(LifeSiteNews) — Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said Monday that Christians may be the “number one” target of hate crimes when asked how he would combat the eruption of attacks on churches in Canada.

“One hundred churches have been burned,” Poilievre said, according to a CBC News report. “Christians may be the number one group that is victims of hate-based violence. But, of course, it’s not politically correct to say that.”

“This anti-Christian hate has got to stop,” said Poilievre, referring to the arson crimes as “terrorist attacks.”

Catholic and Christian churches have seen a spike in arson attacks after a public narrative that Catholic priests had murdered children said to have been found in unmarked graves at the site of Canadian indigenous residential schools run by both the Catholic Church and other Christian churches.

The attacks have reached epidemic proportions. Last week, All Saints Ukrainian Orthodox Church, northeast of Edmonton, was destroyed after being set ablaze by a 23-year-old and a 26-year-old from Saddle Lake First Nation. 

At least four other churches in Canada have been set afire this year, according to media reports, including a Catholic church in Saskatchewan, a joint Anglican-Lutheran church in Manitoba, a Greek Orthodox church that had been set afire three other times in recent years, and a Salvation Army church in Newfoundland. 

Catholic churches in particular have seen a big spike in violence as compared with previous years, with a jump from 43 police-reported anti-Catholic crimes in 2020 to 155 in 2021, according to Statistics Canada data.

However, hard data on the incidence of overall anti-Christian attacks in Canada is not yet available because the currently cited data on anti-religion hate crimes in Canada does not account for non-Catholic Christian churches. 

In recognition of this vacuum, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada is planning to launch an anti-Christian hate crime tracker.

Poilievre ripped liberals for enabling the rash of church attacks, calling out their policies of reduced penalties for arson, their redirection of resources from police and border services to targeting farmers and hunters, and their “divisive” identity politics. 

He said he would take the “opposite approach” if elected prime minister, including “tougher laws” for hate crime perpetrators and redirecting resources away from targeting “sportshooters” and toward police services.

“Because frankly, Canadians of all faiths, including Christians, deserve to worship in peace,” he said.