Conservative MPs encouraged the Liberals to vote in favour of a private member’s bill mandating compensation for damage to religious properties by arsonists or vandals, as church arsons have risen in recent years.
“By amending the Criminal Code to enhance the protection of places of worship, we send a clear message to faith communities and, indeed, all Canadians that we value this freedom and that vandalizing places of worship is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” Conservative MP and sponsor of the bill Kelly Block
said on Oct. 5during second reading of the bill.
Bill C-255 comes amid a wave of arsons toward churches in recent years. The private member’s bill would mandate that vandals and arsonists “compensate the property owner” for damages “in relation to a building or structure, or part of a building or structure, that is primarily used for religious worship — including a church, mosque, synagogue or temple.” The bill also proposes up to two years’ imprisonment for a summary conviction.
As first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, Block said during debate in the House of Commons that there were 66 cases of hate-motivated mischief relating to property in 2015, according to Statistics Canada, but that this had risen to 263 in 2025.
Block cited recent incidents of religious property being damaged, such as the Holy Rosary Church in Edmonton, Alta., being targeted by three acts of vandalism in 2023 and 2024, the Ar-Rehman Islamic Centre in Mississauga, Ont., having its glass doors smashed by a skateboard in 2025, and the Congregation Emanu-El synagogue in Victoria, B.C., being defaced by anti-Semitic messages in 2025.
“Both as a Canadian and as a Christian, it distresses me to see a gurdwara, temple, mosque, or synagogue vandalized just as much as it does when a church is vandalized,” Block said.
Liberal MP Chris Bittle said that while the bill had “laudable” objectives, and all politicians have an interest in protecting public and private property from vandalism, he would be voting against the bill. He said that mandatory compensation for victims of such crimes was “not necessary given the authority of sentencing judges to order restitution to victims.”
Liberal MP and parliamentary secretary to the government House leader Kevin Lamoureux said that Brock had voted against the Liberal government’s Bill C-9, which “addressed hate motivation, dealt with our religious institutions and, in fact, protected our religious institutions from hate.”
The Combatting Hate Act, which received royal assent in June, creates new criminal offences associated with intimidation and obstructing access to places of worship, and strengthens penalties related to hate-motivated crimes and hate propaganda. Conservatives have opposed the legislation, saying some of its provisions will criminalize religious expression.
Lamoureux said that the restitution payments outlined in Bill C-255 are “a part of our judicial system, not precisely in the way the member is proposing,” and that the Combatting Hate Act had expanded on them.
Conservative MP Bob Zimmer said “the rise of persecution against the Christian church across Canada has been profound,” in reference to the more than 100 churches destroyed by arson over the last decade. “It is a modern-day form of religious persecution, and it is very troubling,” he said.
The Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an Ottawa think tank, said in a 2025 analysis that a spike in church fires coincided with 2021 claims of graves at an Indian residential school in Kamloops, B.C.
The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation claimed in May 2021 that ground-penetrating radar had located possible burial sites of 215 children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. The sites have not been excavated to prove the claim.
Following additional claims of alleged unmarked burial sites at former residential schools, there were a series of arsons and desecrations at churches across Canada.
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