With over 600 documented ghost stories, Montreal is easily the most haunted city in Canada, if not all of North America. Haunted Montreal dedicates itself to researching these paranormal tales, and the Haunted Montreal Blog unveils a newly researched Montreal ghost story on the 13th of every month!

This service is free and you can sign up to our mailing list (top, right-hand corner for desktops and at the bottom for mobile devices) if you wish to receive it every month on the 13th! The blog is published in both English and French!

With Halloween around the corner, the Spooky Season is in full swing, and so is our full slate of haunted experiences. You can book now for Haunted Old Montreal, Haunted Mountain, Haunted Griffintown, and Haunted Downtown. We are also running all three paranormal investigations: Old Sainte-Antoine Cemetery, Colonial Old Montreal, and The Dark Past of New France.

Our Haunted Pub Crawl runs every Sunday at 3pm in English, and the last Sunday of the month at 2pm in French (with possibly additional crawls being added). Our newest tour, the Indigenous-led Colonial Secrets of Old Montreal, runs every Saturday at 2pm in English and at 4pm in French.

Check our Company News section for more information.

Haunted Research

In July 2019, Haunted Montreal published a story about the Haunted Statue of Jacques Cartier in Saint-Henri Park. Towering above the greenspace, the statue features the French explorer along with colonial words and racist depictions of decapitated Indigenous heads spitting out water. It also has a paranormal history that has disturbed numerous people, triggered at least one divorce and caused many other problems.

Since then, Haunted Montreal has received a stream of complaints from people who felt the statue was giving them dirty looks when they passed by. Others complained that they could hear it snickering.

The statue is frequently in the news by activists calling for its removal or by colonial “history buffs” defending it. The most recent media appeared in July 2026 on both Global News Montreal and CityNews Montreal. 

In a nutshell, Innu surgeon Dr. Stanley Vollant called for the statue to be modified after his young daughter was disturbed by its racist imagery. The Vollant family lives across the street from the park where the statue reigns.

Dr. Vollant explained that he first noticed the disembodied Indigenous heads when his daughter, who was five years old at the time, asked: “What are those monsters that are spitting out water?”

Dr. Vollant looked more closely and realized: “It was Indigenous faces, very hideous Indigenous faces spitting out water.” They reminded him of gargoyles and he felt they reflected a colonial-era view of Indigenous peoples.

Disturbed, he told his daughter: “This is us. This is us, those monsters are us.”

His daughter asked “Why do they despise us as monsters?”

Dr. Vollant replied: “That’s history, my love, and we have to change that history.”

Dr. Vollant wants the disembodied Indigenous heads removed from the fountain. He said:.

“I think as a group we can find something much better and also maybe to remove those gargoyles that are Indigenous people, put something else without destroying this beautiful fountain.”

There is also the issue of a colonial plaque on the statue, which states:

“To Jacques Cartier, born at Saint-Malo on December 31, 1491, sent by Francis I to discover Canada on April 20, 1534. Anchoring on July 16 of the same year at the entrance to the St. Lawrence, he took possession of the whole country in the name of his master, the king, and called it New France.”

Dr. Vollant feels the City of Montreal should rewrite the plaque.

He said: “That’s an insult for Indigenous people. We never gave up our land. We never surrendered. We never had lost a fight for that land. So for us, it’s an insult.”

In response, the office of the Sud-Ouest borough mayor said:

“We are looking for a way to contextualize the statue and to explain its colonial past. We are in the beginning of this process and wish to consult our local organizations and involved citizens like Mr. Vollant.”

As this cultural war between entrenched colonial attitudes and calls for justice against genocide continues to unfold, one thing remains certain.

Despite the numerous complaints of its racist depictions, colonial plaques and paranormal antics, the statue of Jacques Cartier still reigns supreme, towering over and haunting Saint-Henri Park.

Company News

As we head towards Halloween, our full slate of outdoor walking tours is up and running, with Haunted Old Montreal every Wednesday and Sunday, Haunted Griffintown every Friday, and Haunted Mountain and Haunted Downtown alternating on Thursdays and Saturdays. These are theatrical ghost tours led by a professional actor and storyteller.

If you’re looking for a more hands-on experience, we are offering three Paranormal Investigations: Old Sainte Antoine Cemetery, Colonial Old Montreal, and The Dark Past of New France. Hosted by paranormal investigator Dominique Desormeaux, guests learn how to use paranormal equipment to communicate with spirits.

Our Haunted Pub Crawl runs every Sunday at 3pm in English and the last Sunday of the month at 2pm in French. Stay tuned because we may be adding crawls on Halloween itself.

Our Hidden History tour, the Indigenous-Led Colonial Secrets of Old Montreal, runs every Saturday at 2pm in English and 4pm in French. Sophie-Claude Miller explores landmarks in the city’s oldest neighbourhood from a perspective that hopes to smash the tourist gaze.

All of our haunted experiences are also available as private tours throughout October, and in November as well.

Clients can request any date, time, language and operating tour. These tours are based on the availability of our actors and start at $250 for small groups of up to 8 people. Our slots are filling up fast, so email info@hauntedmontreal.com to book yours today!

Spice up your Halloween party by reserving one of our Travelling Ghost Storytellers today.

Hear some of the spookiest tales from our tours and our blog told by a professional actor and storyteller. You provide the venue, we provide the stories and storyteller. Find out more and then contact info@hauntedmontreal.com

Holly and Dr. Mab are back! Now part of Stygian Media, they will continue releasing Haunted Montreal videos based on our blogs in English and French among other horror-themed content.

Please like, subscribe and hit the bell!

In other news, if you want to send someone a haunted experience as a gift, you certainly can!

We are offering Haunted Montreal Gift Certificates through our website and redeemable via Eventbrite for any of our in-person or virtual events (no expiration date).

Our online shop is offline for the next few months. If you would like to purchase any Haunted Montreal-branded t-shirts or mugs in the meantime, please contact us at info@hauntedmontreal.com

Haunted Montreal also has temporarily altered its blog experience due to a commitment on a big writing project! Until further notice, we will be offering updates on old stories every second month and the regular blog service alternating.

Haunted Montreal would like to thank all our clients who attended a ghost walk, haunted pub crawl, paranormal investigation or virtual event!

If you enjoyed the experience, we encourage you to write a review on our Tripadvisor page and/or on Google Reviews – something that really helps Haunted Montreal to market its tours.

Lastly, if you would like to receive the Haunted Montreal Blog on the 13th of each month, please sign up to our mailing list.

Coming up on November 13: Thomson House

Perched high up on McTavish Street, Thomson House caters to the McGill University Graduates Society. Within the opulent mansion, graduate students can enjoy a drink, a meal, academic meetings, social gatherings and many other events. However, like many of the other grandiose buildings in the Golden Square Mile, rumours swirl that Thomson House might be haunted. Staff have reported lights inside the building turning back on after the premises was closed and locked for the night, among other anomalies. Some speculate that the paranormal activity is related the the mansion’s original owner, Charles-Édouard Gravel.

Author:

Donovan King is a postcolonial historian, teacher, tour guide and professional actor. As the founder of Haunted Montreal, he combines his skills to create the best possible Montreal ghost stories, in both writing and theatrical performance. King holds a DEC (Professional Theatre Acting, John Abbott College), BFA (Drama-in-Education, Concordia), B.Ed (History and English Teaching, McGill), MFA (Theatre Studies, University of Calgary) and ACS (Montreal Tourist Guide, Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec). He is also a certified Montreal Destination Specialist.