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OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez made the rather brazen suggestion that the recent slew of anti-Christian church burnings in Canada could be remedied through further “online” internet regulation.

Rodriguez made the comments before the House of Commons Heritage Committee on Monday, claiming that a forthcoming Liberal “online safety” bill would put an end to mass church burnings.

Conservative Party of Canada MP Marilyn Gladu pressed Rodriguez about his forthcoming “online safety” bill, which LifeSiteNews reported on yesterday, and why “faith-based communities” were “not in your mandate letter.”

“So, I’m looking at the December 16, 2021, mandate letter that is out on the web for you,” Gladu said, “If you weren’t aware that was in there. I would say is we’ve had 68 Christian churches burned to the ground, multiple attacks on synagogues and places of worship.”

“I would ask that your government take some action,” she stressed.

Rodriguez in response said that he did not at first understand her question, but then said, “The way I understood it is that you were talking specifically if we had a program for what happened to the churches, which is totally unacceptable.”

“But I would bring it to another level,” Rodriguez said.

“And this is why we need a bill, such as the one that’s coming, the online safety bill. A lot of it, not everything, but a lot of it starts on the web and that should not be there.”

On Monday, Rodriguez said more details about the new internet censorship bill would be announced “shortly.”

Rodriguez is a top cabinet minister from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s inner circle, and earlier in the week confirmed that the federal government by year’s end will try and bring forth a new version of its much-panned internet censorship bill that would target online speech.

His comments regarding church burnings come only days after a historic 122-year-old Catholic church in western Canada sustained unrepairable heavy damage after being set ablaze in what police say was an act of arson. Two men were arrested and charged in connection to the fire.

In December, LifeSiteNews reported how released notes showed Trudeau lamented the fact that social media content is hard to “counter,” leading to speculation that his government’s lapsed web regulation bill from last year may be resurrected.

That bill was known as Bill C-36, introduced in 2021, which critics warned would have censored bloggers and social media users and could have even opened the door to giving police the power to “do something” about online “hate.” This bill lapsed in Parliament after an election was called.

Yesterday, Rodriguez confirmed that a new version of Bill C-36 is in the works. This is although, under Canada’s Criminal Code, hate speech is already a crime.

Since the spring of 2021, well over 100 churches, most of them Catholic, have either been burned or vandalized across Canada. The attacks on the churches came shortly after the discovery of unmarked graves at now-closed residential schools once run by the Church in parts of Canada in the spring of 2022.

In January, another historic Canadian church, St. Joseph Lutheran Church, located in Hay Lakes, Alberta, was diminished to ashes in what police said was an intentional act of arson on New Year’s Eve.

Last August, LifeSiteNews reported about the destruction by fire of one of the oldest standing Catholic churches in Alberta. Police said the fire was a “suspicious” incident.

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