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Mon, November 24, 2025 at 10:21 a.m. EST
The fire that destroyed Toronto’s historic St. Anne’s Church is being treated as a suspected arson, Toronto police confirmed Monday afternoon.
In a news release issued Sunday, officials from the Anglican Diocese of Toronto and St. Anne’s Church said they had been informed by investigators that the blaze that gutted the building in June 2024 is suspected to have been deliberately set.
In an email sent to CBC News, Toronto police confirmed the Office of the Fire Marshal has concluded its investigation and has deemed the fire a suspected arson. Officers are now investigating.
Rev. Hannah Johnston, priest-in-charge of St. Anne’s, told CBC News in an interview that it was emotional for members of the congregation to learn about the arson investigation in a meeting with police and fire officials over the weekend.
“It’s been a shock, a real shock to so many people — and very distressing, if I’m honest,” she said.
“The church was so much more than just a building to the people of St. Anne’s because it was such a unique space, it was such a beautiful space — it was a sacred space. And for many, many of our parishioners, it’s been a space that’s been important to their family for generations.”
Earlier in the investigation, police had previously said it did not appear that the four-alarm fire inside the church on Gladstone Avenue near Dundas Street W. that raged on June 9 was deliberately set.
The building, built between 1907 and 1908 in the city’s Little Portugal neighbourhood, housed early works by members of the Group of Seven and was designated a national historic site for the “remarkable” cycle of paintings and sculptures that decorated its interior. One parishioner told CBC News after the fire last year that it was like “being inside a jewel box.”
Three of the canvasses from the Group of Seven have been recovered from the ashes and deemed restorable, Johnston said.
“Which is incredible, and not what we expected in the early days after the fire when we assumed that everything had been lost,” she said.
Cleaning the paintings — which is the first stage of restoration — is now complete, Johnston said.
Bishop Kevin Robertson, a suffragan bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Toronto, said in a statement that the diocese was devastated to hear that the fire may have been arson.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/st-anne-church-fire-being-152126283.html
