At least ten churches were damaged or set on fire in western Canada and two statues of the monarchy were dismantled.
The damage was committed on Canada's National Day, after the discovery of more than a thousand anonymous graves near former residential schools for indigenous people.
These acts were condemned by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as well as by the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Pierre Bellegarde.
Canada has been in shock since last month, when the remains of 215 children were discovered on the outskirts of a former residential school for Métis, Inuit, and First Nations children. More than a thousand graves have since been unearthed all over the country, each time near these establishments managed by the Church, and half by the Catholic Church. Almost 150,000 indigenous children are believed to have passed through these schools until the 1990s, and 4,000 of them are believed to have died there. Survivors say they were victims of physical and psychological abuse.
Many First Nations communities as well as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are asking for an apology from Pope Francis. The latter spoke on June 6 at the Vatican to express his "pain" after these macabre discoveries, without going so far as to apologize.
