In November, workers digging a hole for a pylon near the Victoria Bridge discovered the bones of over a dozen Irish Famine victims from 1847 at the site of the Black Rock. Given these Irish refugees were fleeing westward, it is entirely possible their disturbed spirits will come back to haunt the new electric train network.
One survivor, who visited in 2003, claimed: “When we walked in this wing of the hospital where the single mothers gave birth, which has been abandoned for several years now, we can still hear this crying of the abandoned little ones. There are also the groans, the tears, the prayers of these single mothers, which are like the cries of the abandoned little ones, impregnated in the walls and woodwork of this establishment. We still hear them today in 2003.”
Since the canal officially opened in 1825, hundreds of people have drowned in its dark waters. These included suicides, murder victims, people who drowned while swimming and those who died during industrial accidents. The polluted banks are also peppered with old buildings, many being repurposed into condominiums, that are reputed to be haunted. Last but not least, not only are ghost ships known to ply the canal’s waters, but there are also an unknown number of bodies buried along its length. Mostly victims of the Irish Famine of 1847, these forgotten corpses of desperate refugees result in all sorts of ghosts and paranormal activity along the canal.
Unfortunately, at the time it was illegal to carry out human dissections unless it was part of a criminal’s punishment. Indeed, for the worst criminals, this ultimate and shameful punishment was sometimes written into sentences delivered by local judges.
Firstly, after dark, the atmosphere of the cemetery changes and a lot of people have reported feeling nervous and uncomfortable after sun down. For those daring enough to stay in the burial ground, there have been reports of strange shapes moving about, mysterious mists and floating orbs in the treetops. On occasion, ghostly apparitions have been spotted wandering the cemetery and, in what is almost certainly cases of residual hauntings, the disembodied voices of muffled prayer and moaning can still be heard, not to mention sudden screams of agony that sometimes pierce the cemetery. The disturbing screams tend to occur in the south-west corner of the Dorchester Square portion of the old cemetery.
Supposedly, the Oneidas tried throwing away the head, but it rolled back to their encampment and continued insulting the warriors. According to Dollier de Casson, the Oneida warriors put the head “sometimes in one place, sometimes another.” He claimed: “Even when they covered it to prevent it from being heard, it was no better."
At around 9 pm, Marie-Josée was putting her daughter to bed when she heard what sounded like laughter coming from outside. She opened the window to see if there were rowdy teenagers in the neighborhood, but could not see anyone on the street or in the park across the street. While she could not place the laughter, she recognized the voice as male. The laughter got louder, and soon transformed into a mixture of snickering, giggling and cackling. Unimpressed, Marie-Josée closed the window and secured its latch. Unfortunately, she could still hear the deranged laughter, albeit more muffled.
Haunted Montreal is extremely excited to report a very special event. Canada's most haunted city, Montreal, is nervously awaiting its most infamous ghost. Prostitute Mary Gallagher was brutally murdered and beheaded in a filthy Griffintown tenement on June 27, 1879 on the corner of William and Murray streets. The case shocked Montrealers, especially when Mary's best friend, Suzy Kennedy, was sentenced to hang for the gruesome crime. Since then, Mary's headless ghost is said to return every 7 years on the anniversary of her death, still searching for her head.
One afternoon, I went into the kitchen to refill my coffee cup. Standing there alone, pouring hot java into my mug, I had an intense feeling that someone – or something – was staring at my back. When I spun around, nobody was present. Suddenly I heard a loud clanging noise and I nearly jumped out of my skin! I whirled around and saw that three metal pots, which had been on the kitchen counter waiting to be used to prepare the evening meal, were rolling around on the floor, creating a metallic echo throughout in the kitchen.
For those familiar with horror novels and movies, there is a common trope that it is never a good idea to build upon ancient Indigenous burial grounds. Unfortunately for the City of Montreal, a large section of its Downtown core exists on the site of a former Indigenous city and cemetery, resulting in all sorts of speculation that the modern city is haunted. Furthermore, since remnants of the Indigenous city were unearthed in 1859 on the corner of today’s Metcalfe and de Maisonneuve streets, a debate has raged on among scholars of European ancestry about whether or not it is the site of the fabled lost city of “Hochelaga” visited by French explorer Jacques Cartier in 1535.