A well-known Quebec entrepreneur and philanthropist, along with his partner, has been found dead in the Caribbean, where they owned a luxury resort.
According to multiple French-language news networks in Quebec, film industry entrepreneur Daniel Langlois and Dominique Marchand were discovered inside a burned vehicle on Friday after having gone missing for several days on the islet of Dominica, where they recently opened the off-grid hostel in 2022.
The Daniel Langlois Foundation streamlined its website on Monday to announce that the founder of the film software company Softimage and his partner had “failed in woeful circumstances” on Friday near the resort they owned.
Global Affairs Canada (GAC) confirmed on Sunday that it had been made aware of the presumed deaths of two Canadians on the islet but didn’t provide any further details.
“Our hearts are with the families and loved ones of the Canadian citizens involved,” said GAC media relations officer Marilyne Guèvremont in a statement sent to Global News. She added that Canadian officials are continuing to monitor the situation and are working with local authorities.
Rayburn Blackmoore, Dominica’s public security minister, said in a statement on Monday on the Dominica Broadcasting Corporation that police received a call about a “implicit homicide wildfire” at about 7 a.m. on Friday.
Four “people of interest” have been taken into custody, Blackmoore said, including one Dominican national and three non-nationals. He also stated that he had contacted Canadian officials to express Dominica’s remorse and “to give the assurance of Dominica’s fidelity to working on this crime.”
According to Quebec media reports, Langlois made over $200 million back in 1994 on the sale of his 3D animation software company Softimage, which he founded in 1986. The software was used in movies like Jurassic Park, Titanic, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Pirates of the Caribbean. It was later bought by Microsoft, but the company remained in Montreal.
He also founded the art-house cinema Cinéma Excentris in 1999, co-founded the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, and established a foundation in his name to support technology-related initiatives in the arts and sciences.
Multiple figures in politics and Quebec’s artistic industry responded to the news on Sunday, including Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge, who called Langlois a visionary in digital technologies and cinema who left a lasting impact.
“His legacy reflects his innovative spirit,” she wrote in a statement.
Langlois and his partner had reportedly lived on the Caribbean islet between Guadeloupe and Martinique for numerous years. They opened their eco-friendly luxury Coulibri Ridge Eco-resort just a year ago, which won a design award shortly afterward.
According to the island’s local media, the couple had been reported missing, and the burned vehicle matched the one they were driving. The bodies were found after authorities were alerted about a vehicle engulfed in flames.
The extent of the fire rendered the bodies unidentifiable, Dominica News Online said, adding that authorities were able to link the Quebecers to the incident due to specific evidence.
Langlois, who was in his mid-60s, initially owned a private club in Montreal, Club 357c, which closed in 2019. The establishment was implicated in Quebec’s major political inquiry, the Charbonneau Commission, over ten years ago.
He also founded a hurricane aid organization to help rebuild island communities after Hurricane Maria in 2017 and bought the peak of Mount Pinnacle in Coaticook, Que., in the Eastern Townships near the U.S. border to preserve the peak’s flora and fauna.
Langlois has been honored as a Knight of the Ordre public du Québec in 1999 and Officer of the Order of Canada in 2000, and holds honorary doctorates from the universities of McGill, Ottawa, Concordia, Sherbrooke, and Québec à Montréal.
