Haunted Canada 4

by Joel A. Sutherland

  A notice appearing in the Toronto Daily Star on March 13, 1953

  Shortly thereafter signs of Dorothy’s lingering spirit were witnessed by the staff. The women refused to use the second floor washroom. They felt a presence within, an unpleasant one, like they were being watched. Management finally gave in and had a new washroom built in the basement, but unexplainable occurrences persisted. Lights flickered on and off. Objects disappeared and reappeared mysteriously. Locked doors and windows suddenly flew open of their own accord.

  Custodial workers have had some of the most frightening experiences while working alone through the night. When all is dark and quiet, footsteps creak along the floorboards overhead, moans and shrieks echo from the second floor and some have even felt phantom hands grab and push them from behind.

  Rob Hynes, who was previously the Hockey Hall of Fame special events supervisor, witnessed something he’ll never forget. He was in the building early one morning preparing for an event. Suddenly he had the unusual feeling that someone was watching him. The odd sensation drew him into a pitch-black room on the second floor where the sensation was the strongest. What happened inside the room was unexpected and terrifying. A chair was spinning in circles as if caught in the middle of a small cyclone. Suddenly the chair slid across the floor and right into his hand. Despite the fact that Hynes is skeptical when it comes to ghosts, he wasted no time fleeing the room.

  Other than the young boy, the other person who saw Dorothy’s ghost in the metaphorical flesh is Joanna Jordan, a Toronto musician. She was commissioned to play the harp in the Great Hall during an event. She was unaware that the building had a haunted history, so she wasn’t prepared at all when she looked up and saw Dorothy’s ghost floating just below the second floor ceiling, looking down upon her intently. To this day the image of the black-haired woman staring at her from the ceiling is as vivid in Joanna’s memory as on the day she saw Dorothy. She returned to the building a few years later but, try as she might, she couldn’t head up to the second floor.

  Our country’s national sport can be a hard-hitting, aggressive game filled with fights, body checks, bruisers and goons. It’s fitting that the Hockey Hall of Fame is home to a presence more chilling than a few hours spent outdoors playing pond hockey in the middle of January.

  THE BOY IN THE BASEMENT

  New Westminster, British Columbia

  A school is supposed to be a place for learning, a place where children feel safe, a place to grow. It’s not supposed to be a place where a boy in the basement relives his death over and over.

  But then New Westminster Secondary School has a morbid history dating back to its construction. The site where the school now sits was used in the mid to late 1800s as a cemetery for marginalized groups of the day, including Chinese pioneers, Aboriginal people, convicted criminals and the mentally handicapped. The school was built in 1949, and the cemetery was found when a bulldozer unearthed an unmarked coffin. But nothing was done about the ghastly discovery, and construction of the school continued.

  Today the school has a good reputation for its academic program and is one of the largest high schools in British Columbia. It also has an abundance of athletic facilities, including four gyms, a football field, two soccer fields, a skating rink, a fitness room and a skateboard park. But some people contest whether there was ever a swimming pool. Some say the pool was in the basement when the school first opened but it’s since been filled in with concrete. Others believe the pool only exists as part of the school’s lore. Regardless of what New Westminster residents believe, one thing most of the school’s alumni can agree on is that the building has a creepy vibe, particularly in the basement.

  The reports claim that a male student drowned in the pool in the early 1970s and that it was filled in years later due to safety concerns. In the time between the drowning and the pool’s closure, however, security guards regularly saw a boy floating face down in the water during their nightly rounds. They would turn to grab a pole or call for help, but when they turned back the boy would be gone and the water perfectly still. These reports from the guards seem to support the existence of the pool at one time in the school’s history.

  Guards have also reported similar paranormal activity in the archery range, also located in the basement. A man is said to have been seen firing a phantom bow and arrows, only to disappear when anyone got too close.

  Another male student is said to have died in the 1980s in the school’s woodworking shop, which, unlike the pool, is definitely still in operation today. No one has reported coming face to face with the woodworking boy, but he has been spotted by night guards on the security camera monitors. When they run to the room, the boy is gone.

  Even the music room isn’t immune to paranormal activity, as the school’s cameras have also picked up unexplained glowing orbs hovering in the air.

  Just like the existence of the pool in the basement, some people believe that the reports of the deaths in the school have been fabricated. If they’re right, it’s possible that all the ghostly sightings in New Westminster Secondary School over the years can be attributed to the bones that unceremoniously clog the dirt beneath the building’s foundation.

  THE LADY IN BLUE

  Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia

  The ocean is known for its mesmerizing beauty that’s as dangerous as it is breathtaking. It’s widely believed among ghost enthusiasts that a soul who perishes in the water is likely to meet such a traumatic end that he or she has a difficult time moving on and finding peace. When that soul willingly drowns in the deep blue, committing suicide, the likelihood of a haunting is even greater. A legend from one of Atlantic Canada’s most popular tourist destinations confirms this belief.

  Located forty-four kilometres southwest of Halifax, Peggy’s Cove is a small fishing village known for its photographic beauty, quaint homes and the Peggy’s Point Lighthouse, one of Canada’s most iconic images. Strict land-use laws have maintained the idyllic atmosphere of Peggy’s Cove, preventing rapid property development and keeping the population to a mere six hundred people. Although the inhabitants still fish for lobster, tourism has become more economically important to the community than fishing. The tourists come to see the boats, the lobster traps and the famous lighthouse, but many are confronted by something they hadn’t planned on seeing: The Lady in Blue, an ethereal spirit that walks the shoreline. She’s such a sad vision that it might chill your heart and make your blood run cold simply to look at her.

  A few legends have popped up to explain her existence. The most popular is that a woman named Margaret lived in the area in the 1700s before it was called Peggy’s Cove. The source of the name of the village isn’t documented, so some believe it comes from nearby Saint Margaret’s Bay (“Peggy” is a nickname of Margaret), which Samuel de Champlain named after his mother, Marguerite. But others believe that it’s named after Margaret, The Lady in Blue. It’s said she was the sole survivor of a shipwreck in 1800, a disaster that claimed the lives of everyone onboard, including her young children, but spared her. She’d walk the shores for days on end, her blue dress rippling in the wind and her eyes scanning the Atlantic Ocean. Little did Margaret know that, while she watched the water, Death was watching her.

  The lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove

  Her second husband, in an attempt to cure his wife’s depression, joined her one day on the rocky shore. He stepped in front of her and danced a jig, hoping to amuse Margaret, maybe even make her smile or laugh. But his foot slipped, he fell, his head cracked against the rocks and he died a quick, bloody death.

  The grief from back-to-back tragedies was too much for poor Margaret to bear. She was seen one day shortly after the death of her husband walking into the ocean … and was never seen again.

  Well, not alive.

  The ghost of Margaret — or Peggy of the Cove, as she’s become known — has become a permanent resident of the small fishing village. Since the lighthouse was built in 1868, The Lady in Blue has be
en spotted forever wandering the rocky shores at its base. Some say she looks like she’s about to jump into the Atlantic, others claim she’s spoken softly to them, but everyone agrees: she’s not a threatening or frightening ghost, but a deeply sad one. Like the relentless crash of cool blue waves upon the shore, Margaret’s soul will never give up the search for the family she lost.

  THE HAUNTED HOTEL

  Victoria, British Columbia

  Spend a night in The Fairmont Empress Hotel and chances are you won’t be spending the night alone. Unexpected guests — the type of guests who can pass through doors instead of needing to open them — have a habit of haunting the halls and bedrooms in this grand hotel.

  With nearly five hundred rooms and an imposing presence overlooking Victoria’s Inner Harbour, The Empress is one of the oldest and most famous hotels in British Columbia. Since it opened in 1908 it has welcomed kings, queens, movie stars and other notable celebrities, including The Jungle Book author Rudyard Kipling. It’s little wonder some souls never want to leave, even after all earthly ties have been severed from their bodies.

  A carpenter is likely the ghost that’s been haunting The Empress for the longest time. It’s said the worker hanged himself from the rafters of the west wing during the hotel’s construction, two years before it opened. For as long as The Empress has been open to the public, countless guests have reported seeing a man with bulging eyes and a thick rope cutting into his neck swaying from the roof. It’s not known why the carpenter committed suicide, but if you pass through the West Wing late at night, don’t look up — you might not like what you see.

  The carpenter has been hanging out in the hotel for a little longer than the spirit of Lizzie McGrath, a chambermaid who worked and lived in the hotel when it opened. She lived in a room on the sixth floor, which used to be designated for chambermaids. Lizzie was a devout Irish Catholic and by all accounts a hard worker. She had a habit of stepping out of her room and onto the fire escape after a long, arduous day cleaning The Empress’s many guest rooms. Under the pale glow of the moon, she’d clear her head and complete her rosary. The night air revitalized her body and her faith, giving her peace. In 1909, when the first addition was being added to the hotel, the fire escapes were removed so they wouldn’t be in the way of construction. But no one told poor Lizzie. Unbeknownst to her, she completed what would be her final (living) day of work, returned to her room, grabbed her rosary beads and stepped outside, falling six storeys to her death. Construction workers rolled her body over early the next morning. Clutched tightly in her hands were her beloved rosary beads.

  Lizzie’s hard-working attitude has extended into the afterlife, and her ghost is often seen on the sixth floor, still carrying out her cleaning duties.

  The Fairmont Empress Hotel

  At least Lizzie’s spirit seems to be at home, so to speak. The ghost of another woman stuck in The Empress isn’t so lucky. Many guests have been awoken by loud, frantic pounding on their doors in the middle of the night. In the hall, panicked and disoriented, is a lost woman in pajamas who pleads for help. Leading guests by her icy-cold hand, she takes them to the elevator … and then simply disappears. It’s believed she used to haunt a room that was demolished to build a new elevator and is now left to wander the hotel’s halls, forever looking for her room, forever lost.

  But the hotel’s most famous ghost is its architect, Francis Rattenbury, whose final days were mired in controversy. Following the opening of The Empress, Rattenbury became a well-known and respected public figure in Victoria, but he tarnished his reputation when he left his wife and children to marry a woman, Alma, who was less than half his age. Following a string of bad investments and the stress of the scandal, Rattenbury was murdered in his drawing-room in England, his skull cracked open by either a carpenter’s hammer or croquet mallet (the reports of the weapon vary). His chauffeur, George, was charged and convicted of the murder, and it was revealed that George and Alma had been a secret couple for some time. Shortly after Rattenbury was murdered, Alma took her own life, stabbing a knife into her broken heart.

  Rattenbury, it would appear, wishes to remain in the hotel he designed, reliving his glory days before he made a string of poor choices that ultimately led to his untimely death. He wanders The Empress’s halls, keeping an eye on his crowning achievement and its many guests — many of whom are, like Rattenbury, long since deceased.

  THE HANGMAN’S KNOT

  Quebec City, Quebec

  Place Royale is not only a beautifully quaint and historic square in the heart of Old Quebec, it’s also considered to be the birthplace of New France. Founded in 1608 by French navigator and explorer Samuel de Champlain, the area first served as a bustling fur marketplace and is home to Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, the oldest stone church in North America. But behind the charming facade of the heritage buildings and cobblestone streets lies a violent past that has ensnared its fair share of spirits.

  Today, Place Royale is a must-see destination for tourists, many of whom step off one of the many cruise ships that dock in nearby Old Port for a little sightseeing. But even travellers desperate to stretch their legs after a long sea voyage might not spend too long on land before hurrying back to their ships after nightfall. The man in the shadows who watches all who pass through Place Royale’s gates and the woman who hauntingly roams around the Notre-Dame-des-Victoires church each and every night are neither tourists nor locals. Well, they’re not locals to present-day Place Royale, seeing as they were both killed in the 1600s.

  In addition to the hustle and bustle of the trading that took place in the market square, Place Royale was also where men, women and children found guilty of crimes were executed in brutal fashion. And even those found guilty of minor crimes were given a one-way ticket to visit the hangman, including the very first person executed in Quebec City: a 16-year-old girl charged with petty theft.

  One short month after Champlain established Place Royale, he caught wind of a plot to murder him. He received a covert report that four men, led by locksmith Jean Duval, planned to deliver the slain Champlain and Quebec into the hands of the Spanish for their own profit. Armed with this information, Champlain struck first and invited the four men to his house for dinner. Thinking it would be the perfect opportunity to complete their murderous plan, Duval and the others accepted the invitation and arrived at his doorstep. But before they could harm Champlain, he had them arrested for treason. The three followers were sent to France to be executed, but Champlain had a special plan for their ringleader. Duval was hanged beside Place Royale’s gate, but that wasn’t enough to deter copycats. Duval’s lifeless body was then beheaded before the crowd. His head was deposited on a pike and placed atop the highest rooftop. His blank stare upon the square below served as a constant warning against treason. His ghost — a shadowy figure spotted by many tourists after nightfall — has taken up permanent residence near the gate where his body once swayed at the end of a rope.

  Notre-Dame-des-Victoires

  If it’s any consolation for the ghost of Duval, he’s had another executed criminal’s spirit to keep him company in Place Royale. In 1680, not long after Duval was hanged and decapitated, a new executioner was appointed. Jean Gatier was advised to move with his wife and small children out of the city so that he wouldn’t live amongst the very people he might one day need to kill. He did so willingly, never imagining that, regardless of how far he lived from the city limits, he would still be living with someone he would one day execute.

  Shortly after they moved far from Place Royale, his wife was convicted of stealing goods from a merchant. Her sentence was death by hanging. The executioner was forced to do the heartbreaking task, hanging his own wife and the mother of his children in front of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires church. The apparition of Madame Gatier still wanders the cobblestone alleyways in Place Royale, eternally searching for her husband. Whether she pines for a reunion or revenge is unknown.

  THE WATER GHOST

  Hollan
d Cove, Prince Edward Island

  Prince Edward Island is well known as the setting of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s beloved Anne of Green Gables. The beauty of P.E.I.’s rolling green hills and red, sandy beaches set the perfect stage for Montgomery’s stories, which are worldwide bestsellers. It’s fitting that a province known around the globe for its idyllic “island life” would be the home of a waterlogged ghost that rises with the tide.

  Each year on July 14, when the tide is at its highest point, inhabitants of Holland Cove report seeing a woman appear from the murky depths of the water. She’s dressed in a white gown and her long black hair hangs heavily from her scalp. Once on land she leaves a wet trail in her wake that never stops flowing from her body. She wanders up and down the beach, her wet eyes filled with sadness, and calls, “Samuel? Samuel?” Never finding the man she seeks, she eventually wanders back into the water to drown herself. Year after year she resurfaces, searches in vain for Samuel, then commits her body to the waves once more. Year after year no body is ever recovered from the surf.

  Who is she, and who is Samuel? These are questions that all who have come face to face with the water ghost have asked themselves for a long, long time. Most believe the man she’s in search of is none other than Captain Samuel Johannes Holland, the namesake of Holland Cove. Appointed Surveyor General of North America by the British, Captain Holland came to the area in 1764 and spent the next two years creating detailed maps that are still in use today. Captain Holland fell in love with Canada and spent the rest of his days here before his death in 1801.