Arson suspect appears in court after shocking New Brunswick church burning

The Saint-Simon Church was destroyed in what authorities are describing as a targeted arson attack on August 24.

I’m here in Bathurst, New Brunswick, where Gilles Mallet — the man accused of burning down Saint-Simon Church on the Acadian Peninsula — is scheduled to appear in court today to enter a plea. The church, built in 1917, is believed to have been the largest wooden church in the province.

I travelled all the way from Montreal to follow up on this story, which is getting crazier every day. And by the way, I took the smallest plane of my life to get here. I got really scared because of the massive turbulence — but I’m alive!

Believe me, if I could have driven, I would have driven myself, but it is roughly a 10-hour drive from Montreal.

It is also not cheap to travel to Bathurst by plane. And something I didn’t know before arriving here: I couldn’t rent a car.

So now I will need to take a taxi all the way to Saint-Simon, which is about an hour away from here, to visit the church and speak with members of the local French-speaking community.

If you can, please go to SaveOurChurches.ca and donate generously to support our commitment to reporting on attacks against Christian churches happening across Canada.

More than 100 churches have either been vandalized or burned since the false claim that 215 unmarked graves were found at the former Kamloops residential school.

To date, no remains have been exhumed from the specific site identified through the ground-penetrating radar findings. You can watch my colleague Drea Humphrey’s extensive investigation into that story.

Also, don’t miss Rebel Commander Ezra Levant’s deep dive into Gilles Mallet and the alleged radicalization he was subjected to.

I will have an extensive report coming with even more untold details about this story — and believe me, it is shocking.

Now, the court has imposed a very strict publication ban, so I will be limited in terms of the information I am legally able to provide about what happens inside the courtroom.

But I am here on the ground to speak with locals and investigate this story further — despite already knowing quite a lot about it.

Stay tuned for my full report at SaveOurChurches.ca. And please chip in if you can, so we can continue shedding light on anti-Christian bigotry and attacks happening across the country.

Please donate to support our investigation into Canada's church arsons!

Fire destroyed All Saints Orthodox Church in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan — built by Ukrainian immigrants in the 1950s — on the night of September 30. The cause has not been determined, and Rebel News founder Ezra Levant is heading there to report from the ashes: a flight to Saskatoon, a three-hour drive and a same-day turnaround to get the story out fast.

When a church burns in a small town most newsrooms have never heard of, Rebel News shows up. This kind of journalism costs money — flights, fuel, accommodations. If you believe it matters, please chip in to help cover Ezra's trip to Meadow Lake and keep our reporters on the road, shining a light on a crisis the mainstream media would rather you never see.

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Alexandra Lavoie

Quebec based Journalist

Alexa graduated with a degree in biology from Laval University. Throughout her many travels, she has seen political instability as well as corruption. While she witnessed social disorder on a daily basis, she has always been a defender of society’s most vulnerable. She’s been around the world several times, and now joins Rebel News to shed light on today’s biggest stories.

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  • Bruce Atchison
    commented 2026-09-08 19:53:47 -0400
    I always donate generously. And I’m glad Rebel News is exposing these deluded and brainwashed folks. Who appointed them the avengers of social wrongs?