The Empress Hotel was a three-storey red-brick building at the corner of Yonge and Gould streets in downtown Toronto.

In the 1960s, it was known as the Edison Hotel and was a major live music venue in Yonge Street's booming Rock n' Roll culture.

[6] At the time, the owners were planning a meeting with the City of Toronto to discuss their strategy for promptly restoring the property.

"[1] A security camera captured an individual whose face was obscured by a hood in the vicinity of the building around the time the fire was set.

[8] After an investigation (profiled in The Detectives on CBC Television in 2018),[9] Stewart Poirier was charged with the arson and convicted; he was sentenced to ten years in December 2012.