Roxboro Legion encourages Montrealers to visit after renovations due to fire

The Royal Canadian Legion in Montreal’s Roxboro is calling on the public to come and visit its newly renovated space, after being ravaged by a fire in October 2022.

After fundraising thousands of dollars, the Legion was able to renovate their main room.

While their basement, kitchen and the second floor remains under construction, they’re back to serving their community and its needs.

“We consider ourselves here to be a family,” said Martin Bruyère, President, Royal Canadian Branch 234. “We take care of each other.”

“And I believe the same applies to our community in general.”

“If we go back to 2022-2023 where we were recovering from the fire, our community stepped up and they donated over 40,000 dollars to our branch to help us rebuild,” said Bruyère. “Now it’s our time to give back to our community.”

“Because of the generosity again of the people on the West Island, we were able to raise over $30,000 this year in our Poppy campaign,” he added. “Beginning this week, we will be starting to hand out checks to various community organizations that support veterans on the West Island.”

Bruyère said that many organizations operate on a small budget and any donation goes a long way — adding that the restoration and renovations of the legion have cost nearly $700,000.

“Individuals is where it starts,” said Bruyère. “Each one giving what they can.”

“No matter how limited that may be,” he added. “That illustrates how we as a people support one another.”

Vice-president of the branch Hubert Roy encourages community members to visit the branch.

“For the civilian people, well they’re meeting people that put their life in jeopardy to keep peace in Canada,” he said. “It is our goal to make this place livable, enjoyable, and have people to come in and join us.”

While reflecting on the struggles of the renovation, both said the main floor was the most affected by the fire – with the basement also being damaged — many priceless artifacts were affected.

“Branch is not a Legion branch without the memorabilia on the walls,” explained Bruyère. “The toughest part was losing our memories.”

“We’ve been in business since 1957,” he added. “Those memories that we were able to restore and put back up on the walls are very special to us.”

The branch can host community events and meetings once again with Bruyère emphasizing that rentals is what helps keep legion branches alive. 

“It all boils down to supporting our veterans,” he said. “Our veterans, whether they were deployed in an active combat zone or whether they served in a barracks or a depot here in Canada, they all signed the same contract.”

“Where they pledged their lives to defend us.”