Like many Canadians, Mark Joseph has felt an increasing unease about the number of churches, synagogues and other places of worship being vandalized and torched over the past five years.

“On top of that there’s the lack of curiosity from the political class about the cause, the source, the motivation behind them,” said Joseph, executive director of The Democracy Fund (TDF).

This growing “frustration, legally and morally,” led Joseph and his colleagues to seek the truth and to honour one of the pillars of TDF’s mandate: opposing religious discrimination.

Advertisement

Recently, TDF launched the first-ever forensic investigation into the attacks on churches and synagogues. Notably, this persistent wave of defilements, particularly against Catholic and Christian churches, began following the May 27, 2021, announcement that ground-penetrating radar discovered the remains of 215 children on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School — a claim that remains unproven five years later.

The certified fire marshal from Alberta — unnamed for now — hired to conduct this probe will enter this answer-seeking effort with no preconceived notions regarding potential motive, said Joseph. The marshal will use his expertise to review initial incident and fire investigation reports, police logs and insurance documents, any source he deems relevant that could be secured through TDF’s Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) specialist.

One of the findings TDF seeks is the precise number of houses of worship that have been vandalized or set ablaze. The Catholic Register and other news outlets have reported that at least 130 Catholic and Christian churches alone have been destroyed or damaged.

According to the 2025 Macdonald-Laurier Institute report Scorched Earth: A quantitative analysis of arson against Canadian religious institutions and its threat to reconciliation, “arsons at religious institutions relative to all burnings in Canada nearly doubled" between 2011-14 to 2021-23. Strikingly, this report also revealed that law enforcement has laid charges in just four per cent of 238 documented cases.

Advertisement

Synagogues in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Halifax and Calgary have also experienced firebombing and vandalism, with the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto and Shaarei Shomayim, also in Toronto, targeted by gunfire in March.

Joseph said the duration of the investigation will greatly depend on the speed at which municipalities comply with the ATIP requests.

“That could take a week or months,” said Joseph. “The legislation doesn’t really put a strict time limit on the production of documents under ATIP requests, so we’re thinking months. Then the investigator has to come in and review well over 100 ATIP packages for each incident and then produce and synthesize a report that we could use.”

Following the eventual publication of this report, Joseph said if “it is actionable — if there are interesting, important and relevant conclusions, then you could bring it to legislatures and politicians in Parliament and have them stand up and call for an inquiry. You could have the RCMP call for a national task force.”

In a “longshot” scenario, a writ of mandamus could be employed as a last-resort judicial remedy. Lawyers could utilize this option to compel authorities to hold a public inquiry if they refuse to do so.

“There are some avenues you could take to force the political class to take action if you think you have grounds to do so,” said Joseph.

Advertisement

Joseph said he hopes it will also be of help to faith-driven and non-religious Canadians who are angered and saddened by the damage inflicted on places of worship.

“You always want to get the truth of things even if it’s painful or uncomfortable,” said Joseph. “Just bringing information to light will be helpful. Who is doing this? Is there a pattern here? Or is it just one-offs? Did this happen by accident or is there a larger issue here? If you can get answers, I think people will take solace at the very least. And if you find something more and feel it requires official action, you can take control of the situation.”