Creepy Canada
Ep. 80
Creepy Canada Eh!
"Canadians have an abiding interest in surprising those Americans who have historically made little effort to learn about their neighbour to the North."
Peter Jennings
It is these words that define today's episode! We are all going to be surprised and learn about some of the creepiest, craziest, weirdest things our neighbors to the North have to offer. If you're not from the U.S. the Canadians may not be your neighbors to the North but they'll offer you some Tim Hortons and be extremely polite to you anyways! Most people only know a few things about Canada: they are polite, they love hockey, it's cold as fuck, and they say eh. But we're going to learn you all a few more things, and we're gonna do it the Midnight Train way, by telling you about the creepy side of Canada! So without further ado jump on your moose, grab your hockey stick, throw on your toque, and let's ride!
Off to our first stop! With one hand in our pockets, we head to the home of Alanis Morissette, Ottawa! We're taking a quick trip to the Ottawa Jail Hostel. This hostel has a bit of a history. As the name implies this was one a jail! The jail was built next to the courthouse in 1862 and was the main jail in Ottawa for over a century! There's a tunnel that connects the jail to the courthouse. Only three official executions took place in the jail. The most famous being that of Patrick J. Whalen. Whalen assassinated a man by the name of Thomas D'Arcy Etienne Grace Hughes McGee, wow. McGee was an Irish-Canadian politician, Catholic spokesman, journalist, poet, and a Father of Canadian Confederation. The young McGee was a Catholic Irishman who opposed British rule of Ireland, and worked for a peasant revolution to overthrow British rule and secure Irish independence. He escaped arrest and fled to the United States in 1848, where he reversed his political beliefs. He became disgusted with American republicanism and democracy, and became intensely conservative in his politics and in his religious support for the Pope. Over 5,000 people witnessed Whelan's hanging, which was a large number considering the size of Ottawa at the time. The third (official) and final execution at the jail took place on March 27, 1946, when Eugène Larment, who had killed an Ottawa police detective, was hanged. The building remained in use as a jail until 1972 when the outdated facility was closed. The original gallows, however, are intact and remain fully functional. There’s also what appears to be an ‘unofficial’ gallows over a back staircase, so it’s hard to say how many prisoners were executed at the jail. So you know… Don't piss off the people in the next room. While the jail was in use, prisoners were held under very inhumane conditions. Up to 150 prisoners, consisting of men, women, and children, would be forced to share 60 small cells (1x3 meters) and 30 larger cells (2x3 meters); as well as six solitary confinement units. The windows were open to the elements early on and offered no protection from the freezing Ottawa winters and got summers. Inmates included murderers, the mentally ill, or those incarcerated for minor infractions such as drunk and disorderly conduct. Modern excavations have unearthed numerous unmarked graves. It's no wonder this hostel is considered a haunted creepy place. Most guests convey a heavy creepy feeling while staying there. Here's a few of the things people report about the place! The Ghost of Patrick Whelan: Arguably the hostel’s most famous spook, you’ll see Patrick Whelan walking the halls toward the gallows where he was hanged. His restless spirit is said to be caused by an undignified burial after his execution.
The Hole: Also known as solitary confinement, this area of the jail is filled with an ominous, negative energy. Visitors report overwhelming feelings of despair in this cramped, lightless space.
The Gallows: The jail’s preferred method of execution is still standing and functional. Hotel guests have heard footsteps, disembodied voices and other baffling sounds coming from the execution chamber.
The Lounge: The hostel’s lounge was once used to house women and children prisoners, echoes of whom can still be heard today. Visitors claim to hear sounds of children crying and screaming, as well as knocking on doors and footsteps in the empty room.
Assistant Manager Jeff Delgado recounts a particularly memorable experience when a woman had checked herself into the old Warden’s office for the night. They became suspicious when she didn’t check out on time the following day, and when he went to check on the woman, she was still in bed. Jeff says: “The front desk agent shook the woman and she woke up very frightened and hysterical. According to her, there was a small girl that appeared to her in her sleep in the office surroundings, and wrapped her arms around her so that she would not be able to wake up. The girl was also supposedly trying to whisper something in her ear, from which the guest could only make out the word ‘help’.
“Although the story might seem outlandish, the guest was unaware that the particular room she was staying in was indeed the old Warden’s office. She was also able to describe in detail the surroundings of an office and the physical description of the little girl.”
On the plus side of you make it through the night without getting scared off… There's a free continental breakfast… So there's that.
Next up we are going to play "informer" in the land of "Snow". Heading to Shag Harbor, Nova Scotia. We're not talking about ghosts or cryptids, we're talking about aliens! Shag Harbor was the sight of a supposed UFO crash in 1967. Oh hell… We are gonna say it was definitely a ufo crash!
In the Air
At approximately 7:15pm, Air Canada Flight 305 pilots Captain Pierre Charbonneau and First Officer Robert Ralph were flying above Quebec, about 180 miles west of Nova Scotia. Everything was perfectly routine until they noticed something trailing their plane. They witnessed a massive, rectangular-shaped object, orange in color, gliding through the skies. Trailing the rectangle were small, orange orbs that seemed almost like a tail to this main object.
The pilots watched with growing concern for several minutes when, suddenly, there was some sort of explosion near the rectangle. A large white cloud was left behind, sporadically changing colors from red to blue. Two minutes later, another explosion occurred leaving behind a similar cloud of colors. The pilots watched in amazement as the small orbs swarmed around the rectangle and, along with it, descended in to a thick cloud cover and disappeared out of sight. Both pilots, visibly shaken, reported the incident when they finally landed.
Meanwhile, back on the ground, residents of Shag Harbour would report seeing four orange lights in tight formation flashing in rapid sequence across the night sky. A group of teens that were out fishing noticed that the lights were making a brisk descent towards the water. But instead of disappearing into the murky depths, the lights seemed to float effortlessly on the surface before disappearing into the water. Because of this, the teens believed it to be an airplane that had crashed a half mile from the shore. Another young man who had been fishing quickly phoned the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) to report the crash of an aircraft. The police dispatcher brushed off the young man, believing him to have been inebriated, but soon, over a dozen other calls flooded the station. Police immediately went out to investigate.
Unbeknownst to the RCMP, Constable Ron Pound was patrolling an area near the alleged incident. He witnessed the four orange lights moving at tremendous speed. As he sped up his vehicle, he believed the four lights to all be connected to a single aircraft and estimated it to be about sixty feet in length. He reached the shoreline where he was soon joined by fellow officers, Police Corporal Victor Werbieki, and Constable Ron O’Brien. Along with over thirty other witnesses, they all watched as the orange lights slowly changed to a yellowish tint, and it moved eerily slow across the surface of the water, leaving a similar yellowish colored foam in its wake. Some witnesses claimed to have seen the actual structure of the object, reporting it as “dome-shaped.” Due to the exhaustive dedication by investigators, Chris Styles and Don Ledger, they were able to compile a list of first-hand witnesses, and individuals involved with the search and recovery efforts.
When the object was reported to crash-land in the water, and it began to sink into the ice-cold waters, a loud “whooshing” sound could be heard by several witnesses. The Canadian Coast Guard was called to the scene, but before they could arrive, two RCMP officers had already secured local fishermen’s boats and headed towards the area for a possible search and rescue mission.
The lights were no longer visible, but the yellow foam remained. The officers and fisherman who assisted, all said that the foam was like no sea foam they had ever seen, much thicker than anything that could be caused naturally. They had to cut their way through it just to look for survivors of the supposed crash.
After several hours of searching, nothing could be found. The RCMP, along with The Coast Guard, contacted their local NORAD station and the Rescue Coordination Center, asking if there had been any reports that evening of a missing aircraft either civilian or military. They had nothing.
The following morning of October 5th, the Canadian Forces Headquarters sent out specially trained divers from the Navy and RCMP to systematically search the seabed in the alleged area where the crash had occurred. They searched for several days and found absolutely nothing.
Local newspapers began to circulate speculative theories of a Russian spacecraft, submarine, or spy satellite being the enigmatic culprit. There were also rumors that the United States had launched their own investigation into the incident. Slowly, the headlines made their way to the back of the newspapers and soon faded into obscurity as most UFO cases often do. In 2018, it was announced that Celine Cousteau and Fabian Cousteau, grandchildren of Jacques Cousteau, were heading to Nova Scotia to investigate the incident. As part of their visit, their investigative team would carry out an underwater search to try to locate the craft that could possibly still sit at the bottom of water.
While their deep sea investigation did not yield a craft or materials, anomalous activity was recorded between their radio transmissions while underwater when in proximity to where the craft was said to have submerged. Perhaps the most compelling developments in the Shag Harbour incident are its striking resemblance to the now famous “Tic Tac UFO” incident. But we can find similarities with actions taken by the Tic Tac UFO and the object witnessed in Shag Harbour in 1967.
In fact, the event in Nova Scotia meets at least one of the traits laid out by the former director of the once secret Pentagon UFO program, Luis Elizondo. Under AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program), Elizondo compiled a list of incredible capabilities commonly associated with UFO sightings. He called these traits the “Five Observables.” As stated on the TTSA website, they include:
-Sudden and instantaneous acceleration
-Hypersonic velocities without signatures
-Low observability
-Trans-medium travel
-Positive lift
If we are to observe the actions of the Shag Harbour object(s), it most certainly hits #4, Trans-Medium Travel. According to the AATIP criteria, this involves:
Objects that have the ability to travel easily in various environments and conditions seemingly without any change in performance capabilities. Our current understanding of physics requires vehicles to be designed specifically according to their application. For this reason, there are stark differences between those vehicles that orbit in space, fly in the atmosphere, and travel in the sea. Objects that can travel in all three mediums using the same design and without compromising performance or degrading lift remains an enigma.
This, and several other observables, make the Shag Harbour object most certainly an enigma. And while its performance may have in fact been compromised that day in the skies and eventually, in the waters of Nova Scotia, it begs for continued investigation. The extraordinary testimonies given to Styles and Ledger, were said to be highly credible individuals. However, their names remained confidential to protect them from possible threat or security oaths.
Therefore, the aforementioned information, just like most witness testimony by military and authority figures, was given “off the record.”
No matter the case, something extremely strange occurred in Shag Harbor on that dark, cold night, and even stretched southward towards the United States.
It remains one of the most compelling UFO cases of all-time, only bringing forth more questions than answers. It’s left even the most skeptical minds scratching their heads.
It could be best summarized with a quote from an October 14th editorial from The Chronicle-Herald :
“Imagination and/or natural phenomena seem to be the weakest of explanations. It has been a tough week for skeptics.”
Next up we head to the birthplace of one of the worlds most beloved musicians. A man who will the ladies love and every man want to be. A man who helped write the greatest musical anthems of all time. That's right… Chad Kroeger of Nickelback! We're heading to Alberta! And may we be the first to say… Fuck you Alberta for that whole fiasco. Any rate that's not what we're talking about here… That dude is way scarier than our next creepy Canadian tale! We're heading more specifically to Fort Kent, Alberta. We're going from aliens to evil spirits… But not ghosts, we're talking Wendigo! The tale of the fort Kent Wendigo is pretty crazy.
The Wendigo is a mythological creature part of Algonquin legend that speaks of an evil spirit that could possess the minds of men mad with grief and despair, driving them to commit gruesome acts of murder and cannibalism.
Such a creature is alleged to exist somewhere around Fort Kent, with a chilling legend that goes back nearly 100 years ago.
Thomas Burton was a young doctor that arrived in Fort Kent from England in 1921 when it was but a humble colony. Burton came to Fort Kent with his wife to treat an outbreak of small pox that had befallen the small community, allegedly on the backs of rats.
Burton also hoped that by leaving England, he would leave behind the horrible memories he had of World War I.
Initially the young doctor was successful in fighting the disease, and the townsfolk embraced him and his wife as miracle workers, but the disease’s spread suddenly became uncontrollable, and Burton became overwhelmed with the sick and dying.
It wasn’t long before his wife too fell ill, and when she succumbed to the sickness, Burton locked himself in his house with her dead body.
In the following days, Burton went mad with grief, and according to legend was possessed by the Wendigo.
Under the evil spirit’s influence, he ate his wife’s flesh.
When he was done with her, Burton turned his attention to the residents of Fort Kent, and allegedly went on a killing spree for the next three days with few spared, said to be some of the grisliest murders in Canadian history.
At the end of the third day, it is said Burton disappeared into the woods around Fort Kent, and was never seen or heard from again.
When he and his wife had arrived, there were 150 people in Fort Kent — 11 were all that remained, at least according to the legend.
Burton’s was not the first high-profile case of Wendigo possession in Western Canada — the first official hanging to take place in the region was also attributed to a man possessed by the evil spirit.
Swift Runner, a Plains Cree trapper, was arrested after he admitted to killing and eating his wife and children during the winter of 1878, 25 miles from a Hudson’s Bay Company outpost stocked with emergency supplies.
Because he committed such a heinous crime while help was so close by, he was believed to be possessed by the Wendigo
After he confessed to the crime, Swift Runner was hung in Fort Saskatchewan.
Today the community we know as Fort Kent no longer sits at the location Burton’s terrible murders were committed, but residents sometimes report strange cries resembling that of a coyote coming from the tree line, and children are warned not to be in the fields too long past dark, lest they be taken by the Wendigo. Sounds like a pleasant place!
As you all know Tom Cochran once told us all via song that life is a highway and we're gonna ride it all night long to where he's from… Manitoba Canada! Now if you follow your cryptids, like you should you have probably heard of Ogopogo, a lake monster in british columbia but some people are not aware of another pretty famous lake monster in Manitoba. This one is somewhat named after Ogopogo, it's called Manipogo, get it… Cus Manitoba...Mani...pogo… well whatever. In Canadian folklore, the Manipogo is a lake monster said to live in Lake Manitoba, Manitoba, Canada. There is also a Lake Winnipegosis sea monster called Winnepogo, thought possibly to be the same creature as the lakes are connected. Not very creative with the names but… You know… Canada? The monster is described as being from 4 to 15 meters long. It is described as "A long muddy-brown body with humps that show above the water, and a sheep-like head." People have claimed to have seen the lake monster since the 1800s. The name was created by Tom Locke, a land inspector in charge of planning the provincial government's program for public playgrounds and recreational parks. On Aug. 10, 1960, he and 16 others said they saw three creatures swimming near the area of Toutes Aides, a community 245 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, on the shore of Lake Manitoba. First Nations stories of Manipogo go back centuries, while the first documented sighting by a white settler came in 1909, when Hudson's Bay Company fur trader Valentine McKay claimed to see a huge creature in Cedar Lake. Timber inspector C.F. Ross and a friend were next, saying they saw a single-horned creature that looked like a dinosaur in 1935. And in 1948, C.P. Alric claimed to see something rise up from Lake Manitoba and let out a "prehistoric type of dinosaur cry." Here are some of the stories of sightings:
1957: Louis Belcher and Eddie Nipanik say they saw a giant serpent-like creature in the lake.
Aug. 12, 1962: Two fishermen, Richard Vincent and John Konefall, claim to have seen a large creature, like a serpent or giant snake from their boat on Lake Manitoba near the mouth of the Waterhen River.
1960s: A couple say they saw a "reptile-like beast" surfacing about 10 metres from their boat.
1989: Sean Smith and family, visiting from Minneapolis on a camping trip, stayed at Shallow Point Campground, off Highway 6 on Lake Manitoba. He described seeing "many humps" in the lake, about 25 metres offshore.
1997: Several reports by cross-country campers from Quebec staying at the Lundar Beach Campground describe what appeared to be a large reptile head rising and falling in the water, more than 100 metres offshore. Swimmers were asked to leave the water, but the "head" only appeared one time. It was dismissed as a floating log, but no log was seen afterward.
2004: Commercial fisherman Keith Haden, originally from Newfoundland and Labrador, reported that several of his fishing nets on Lake Manitoba near the narrows were torn up by what seemed like an ocean shark or killer whale. The fish that were in the nets were not nibbled on, but actually torn in half, he said, by what seemed like huge bites.
2009: Several residents at Twin Lakes Beach reported seeing several humps a few hundred metres from their lakefront cottages. No photos were taken.
2011: Many sightings of several humps emerging and then submerging, seen from offshore, were reported at locations like Marshy Point, Scotch Bay, and Laurentia Beach by security personal patrolling flooded cottage and home areas.
Aug. 9, 2012: A report claimed that just offshore of the outlet at Twin Beach Road, something surfaced twice, showing a scaled/sawtooth jagged back, like that of a giant sturgeon.
Sounds like a good time to me! Let's roll!
Where are we rolling too? Well hopefully we'll run into Rain Maida of Our Lady Peace cus we're heading to a town near St. Catherine's Ontario. We're actually heading to Thorold Ontario and we're gonna check out the Blue Ghost Tunnel! The Merritton Tunnel, also known as the Blue Ghost Tunnel and the Grand Trunk Railway Tunnel, is an abandoned railway tunnel in Thorold, Ontario. The decision to build the tunnel came from the need for a more durable and less interrupted way to cross the new canal situated directly above it via vehicles. Constructed in 1875, Completed in 1876, and Opened in 1887. The tunnel is located between locks 18 and 19 of the former third Welland Canal and was built using Queenston limestone, spanning a total length of 713 feet when including the winged stone work at either end. Hundreds of men armed with picks and shovels, as well as several horses were used in the excavation of the tunnel. The tunnel was used periodically until 1915, when Harry Eastwood was the last official engineer to pilot a train through the tunnel. Following that, the tunnel was used only occasionally by farmers to transport cattle or as a safe passage from the weather. Several fatal accidents occurred during the construction and use of the tunnel and the railway running through it. In 1875, a 14-year-old was killed when he was crushed under a large rock. On January 3, 1903 at 7:03 AM, Engine Number 4 and Engine Number 975 met in a head-on collision approximately a third of a mile from the western entrance of the tunnel. The trains were moving at approximately 22 miles per hour when they crashed, and the firemen of both trains, Charles Horning of Engine Number 4 and Abraham Desult from Engine Number 975, died as a result of their injuries. Charles Horning, the fireman on the express train was gruesomely pinned between the flaming hot boiler and the tentler. During his attempted rescue, the engineers and post-guards tried to pull his mangled body free, which resulted in his arms and legs being messily severed from his body.
One train worker even reported that Horning’s watch still ticked on his severed arm. His body would never be fully recovered from the remains of the train.
The fireman for the Mogul train, Abraham Desult, was flung into the boiler resulting in burns over 90 percent of his body. He was rushed to the hospital and died five hours later.
For the Blue Ghost Tunnel, stories include people seeing blue wisps that are said to be the spirits of the Firemen. Alternate versions claim a blue mist haunts the tunnel and a ghost dog prowls the area at night.
Some say the wisps do not belong to the Firemen, but to the souls of those whose nearby graves were flooded in the 1920’s. At that time, St. Peter’s Cemetery was flooded over to make way for a canal reservoir. Some families removed their beloved’s bones from the Lutheran burial ground before the flooding occurred but many graves remained. In 2009, a man found human remains in the area after water levels sank to a low level.
Since people talk about feeling a shove, hearing footsteps and voices that don't belong to anyone. There are reports of blue balls of light to go asking with the most as well. There are many skeptics however and there have been a few paranormal investigators that have claimed they didn't find any proof of the tunnel being haunted. But hey… What do they know!
Ok we already made a Nickelback joke about Alberta… But now we're turning it lose and working for the weekend in the home of fucking Loverboy! While they're not from our next location exactly, they are from Calgary which from what the internet says it's about an hour and a half away… Close fucking enough. We're not headed to Calgary as I said… We're headed to Banff! Banff is a resort town and one of Canada's most popular tourist destinations. Known for its mountainous surroundings and hot springs, it is a destination for outdoor sports and features extensive hiking, biking, scrambling and skiing destinations within the area. Sunshine Village, Ski Norquay and Lake Louise Ski Resort are the three nearby ski resorts located within the national park. We're not here for a sight seeing visit though… At least not a ski weekend. We're here to check out the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. Since it opened to the public in 1888, the Banff Springs Hotel has seen history, celebrity, and rebuilds, but it’s also seen tragedy. Millions of guests have checked in, but a few have never checked out. Some even believe that they still roam the halls of the iconic concrete castle in the Rockies, today. In 132 years, the popular Alberta vacation spot has allegedly set the scene for horrific murders, suicides, and terrible accidents. Rooms have been boarded up, and the paranormal are frequently recorded.
Some are skeptical, but many claim to have seen it with their own eyes. The bride of the Banff Springs is perhaps the most ‘active’ shadow of the hotel, even appearing on collector’s stamps and coins. Like many ghost stories, retold hundreds of times, the details have become embellished and no one is quite sure who or what happened to the elusive women in white.
The most popular theory, dating back to 1920, was that a bride had fallen down a flight of stairs after she tripped on the hem of her dress. She’s typically reported, veiled and dancing throughout the grand ballroom.
Other unexplained apparitions and heavy activity have been recorded in room 873. Unfortunately, for adrenaline junkies or Shining fans looking to get a 5-star spook, the room doesn’t actually exist anymore. Apparently, after years of people claiming that they were terrorized in the suite, the hotel decided to permanently seal the room. Guests in the room have reported being awakened by screaming. When they turned on the lights, they would see bloody hand prints on the mirror. Depending on who tells the story, the hand prints either disappeared before hotel staff had a chance to clean them or wouldn’t come off at all. Although hotel staff claims that no such crime ever took place, the room is believed to be the place where a man killed his wife and daughter before taking his own life.
Stories of Sam McCAuley, a genial old Scotsman who was head bellman during the sixties and seventies, have been circulating around the hotel since his passing in 1975. Supposedly, Sam is a helpful sort of spirit, and most stories involving him mention some service he’s provided to staff or guests. One incident involved two elderly women calling the bell desk for assistance after they found their key would not work. The regular bellman was occupied with other duties and didn’t respond for 15 minutes. By the time he arrived at their door, it was unlocked. One of the women said an older bellman in a plaid jacket, matching Sam’s description exactly, had helped them. Other stories including guests seeing Sam haunting his old office (now a guest room) on the mezzanine floor as well as seeing apparitions and feeling cold spots on the sixth, seventh or ninth floors of the hotel.
While they’d rather not mention room numbers, there are specific rooms that staff say are haunted aside from 873 Guests have reported having the pillows yanked out from under their heads while they slept or even being pushed off the bed by some unseen entity. Whatever spirits haunt this room, it’s safe to say that if they can’t rest in peace, they want to make sure you won’t either.
Next up we roll up like today's Tom sawyer and live in the limelight with rush in Toronto! We are gonna check out the gibraltar point lighthouse. The Gibraltar Point Lighthouse is a lighthouse located on the Toronto Islands in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Begun in 1808, it is the oldest existing lighthouse on the Great Lakes, and one of Toronto's oldest buildings. The lighthouse is perhaps best known for the demise of its first keeper, German-born John Paul Radelmüller, whose 1815 murder forms the basis of Toronto's most enduring ghost story. Recent research has verified many aspects of the traditional tale of his death and identified the soldiers charged with but ultimately acquitted of the crime. A local legend is that the lighthouse is haunted by its first keeper John Paul Radelmüller. Rademuller disappeared under mysterious circumstances on January 2, 1815. The story goes that he was murdered by two soldiers who had been enjoying his home-brewed beer. Versions of the story differ slightly (one version told in the mid-2000s was that Rademuller was killed after the soldiers bought the beer, but saw it freeze on the cold winter night and assumed that the alcohol content was so low that the lighthouse keeper was trying to rip them off). But most agree that Rademuller was killed that night and dismembered by his killers, who buried his body in a few graves near the lighthouse. His ghost is said to still haunt the site.
The story was recorded by John Ross Robertson in 1908 in Landmarks of Toronto and has become a staple of spooky local lore ever since. Even in his telling, Robertson raises skepticism that the murder ever occurred, but he writes that he heard the story from the current lighthouse keeper, George Durnan, who had apparently gone looking for a body and had dug up a coffin with a jawbone. The plaque at the lighthouse mentions the ghost story and the jawbone, although this was a somewhat controversial decision. People report seeing the apparition of a man wandering the grounds. Some say it is Radelmüller looking for his lost limbs! Since nights bring unexplained meaning sounds and an unexplained mist forming. Inside the tower there's unexplained thumping, banging, and echos. There's also reports of footsteps and what sounds like something being dragged. Creepy lighthouse… Fun stuff!
You fuckers hungry? I'm sure Moody is. At any rate at our next stop maybe we'll hunt some orcs with 3 inches of blood or pet a skinny puppy, drink some beer with The Real McKenzies or get a shitty hair cut with Devin Townshend. Or maybe we can head down to the old spaghetti factory in Vancouver and go ghost hunting! The first Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant opened at this location in Gastown in 1970. Located in what was once the headquarters of W.H. Malkin Co. Ltd. (grocery wholesalers).
The Old Spaghetti Factory has four ghosts in residence. The first and best known is the spirit of a tram conductor. He frequents the old trolley car that’s parked inside the restaurant and contains dining tables. The trolley, Number 53, was once a part of the British Columbia Electric Railway Company’s fleet of electric trams. Built in nearby New Westminster in 1904, it served as a public transit trolley in and around Vancouver for many years. In 1957, it and dozens of other trolley cars were decommissioned in favour of the electric and diesel buses that are commonplace in the city today.
The trolley car was installed in the building in 1969, during the set-up of the restaurant. It’s up for debate whether the conductor’s ghost came with the trolley or not. Some say he died in a collision on an underground rail line below the restaurant. But this is unlikely because Vancouver’s trolley cars all ran at street level. And as the building has no historical connection with the B.C. Electric Railway Co., the ghost probably came with the tram car.
Tram Car 53Regardless of his origin, various staff members have seen the ghost of the uniformed conductor. He always appears seated at the same dining table inside the streetcar late at night, after closing. Also, place settings are moved by unseen hands, and inexplicable cold spots are experienced inside the car.
The second ghost at The Old Spaghetti Factory is a small, mischievous spirit with a ruddy face and bright red hair. Simply known as the Little Red Man or Looky-loo, he calls out to staff members by name and strolls through the kitchen. His favourite prank is to surprise female customers in the ladies’ washroom. On one particular occasion, two ladies saw the dwarfish man leave one of the cubicles, dressed in a red shirt and red long johns. After looking at them and laughing mischievously, he left through the washroom door. To their surprise, nobody else had seen the unmistakable man leave the washroom. It’s said that one of the women took a picture of the ghost. But when the film was developed, he appeared as a blur.
Nobody knows who the little red man is or why he haunts the restaurant. One thing’s for certain, however — he’s a devilish little fellow.
The restaurant’s third ghost is that of a young boy. In early 2012, this ghost gave a female server a terrible fright. She was in the back section of the restaurant, helping to close up for the night. While she was busy resetting some tables, a boy ran past her towards the very back. With it being so late and no customers left in the restaurant, she thought it was strange that a boy was running around. So she followed him. The boy ran under a table alongside the back wall, turned around and looked up at her. When she looked at his face, she saw that his eye sockets were empty. Terrified, she ran to the front of the restaurant to tell the manager about what she’d seen. She told him that she couldn’t work at the restaurant any longer and resigned on the spot.
A psychic visited the restaurant and identified the ghost of the little boy as Edward. She also pointed out that there’s a vortex located at the back of the premises. (A vortex is a supposed portal to other dimensions that enables spirits to come into our world. Some also believe that vortexes are linked to the Earth’s electromagnetic field. This influences where and when these portals open and close.) She also claimed that several small artifacts that decorate the restaurant have spirits attached to them.
The boy ghost is thought to be responsible for bending cutlery on tables in the back of the restaurant. One night during closing hours, a staff member walked through the back area to check that place settings had been properly laid out. He was stunned to see that each cutlery item was bent upwards on one of the tables. Other staff members saw the bent cutlery, too. But by the time they brought the restaurant manager over to see, it was all back to normal. In addition, the ghost sometimes places a dining chair on top of a table in the back section, which the staff find in the morning.
In 2015, another server had an encounter with Edward. After closing, she saw the boy dressed in a flat cap, wool jacket and corduroy pants run towards the back of the restaurant. She chased him and, as he’s done before, he ducked under a table. She ran to the front of the restaurant to take the manager back with her to see the boy. But when they got there he was gone. And then they noticed that the place settings had been disturbed — the cutlery was all in a pile in the middle of the tabletop.
On another occasion, a customer sat in a row of booths behind the entrance to the restaurant. She saw the boy reflected in a mirror on the back wall. He was using an arm to spin around a narrow column behind the front desk. When she turned around to look at the boy, he’d vanished.
The fourth ghost in the Old Spaghetti Factory is of a little girl who appears at a table in the front window. She sits and holds a balloon. Nobody knows who she is. Once, a friend of the restaurant’s general manager had a conversation with her that lasted several minutes. The little girl explained to him that she was looking for her mother. When he returned to the table after telling the manager about her, she’d disappeared. Dinner and a ghost show sounds pretty awesome.
Next up we're not going to hell but we'll still be in good company with The Dead With In Regina, Saskatchewan. And maybe we'll win some money and see a ghost or two! Casino Regina is a casino located on Saskatchewan Drive — (formerly South Railway Street) — in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. It operates in the city's former union station, a Tyndall and ashlar stone structure completed in 1912. The Beaux-Arts style Union Station was constructed in 1911-12 and was actually Regina's third train station; the first is now a museum in Broadview, Saskatchewan. The station was completed the same year the deadly "Regina Cyclone" struck the city, tearing through Wascana Park and gutting part of the downtown area. The building underwent a major expansion in 1931, and the original façade was redone in a simpler Art Deco style with Tyndall stone. As well, terrazzo floors, marble support columns and plaster molded ceilings where added to the interior.[1]
In the early 1990s, cutbacks to rail services throughout Canada lead to the closure of Regina's Union Station. The Station had been an important part of Regina's history and heritage since its opening in 1912. After the station's closure, its fate remained unknown for several years. Union Station was designated as an official heritage site in 1991.
By 1995, a $37 million construction project began to convert the vacant station into the province's second casino. In 1996, Casino Regina opened. The first recorded supernatural encounter occurred in the 1930s, when a ghostly image of a woman was captured in a photograph, even though the room was empty. To this day the photo haha in the casino! Below the Casino the mystery continues in one of the former holding cells. Rumour has it that one prisoner was so determined to avoid jail time that he committed suicide by hanging himself. His ghost is felt so often that many staff members refuse to even go into his cell, even though it is now used for storage. Not to many places you can gamble and see ghosts at the same time!
Next up we are heading to new brunswick… Look... apparently there is not one band or musician that most of you people would know from new brunswick so we got nothing here. The only one that any of us have heard of is Stompin Tom Connors, he sings a song called The Hockey Song which I guarantee you've heard of you've attended a hockey game. Well with that dumb shit behind us let's head to the Dungarvon River. A young cook by the name of Ryan hired himself out to work in a lumber camp near the Dungarvon River. When he arrived at camp, he brought all his worldly possessions with him. Around his waist was fastened a money belt stuffed with coins and large bills. Nobody knew where he got the money, but the young cook made no secret of the fact that there was plenty of it.
Ryan was a handsome fellow, tall and strong with ruddy cheeks and black, curly hair. He was well liked and could whoop and holler better than anyone in the camp; and a good strong shout was an accomplishment much valued among woodsmen.
Every morning Ryan was the first one up so as to prepare breakfast and fill the lunch pails with bread and salt pork. Then he would let out a tremendous ear-splitting whoop to get everyone up. After breakfast the men would go off to work leaving young Ryan alone.
It was an unlucky day for Ryan, for on this particular morning, the camp boss decided to remain with the young cook. The boss was a stranger, but he was respected and his orders were obeyed.
When the men returned late in the afternoon, they found young Ryan lying lifeless on the floor. He was dead and his money belt was gone.
When asked what had happened, the boss said the young cook had taken sick suddenly and died. None dared question him further but the woodsmen were suspicious. Where was the money belt?
That night a raging storm swept upon the camp making it impossible to leave so the men had to bury the poor cook in a shallow grave in the forest. As they trudged back to the camp they stopped dead in their tracks, for above the howling and moaning of the wind came the most dreadful whoops and screams anyone has ever heard. It continued all that night and all the next day driving the men crazy with fear. They left camp never to return.
For years the haunting sounds continued until Father Murdock, a priest from Renous, was asked to put the poor spirit to rest.
From over the wilderness grave Father Murdock read some holy words from the Bible and made a sign of the cross.
Some say Father Murdock succeeded in quieting the ghost but others declare the fearful cries of Ryan can be heard to this very day.
Next we are taking a long journey up to the Yukon Territory. There's a dude who's production and writing credits include Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Kendrick Lamar… Whatever… Fuck that guy… we are headed there to check it an old hotel and bar. The Caribou Hotel is one of the oldest buildings in the Southern Lakes Region and is one of the last two historic three-storey frame commercial buildings in Yukon dating from the early 20th century. This landmark structure stands in its original location and is one of the first properties recognized when entering Carcross. Its size, massing and historic character provide an anchor to Dawson Charlie Street, one of the last Yukon streets composed entirely of historic buildings relatively unchanged since 1910. The Caribou Hotel has housed one of Yukon's longest continuously operating food and lodging businesses. In Carcross, the hotel prospered under several owners including Dawson Charlie, who had made a fortune from his Klondike gold claims. But Dawson Charlie died on January 26, 1908, when he fell of the rail bridge at Carcross.
Edwin and Bessie Gideon then rented the hotel from his estate.
But the building burned to the ground on Christmas Eve in 1909. So the Gideons built a new hotel on the same spot, using wood from a building that had been torn down in nearby Conrad City.
The Caribou’s interesting history continued when, in 1918, Polly the Parrot moved in. Captain James Alexander, owner of Engineer Mine, had asked the Gideons to take care of the Parrot while he went outside. Alexander drowned when the Princess Sophia sank in 1918. Polly stayed with the Gideons who continued to operate the hotel. When Edwin Gideon died in 1925, Bessie ran it until she died in the hotel on October 27, 1933.
Since then, strange things have been seen at the Caribou. The hotel is said to be haunted by Bessie's ghost, considered a shy spirit. A story is told of the figure of a woman who often stands near a third floor window and bangs on the floorboards. She is thought to be the ghost of Bessie, described as a spirit that is neither friendly nor unfriendly.
Though she was said to have been buried in Carcross, a cemetery survey has been unable to find Bessie Gideon’s grave, but Polly the Parrot, who died in the hotel in 1972, is buried in the cemetery. The Caribou Hotel is now a Yukon historic site, soon to reopen under new management and - legend has it - still haunted.
Well that's gonna do it for our first trip to creepy Canada. You politely mortified us and showed us a good time and we will definitely be back to run another train through creepy Canada! There's tons of crazy hotels and buildings with ghost stories. Hopefully you guys enjoyed the ones we picked and hopefully we did them some sort of justice. If there's some wrong info blame the fucking internet.
