68-year-old man charged with arson after fire destroys Saint-Simon, N.B., church

68-year-old man charged with arson attack against Canadian church: 'Blatant anti-Christian bigotry'

A 68-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly setting the fire that destroyed a historic Roman Catholic church in Canada earlier this week, marking the latest in a long list of destructive acts against churches in the country over the past five years.

68-Year-Old Man Charged With Arson After Historic NB Church Destroyed by Fire

A New Brunswick senior has been charged with arson in connection with an enormous blaze earlier this week that resulted in the destruction of a historic church on the province’s Acadian Peninsula. Emergency services responded to a report of a religious building on fire during the early morning hours of Aug. 24 in the small seaside community of Saint-Simon, N.B., the RCMP said in a press release. The Caraquet, Bertrand, and Shippagan fire departm…

Another Day Another Church BURNED To The Ground

Another historic church is gone. Not “damaged.” Not “under repair.” Gone.  Early Monday morning on the Acadian Peninsula of New Brunswick, Saint-Simon Church — believed to be the largest wooden church left in the province, a 1910s landmark by Acadian architect Nazaire Dugas — burned to the ground.  By daylight only a sliver of the base and a brick chimney remained. The New Brunswick Office of the Fire Marshal ruled it intentional. Canada: Yet a…

New Brunswick police charge man, 68, with arson after historic church burns - New Brunswick

Emergency services say they responded to a report of a religious building on fire early Monday morning in the Acadian community of Saint-Simon, N.B.

Arson attack burns down historic Catholic church in Canada

A suspected arson completely destroyed century-old Saint-Simon Church, in the latest of over 100 attacks on Christian churches in Canada since 2021.

108-Year-Old Catholic Church Burns To The Ground, Man Charged With Arson

A 68-year-old man is in custody on an arson charge after a historic Catholic church in eastern Canada was reduced to ashes on Monday.Gilles Mallet of Saint-Simon, New Brunswick, was arrested Monday after the blaze consumed Saint-Simon Catholic Church, a more than century-old landmark on the Acadian Peninsula. In its news release announcing the arrest, New Brunswick RCMP said the Office of the Fire Marshal had determined the fire was intentionally set.The church was unoccupied when the fire began. Firefighters responded shortly after 4 a.m., but flames had already spread through the sacristy and into the roof. The building was ultimately declared a total loss, while four neighboring homes suffered heat damage. No one was injured. Mallet appeared in Bathurst Provincial Court on Monday and was remanded into custody. His bail hearing is scheduled for Friday.The destruction devastated a community that regarded the wooden church as far more than a place of worship. Caraquet Mayor Bernard Theriault said the church was the last major institution in Saint-Simon that had been built by and for the community.“It was a gathering place — it was the soul and the heart of Saint-Simon,” local resident Monica Albert Légère told EWTN News. Bishop Michel Proulx of Bathurst called the destruction an “immeasurable loss,” remembering the baptisms, weddings, and funerals celebrated there across generations. The church, started as a mission in 1910 and completed in 1918, was the largest remaining wooden church in New Brunswick.Although authorities have not connected Monday’s fire to any broader trend or publicly identified Mallet’s motive, the destruction comes after years of elevated arson attacks against religious institutions across Canada. A 2025 study by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute found that arson attacks against religious institutions more than doubled in 2021 compared with the pre-2021 baseline and have not substantially declined since.The surge coincided with a national controversy that began with now-debunked claims of unmarked graves at former Indigenous residential schools, many of which had been operated by Catholic institutions. The claims generated intense public anger and were followed by a wave of attacks on churches.Updated Statistics Canada data released in 2025 showed that arsons at religious institutions remained high in 2024, at nearly twice the baseline level recorded before 2021. Of 306 arsons at religious institutions from 2021 through 2024, 53 resulted in charges.The report called for a more coordinated approach to investigating arsons at religious sites, including greater cooperation among police and fire authorities and improvements to Indigenous police and fire services.Authorities have not said whether Mallet’s alleged actions were motivated by religion or connected to the increase in church arsons. The investigation remains ongoing.