Brian Paré, a 38-year-old man from Quebec, Canada, has plead guilty to starting 14 forest fires in the summer of 2023. Paré claimed in posts on social media that the Canadian government was starting the fires in an attempt to convince people of climate change. Wildfire Today reported on posts by Paré, with one saying, “OUR GOVERNMENT AND ELITE WANT IT TO BURN…”
Police suspected Paré of starting the fires after seeing him in the area and reviewing his Facebook posts. Investigators obtained a warrant to track his vehicle, and after being arrested, he admitted to starting the fires. Prosecutor Marie-Philippe Charron stated, “At this point, the accused admitted he was the one who started the fires and, as his main motivation, claimed he was doing tests to find out whether the forest was really dry or not.”
Charron stated two of the fires started by Paré caused the evacuation of about 500 houses in Chapais, Quebec, and the largest fire set, the Lake Cavan fire, burned 873 hectares of forest. An all-time high of over 4.5 million hectares of Canadian forest burned in 2023, higher than all of the previous 20 years combined.
