it is very troubling.”Cabinet figures contained in a 2024 Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons counted 423 police-reported incidents at places of worship over a 10-year period.A 2025 Macdonald-Laurier Institute analysis said a surge in church fires coincided with claims beginning in 2021 of hidden graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia.Researchers counted arson attacks involving 238 churches and other religious buildings between 2021 and 2023.The total was “more than double the annual baseline of arsons from 2011 to 2017,” according to the report, Scorched Earth: A Quantitative Analysis Of Arson Against Canadian Religious Institutions And Its Threat To Reconciliation.The report attributed fires and vandalism primarily in Western Canada to “anti-Christian or anti-religious sentiment,” while acknowledging the perpetrators and motives in the overwhelming majority of arsons were unknown.“The identities and motivations of the arsonists responsible for more than 96% of arsons remain unknown,” wrote author Edgardo Supelveda, an economist formerly with the Alberta Federation of Labour.The Commons adjourned debate on Bill C-255 without holding a Second Reading vote.
