East Vancouver Catholic church vandalized on Canada Day

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      An East Vancouver Catholic church was vandalized with paint sometime during the night on Canada Day.

      According to an email and attached photos received Friday (July 2) afternoon from an anonymous sender, East Vancouver's St. Jude's Parish main building and an adjacent shrine with a cross and stone memorial were splashed with what appears to have been orange paint.

      The email, from an anonymous account named "154yearsofcanadiangenocide", noted that most of the paint appeared to have been cleaned up by the following morning, and it also included some "after" pictures.

      The full text of the email is reproduced below:

      "Hello, 

      These photos are from an anonymous, autonomous action in solidarity with Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island. St. Jude's Parish, a Catholic church in East Vancouver, was covered with orange paint the night of July 1st 2021. The attached photos taken at night show what was done. The  attached photos taken during the day show the church the next morning - most of the orange paint removed, but some still visible."
       

      St. Jude's Parish—located at 3078 Renfrew Street, just south of Grandview Highway—did not answer main contact phone numbers or repond to a voicemail left Friday afternoon by the Georgia Straight.

      The Straight was also waiting for Vancouver police to respond to an information request.

      [Update: VPD spokesperson Const. Tania Visintin sent an email to the Straight at 9:35  p.m. on July 2 that said: "Yes we are aware of the incident and we are investigating. Other than that, I don't have much more to add."]

      The church's Facebook page and website names the parish priest as "Father Jun".

      Photo allegedly taken the day after the vandalism appears to show traces of orange paint on concrete flagstones below wall.

      Since the recent revelations of the discoveries of more than 1,000 bodies—many appearing to be of children in unmarked graves—on former Indian residential-school properties in B.C. and Saskatchewan, fires in the past 12 days have destroyed or damaged four Catholic churches in B.C.'s Interior and two Anglican churches on Canada Day in northern B.C.'s Hazelton and in Tofino on Vancouver Island.

      Other churches have seen suspicious fires and/or vandalism attacks in Yellowknife, Edmonton, and Halifax.

      Indigenous leaders in Canada in recent weeks have been demanding an apology from Pope Francis for the Catholic Church's involvement in the running of many of the country's Indian residential schools. They have also been demanding the release of all records concerned with the schools.

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