A historic wooden church in New Brunswick, Canada, has been destroyed by arson, prompting Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre to claim that Christians are increasingly targeted by hate-based violence in the country. The Saint-Simon church in the Acadian Peninsula, believed to have been the largest wooden church in the province and over a century old, burned down last week in an early-morning fire that left it a total loss, though no one was harmed. A 68-year-old man, Gilles Mallet, has been arrested and charged with arson, though police have not disclosed a motive.

Poilievre said "one hundred churches have been burned" and accused the ruling Liberal Party of downplaying anti-Christian violence, a dispute that flared after a 2025 report by Canadian outlet True North logged 123 church arsons or vandalisms since 2021. Liberal MP John-Paul Danko dismissed the figures as "conspiracy theories" and argued attention should focus on other hate crimes, drawing a rebuttal from Conservative MP Andrew Lawton. Official government data records 463 arsons at religious institutions between 2016 and 2023, though no figure specifically isolates church arsons. A 2024 Conservative bill proposing mandatory minimum sentences for burning places of worship stalled after Justin Trudeau's resignation and has not been reintroduced.