Toronto enters the story as Roger Bolduc’s reported destination, but not as a confirmed location he reached. In a worried telephone call, Isabelle D’Anjou tells Loïc that her husband is traveling there and cannot be reached on his cell phone. The city briefly seems to place Roger beyond immediate danger; later information recasts it as only the first leg of a journey whose actual destination was New York City.

The Reported Destination

Around four in the afternoon, Loïc calls Isabelle in Québec. She is surprised to hear from him, yet sounds nervous and worried. After saying Roger is away, she admits that her husband has gone on a trip and that she has been unable to reach him by cell phone. When Loïc asks where he has gone, she answers: Toronto.

Loïc responds with relief because Toronto is not New York City. Isabelle does not share that relief. Her silence and uncertainty leave open the possibility that the stated destination may not tell the whole story, and the exchange makes Toronto a temporary point of reassurance rather than a settled account of Roger’s whereabouts.

The Route Reconsidered

That reassurance collapses when Georges D’Anjou calls Loïc an hour after Loïc has left Isabelle a message asking for news about Roger. Georges says Isabelle is not in a condition to speak: she has learned that Roger was in New York City on the day of the September 11 attacks. According to the information Georges relays, Roger was traveling toward Toronto, changed direction in Montréal, and took the overnight bus to the American metropolis. Why he changed his plans is unknown, and the investigation has not established whether he was at the World Trade Center complex on the morning of September 11.

Toronto’s narrative importance lies in this contrast between a destination named in an anxious conversation and the route later disclosed. The city is not shown as a place Roger reached; it marks the incomplete version of his journey that briefly comforts Loïc before the possibility of Roger’s presence in New York turns the call into a crisis.