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 the summer here, Haunted Montreal is running a whole season of ghost tours and haunted experiences! Our ghost tours include Haunted Old Montreal, Griffintown, Downtown and the mountain!

Our Haunted Pub Crawl is offered every Sunday at 3 pm in English. For tours in French, these happen on the last Sunday of every month at 4 pm.

We also offer paranormal investigations! In addition to our investigation of the old Sainte-Antoine Cholera Cemetery, Haunted Montreal is proud to announce our latest experience – Paranormal Investigation – Colonial Old Montreal.

To learn more, see the schedule at the bottom of our home page!

Private tours for all of our experiences (including outdoor tours) can be booked at any time based on the availability of our actors. Clients can request any date, time, language and operating tour. These tours start at $215 for small groups of up to 7 people.

Email info@hauntedmontreal.com to book a private tour!

Lastly, we have an online store for those interested in Haunted Montreal merchandise. More details are below in our Company News section!

This month we explore Montreal’s Forgotten Irish Famine Cemetery at the Wellington Basin on the Lachine Canal. With plans to build a new neighbourhood on the hallowed ground, there are fears that new ghosts and paranormal activity may emerge in this already haunted area.

Haunted Research

Plans are afoot to build a whole new neighbourhood in the Bridge-Bonaventure sector of Point Saint Charles, just south of the Lachine Canal at Griffintown. Once the cradle of Canadian industrialization, the area has long since fallen into dilapidation and is now considered ripe for redevelopment.

Glossy designs depict new high-rise condominiums, trendy spaces for commerce and arts – and even an “urban beach” in the old Wellington Basin!      

However, this utopian vision is partially located on the site that hosted Montreal’s first Irish Famine Cemetery in 1847.

Known as “Black ‘47”, the year of 1847 was perhaps the most tragic in Montreal’s history. It was the year when 75,000 Irish Famine refugees landed in Montreal, a city with a population of 50,000 at the time.

Many of them were suffering from starvation, typhus and other diseases. Thousands perished on Montreal’s shores and were usually buried in mass graves. Many of these crisis cemeteries have been largely forgotten.

To learn the horrific details of this episode, please read Haunted Montreal Blog #35 – The Black Rock.

Today, the Black Rock is the only Irish Famine Cemetery currently marked on the island of Montreal.

However, new research is unveiling several other forgotten Famine cemeteries, including one at the Wellington Basin site.

Local historian Sylvain Gaudet has recently unearthed documentation verifying that well over one thousand Irish Famine Dead are still buried in mass graves in the Wellington Basin vicinity.

Further desecration will almost certainly result in more ghosts in the already haunted area.

In April 2024, Canada Lands announced big plans to redevelop the Wellington Basin and surrounding area. The federal Crown corporation wants to create a mixed-use neighbourhood by building 2,800 housing units, an artisan district and even a public beach in the old basin.

Canada Lands acquired the canal-side real estate from Transport Canada in 2010. Over the past couple of years, it has been holding public consultations that ultimately resulted in their master plan.

The Lachine Canal was built in three distinct phases, each one designed to enlarge the waterway for increasing ship sizes.

The third phase, built from 1874 to 1885, saw the deepening and enlargement of canal, including the Peel Basin, and the construction of the Wellington Basin. This project resulted in the largest industrial area in all of Canada until 1959.

Historically, the Peel and Wellington Basins have played a major role in the industrial development of Montreal and Canada.

Because of its depth and size, the Peel Basin was a “reversal” basin and was the only section of the Lachine Canal that allowed ocean vessels to move through. It was nicknamed the “terminus of Montreal.”

The original Wellington Basin was roughly 13.6 hectares in size. As the largest basin in the Lachine Canal, it mostly serviced the transshipment of coal.

Overall, this maritime hub was a staging area for ocean vessels and smaller ships destined for the Canadian interior. Busy railroad tracks also bordered the area to facilitate inter-modal transportation.

However, hundreds of bodies were exhumed during the construction of the Wellington Basin, which cut into the footprint of Montreal’s first Irish Famine cemetery.

Local historian Sylvain Gaudet has been hard at work researching the Wellington Basin site and its environs. For example, he located the La Minerve edition of July 22, 1847, which estimated the number of Irish Dead who had been buried to date as the Famine crisis raged on:

“It is calculated that there are now around 1500 to 2000 corpses buried around the sheds, a foot or two deep.”

Juxtaposing the burials in 1847 with the excavation of remains in 1876, it becomes apparent that over a thousand bodies remain buried on the Wellington Basin site.

Indeed, when workers excavated the Wellington Basin in the1870s, only 200-300 coffins were exhumed according to newspaper reports from 1876 and 1877.

Articles describe how workers and politicians dealt with exhumation of all of the bodies. The Daily Witness on August 3, 1876 wrote:

“Discovery of Human Remains. Three coffins containing human bones have been dug up by the men working at the new basin, near Wellington Bridge. It is thought those are the bodies of emigrants who died of the ship fever in 1847-48. The workmen were not a little horrified to disinter the remains of men so unexpectedly.”

An article called “Disinterring Human Remains” appeared in The Daily Witness on August 7, 1876:

“The spoon dredger employed at the canal basin occasionally brings to the surface human remains, being some of those of the unfortunate immigrants, four or five thousand in number, who died of ship fever in 1847 and 1848. It is said that these remains are sometimes kept in the vicinity of the works for some length of time before being taken away, and it is a matter many more will be exhumed before the work is concluded. It has been suggested that a trench be dug nearby and the coffins be placed in it, and covered up with disinfectants as soon as discovered.”

Spoon dredgers were a type of vessel used to maintain canals and ports. By removing the accumulated sediment from the bottom of waterways, these impressive machines kept the waters navigable.

The Daily Witness of September 7, 1876 went on to describe how the bodies were being disposed of:

“Quantities of Human Remains Discovered, A Fat Graveyard. Lately, as many as 20 coffins have been unearthed in the new Wellington Basin. Barrels have been provided in which to place the skulls and bones, while the coffins are being burned. A large box of the remains have already been interred in the Roman Catholic cemetery. Up to date, about 200 coffins have been removed.”

The Famine Dead being unearthed and desecrated found an ally in Bernard Devlin, the Member of Parliament for Montreal Center and President of the Saint Patrick’s Society at the time.

Bernard Devlin was an Irish-born lawyer, Quebec-based political figure and Canadian parliamentarian. Described as a “champion of many causes” and noted for his “splendid abilities,” Devlin was regarded as “Canada’s most prominent criminal lawyer.” His personal motto was “justice and equality to all classes and creeds, undue favor to none.”

The Daily Witness of September 21, 1876 reported that Bernard Devlin was making plans for the reburial of the Famine victims. In a column titled “THE UNKNOWN DEAD”, the newspaper stated:

“At a meeting of St. Patrick’s Society, Messrs. Devlin, M.P., Me- Grath, Dennis Coughlan, T. Doran, and F. B. McNamee were chosen as a Committee to pick out a lot in the Roman Catholic Cemetery, in which to inter the remains of those disinterred in the Lachine Canal investigation. Yesterday they selected a spot near the Fireman’s lot, and in this all the remains found will in future be placed.”

As a member of the ruling Liberal party, Devlin enjoyed close ties with Alexander MacKenzie, Canada’s second prime minister.

MacKenzie, a Scotsman, had empathy with the Irish as fellow Celtic people. As such, he fully supported Devlin’s initiative and even backed it up with financing. According to the True Witness on Friday September 22 1876:

“MR. DEVLIN, M.P., had an interview on Saturday with the Premier relative to the burial of the remains of the Irish emigrants exhumed recently in the progress of the Lachine Canal enlargement. Hon. Mr. MacKenzie ordered the purchase of a lot in the Catholic Cemetery and will pay all expenses connected with their removal and re-burial.”

The location of the plot for the transferred Famine victims is presently unknown, apart from the fact that it was purchased near the Firemen’s lot.

The plot dedicated to Montreal’s firefighters was acquired in 1867. Trustees of both the Catholic and Protestant cemeteries donated plots of 500 square feet to the Montreal Firefighters’ Benevolent Association for the burial of deceased firefighters. On May 1, 1875, matching monuments designed by Robert Reed were installed in both Catholic and Protestant cemeteries.

Regarding the Famine burial plot, it is estimated that two to three hundred corpses were transferred during construction of the Wellington Basin. The True Witness and Catholic Chronicle of June 20, 1877, made this estimation in an article called “Ship Fever Victims”:

“The coffins of the ship fever victims number some two or three hundred, and lie three tiers deep in a trench in the Wellington Basin. There are those in the neighbourhood who remember the bodies being buried during the ship fever of 1847 and 1848.”

There are many more articles that describe the horrors unearthed by workers during the construction of the Wellington Basin.

Returning to the present day, the area surrounding the Wellington Basin is considered one of the most haunted parts of the Lachine Canal – and Montreal. To learn more, please read Haunted Montreal Blog #51 – Lachine Canal.

Two paranormal phenomena tend to materialize in this area, as covered by hit TV show World’s Scariest Hauntings.

Firstly, the ghost of Mayor John Easton Mills has been spotted wandering the site around the hour of midnight.

Mayor Mills was instrumental in helping the refugees and preventing attacks against them. He contracted typhus himself during his duties and died on November 12, at the young age of 54. An elaborate funeral was held and he was declared “Montreal’s Martyr Mayor” for his heroic efforts.

His ghost is known to roam the site of Montreal’s first fever sheds, at the Wellington Basin, late at night. It is as though he is still caring for his charges in a paranormal afterlife.

Secondly, there are recordings of hundreds of orbs floating about in the air around the old basin.

In World’s Scariest Hauntings, one local resident described going into a trance when the orbs appeared to him. He felt as though the dead buried throughout the site were wailing.

Lastly, the Wellington Basin is connected to Montreal’s most infamous ghost story – the deranged tale of Headless Mary.

Dockworker Michael Flanagan was one of the prime suspects in the murder and decapitation of prostitute Mary Gallagher. She had been brutally butchered in the Griffintown flat of her best friend, Suzy Kennedy, on June 27, 1879.

During the sensational trial, prosecuted by Bernard Devlin himself, Suzy Kennedy was found guilty and sentenced to hang on December 5th of the same year. However, Michael Flanagan walked scot-free because there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him. Many of the citizens were shocked that a woman could commit such a violent crime, especially against a member of her own gender. Women in the Victorian era were often seen as delicate and defenseless creatures.

Even though Suzy Kennedy’s sentence was reduced to life in prison, one ironic fact about the story remains. On December 5th, 1879, the day Suzy Kennedy was originally to hang, Michael Flanagan fell through through the ice while working on the Wellington Basin and drowned.

At the time, many Griffintowners speculated that Mary Gallagher’s vengeful spirit had pushed him off the dock and that his drowning was the result of her ghost’s intervention.

Returning to the present, Canada Lands has made good on its promise to consult local stakeholders. Haunted Montreal has helped compile a team including historians, an anthropologist, archaeologists and other stakeholders to locate and document the forgotten cemetery.

The goal is to avoid any more desecration at the Wellington Basin site and to commemorate the remarkable history of the area, especially the Famine Dead still buried there.

To realize the project, there is a lot of work to do. With the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, the Lachine Canal was rendered obsolete and was closed to shipping traffic. Over the years, workers filled in most of the Wellington Basin with contaminated earth, reducing its size considerably.

As such, the project will require the removal of thousands of cubic meters of toxic fill from the basin. Decontamination is estimated to cost about $77 million and the project has a 10-year timeline.

In conclusion, the Wellington Basin area is rife with tragic history and also contains what is left of Montreal’s first Irish Famine Cemetery. With over a thousand bodies still buried there, Canada Lands is wise to proceed with the utmost caution.

Company News

Haunted Montreal is proud to announce our latest haunted experience – Paranormal Investigation – Colonial Old Montreal.

Hosted by professional Ghost-hunter Dominique Desormeaux of Investigations 13, Haunted Montreal’s “Paranormal Investigation – Colonial Old Montreal” takes guests on a dark adventure into the mysterious world of ghost hunting!

With the summer in full swing, Haunted Montreal is running a whole season of ghost tours and haunted experiences! Our ghost tours include Haunted Old Montreal, Griffintown, Downtown and the mountain!

In the meantime, our Haunted Pub Crawl is offered every Sunday at 3 pm in English. For tours in French, these happen on the last Sunday of every month at 4 pm.

To learn more, see the schedule at the bottom of our home page!

Private tours for any of our experiences (including outdoor tours) can be booked at any time based on the availability of our actors. Clients can request any date, time, language and operating tour. These tours are based on the availability of our actors and start at $215 for small groups of up to 7 people.

Email info@hauntedmontreal.com to book a private tour!

You can also bring the Haunted Montreal experience to your office party, house, school or event by booking 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

Our team also releases videos every second Saturday, in both languages, of ghost stories from the Haunted Montreal Blog. Hosted by Holly Rhiannon (in English) and Dr. Mab (in French), this initiative is sure to please ghost story fans!

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).

Finally, we have an online store for those interested in Haunted Montreal merchandise. We are selling t-shirts, magnets, sweatshirts (for those haunted fall and winter nights) and mugs with both the Haunted Montreal logo and our tour imagery. Purchases can be ordered through our online store.

Haunted Montreal has temporarily altered its blog experience due to a commitment on a big writing project! New stories at the Haunted Montreal Blog will now be offered every two months, whereas every other month will feature an update to an old story. As always, these stories and updates will be released on the 13th of every month!

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, 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 every month, please sign up to our mailing list.

Coming up on September 13^th: Update on the Mary Gallagher Ghost Story

The École de technologie supérieure (ETS) has been busy buying up real estate in Griffintown to expand its campus. One controversial purchase was the land on the south-east corner of William and Murray Streets – also known as the “Mary Gallagher Corner”. Indeed, her headless ghost returns to this spot every seven years on the anniversary of her death. During the design stage, Haunted Montreal pleaded with the ETS to preserve the infamous corner. It would seem that they complied. The new building going up on the site preserves the corner intact, good news for those hoping to spot Headless Mary when she returns next on June 27, 2026. To learn more, please read Haunted Montreal Blog #46 – The Ghost of Mary Gallagher.

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.

Translator (into French):

Claude Chevalot holds a master’s degree in applied linguistics from McGill University. She is a writer, editor and translator. For more than 15 years, she has devoted herself almost exclusively to literary translation and to the translation of texts on current and contemporary art.

With over 500 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 the Hallowe’en Season fast approaching, Haunted Montreal’s seasons of public outdoor ghost tours is in full swing! Offered every Friday and Saturday Sunday, we have four ghost tours on rotation (Old Montreal, Griffintown, Downtown and Mount Royal.)

Our Haunted Pub Crawl is also offered every Sunday at 3 pm in English. For tours in French, these happen on the last Sunday of every month at 4 pm.

Our Paranormal Investigation in the Old Sainte Antoine Cemetery happens on the first Friday and Saturday of every month.

Private tours for all of our experiences (including outdoor tours) can be booked at any time based on the availability of our actors. Clients can request any date, time, language and operating tour. These tours start at $215 for small groups of up to 7 people.

Email info@hauntedmontreal.com to book a private tour!

Lastly, we have an online store for those interested in Haunted Montreal merchandise. More details are below in our Company News section!

This month we examine one section of Montreal’s new light rail system, the REM, which is finally operational. The line, running from Central Station in Montreal to Brossard, passes over the Black Rock Irish Famine Cemetery. Given that the REM desecrated the hallowed ground by removing over a dozen bodies to insert a concrete pylon, many people speculated that the REM would become haunted. It appears to be the case – since its opening, the REM has been plagued with numerous electrical problems and was even struck by lightning!

Haunted Research

After years of planning and construction, the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) finally opened the first leg of its light train system on July 31, 2023. This section of track runs from Montreal’s Central Station to Brossard on the South Shore.

However, it has been plagued with various problems, from electrical failures and noise complaints to broken elevators and passengers being deployed to train garages.

There are also major delays on the construction of the Griffintown Station, which is very late and likely will not open in the near future. It appears that CDPQ Infra, the organization in charge of the project, has been caught totally off-guard.

While it might be tempting to say that it is bad luck causing the REM’s woes, a much more likely cause is paranormal activity triggered by angry Irish Famine ghosts.

Haunted Montreal has been following and blogging this story for several years now. Part 1 of the blog appeared in January, 2020 and examined the REM’s decision to desecrate the Irish Famine Cemetery at the Black Rock. Indeed, the REM’s workers dug up over a dozen skeletons to insert a concrete monorail pylon into the heart of the cemetery.

Generally-speaking, the Dead do not like to be disturbed, especially when their funerary marker, the ominous Black Rock, is engraved with the following words:

“To Preserve from Desecration the Remains of 6000 Immigrants Who died of Ship Fever A.D. 1847- 48.”

Part 1 speculated that the light rail system would likely become haunted due to the desecration. It also theorized which ghosts might appear to haunt the trains and surrounding infrastructure.

Part 2 of the series offered the REM an inexpensive solution to prevent the Irish Famine ghosts from infesting the system by painting the concrete pylon Haint Blue, a colour known to ward off spirits.

Haunted Montreal warned REM officials that failure to comply would almost certainly result in the new system becoming ghost-infested. However, REM administrator Isabelle Lachance dismissed these concerns, stating that there were no plans to paint the pylon Haint Blue.

Paranormal expert Dominique Desormeaux had warned about the disturbing consequences of the REM’s failure to protect its transportation system: “Ghosts will feast on the electrical side. They look for a source to be able to manifest themselves, so yes, ghosts will haunt the REM. I’m telling you, you will see people complaining about strange stuff happening at the REM and to the people working there. The ghosts will even cause trouble for the train and there will be often be power shortages and train malfunctions.”

Unfortunately for the REM, Desormeaux’s predictions turned out to be true for the most part.

On the first day of the REM’s grand opening, electrical problems started appearing throughout the rail network. In fact, the system experienced three power failures during the first three days, forcing passengers off the trains and onto busses.

Furthermore, many elevators and escalators broke down, leaving many disabled passengers stranded and upset.

Then, the evening after opening, three REM passengers were mistakenly sent to a train garage in Brossard. A man named Grégoire, his wife and a tourist from South America ended up trapped in the REM’s garage after the driverless train seemed to take on a life of its own. Instead of driving towards Montreal, it unexpectedly drove backwards from the station into the train garage where it turned itself off.

According to Grégoire: “The train shut down, the lights were dim and then we were looking around, there was no way out and we could see all the trains around us, so that was kind of spooky.”

Fearing they were going to “spend the night” on the train, Grégoire’s wife used the intercom system to tell security guards that they were trapped in the garage. Ten minutes later, an operator ordered the driverless train return to the Brossard station.

From there, REM staff picked them up and drove them home.

The next major incident was literally shocking – a lightning bolt hit the REM! On the night of August 3rd, the electric bolt zapped the light rail system, temporarily halting its operation.

CDPQ Infra’s director of communications, Jean-Vincent Lacroix, later explained that the REM “is designed” to deal with this type of event.

However, a local Irish-Montrealer named Seamus who has ancestors buried at the Black Rock stated: “It’s God himself who is striking the REM with lightning because they desecrated the Irish Famine Dead. What a disgrace! Indeed, I predict that the Dear Lord will continue sending the lightning bolts until the whole system is destroyed! When you mess with the Irish Famine Dead, you are messing with God himself!”

Furthermore, there have been reports that whenever the REM train passes over the Black Rock Irish Famine Cemetery, strange things tend to happen. For example, sometimes the train starts shaking and other times the interior lights begin flickering on and off. In another case, a rider from Brossard complained of feeling nauseous every time the REM train rolls over the hallowed burial ground.

There have also been endless noise complaints from those living in the condo towers that have sprouted up along the line in neighborhoods like Griffintown and Nun’s Island. Initial promises by REM officials to mitigate excessive noise have not born fruit.

Journalists have determined the trains generate a noise level ranging from 75 to 100 decibels, which is far higher than the 55 decibels recommended by the World Health Organization.

Nearby residents have complained this the endless noise exposure causes stress, impacts mental health, and contributes to issues such as high blood pressure and sleep deprivation.

In addition, CDPQ Infra initially stated the new Griffintown station would be finished and up-and-running in 2024.

However, after numerous delays, CDPQ Infra is no longer committing to a completion date.

“We are still studying the possibilities for the construction of this station. It is made more complex by other projects that are in the vicinity and because the train is currently in operation,” CDPQ Infra said in a statement.

To make matters worse, Mayor Valerie Plante turned a blind eye to concerns from the local and international Irish communities when she insisted on co-branding the station with Bernard Landry, a deceased politician.

Despite pleas from the Irish communities and negative local and international media reports, Plante rebranded the station “Griffintown-Bernard-Landry.”

Given the disrespect and endless delays, many in the Irish community believe the station is cursed – and will never be completed. Indeed, according to Seamus: “Griffintown was once Canada’s largest Irish neighborhood. It was where the survivors of the Irish Famine settled during the dark days of Black ’47 after crossing the Atlantic on coffin ships. Rebranding the Griff is nothing short of sacrilege and that REM station is doomed, I tell you!”

Lastly, there one of the most serious issues. Since Hydro-Québec purchased the land where the Black Rock cemetery lies in 2017 to build a new substation, there has been a lot of doubt about its promise to preserve the burial ground. Hydro-Québec had promised to build a world-class park on the site in conjunction with Montreal’s Irish community.

However, since Hydro-Québec got involved there has been one desecration after another against the Irish Famine Dead and their memory. An upcoming Part 4 of this series will delve into those issues and related hauntings.

To conclude, the REM has failed to protect its system from the paranormal. In desecrating the Irish Famine Dead at the Black Rock Cemetery with a concrete pylon, REM essentially invited their ghosts to haunt the system. The resulting disturbances, electrical and otherwise, will likely only intensify in the future.

As such, ride the REM at your own risk!

Company News

With the Hallowe’en Season fast approaching, Haunted Montreal’s seasons of public outdoor ghost tours is in full swing! Offered every Friday and Saturday night, we have four ghost tours on rotation (Old Montreal, Griffintown, Downtown and Mount Royal.)

Our Haunted Pub Crawl is also offered every Sunday at 3 pm in English. For tours in French, these happen on the last Sunday of every month at 4 pm.

Our Paranormal Investigation in the Old Sainte Antoine Cemetery happens on the first Friday and Saturday of every month.

Private tours for any of our experiences (including outdoor tours) can be booked at any time based on the availability of our actors. Clients can request any date, time, language and operating tour. These tours are based on the availability of our actors and start at $215 for small groups of up to 7 people.

Email info@hauntedmontreal.com to book a private tour!

You can bring the Haunted Montreal experience to your office party, house, school or event by booking 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

Our team also releases videos every second Saturday, in both languages, of ghost stories from the Haunted Montreal Blog. Hosted by Holly Rhiannon (in English) and Dr. Mab (in French), this initiative is sure to please ghost story fans!

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).

Finally, we have an online store for those interested in Haunted Montreal merchandise. We are selling t-shirts, magnets, sweatshirts (for those haunted fall and winter nights) and mugs with both the Haunted Montreal logo and our tour imagery.

Purchases can be ordered through our online store.

Haunted Montreal would like to thank all of 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, 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 every month, please sign up to our mailing list.

Coming up on October 13: Dow Brewery

Built in 1861, the massive Dow Brewery in Grffintown was once the largest producer of beer in Montreal. However, after a poisoned beer scandal in the 1960s, the brewery began falling into a slow decline. In 1998, it was abandoned – electricity was cut off and the building was allowed to fall into ruins. Contaminated with asbestos, the Dow Brewery has since been used by urban explorers, ghost hunters and mediums. With a confused ghostly girl sometimes appearing inside the ruined building, many are convinced that the old brewery is haunted.

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.

Translator (into French):

Claude Chevalot holds a master’s degree in applied linguistics from McGill University. She is a writer, editor and translator. For more than 15 years, she has devoted herself almost exclusively to literary translation and to the translation of texts on current and contemporary art.

With over 500 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 the spring finally here, Haunted Montreal’s seasons of public outdoor tours is now available! Offered every Saturday night, we have four tours on rotation (Old Montreal, Griffintown, Downtown and Mount Royal.)

Our Haunted Pub Crawl is also offered every Sunday at 3 pm in English. For tours in French, these happen on the last Sunday of every month at 4 pm.

We are also offering a special Irish Famine in Montreal Walking Tour to honor over 6000 victims buried under the Black Rock in mass graves. It is on Saturday, May 27 at 1 pm (in English) – the day before the annual Walk to the Stone.

Our Paranormal Investigation in the Old Sainte Antoine Cemetery begins on June 2 in French and June 3 in English.

Private tours for all of our experiences (including outdoor tours) can be booked at any time based on the availability of our actors. Clients can request any date, time, language and operating tour. These tours start at $190 for small groups of up to 7 people.

Email info@hauntedmontreal.com to book a private tour!

Our Virtual Ghost Tour is also available on demand!

Want to give the gift of a haunted experience?

You can now order a Haunted Montreal Gift Certificate through our website. They are redeemable via Eventbrite for any of our in-person or virtual experiences.

There is no expiration date.

Lastly, we have an online store for those interested in Haunted Montreal merchandise. More details are below in our Company News section!

This month we examine a new campus being built on the haunted site of an old Irish Famine asylum at St. Patrick’s Basilica.

Haunted Research

The Université de Montréal is constructing a brand new campus for its business department, Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC), next to St. Patrick’s Basilica. An Irish Famine asylum called St. Bridget’s Home and Night Refuge once existed on the site, which catered to the destitute, the homeless and for many isolated women. The asylum witnessed countless tragedies over the years, allegedly resulting in many ghosts. As such, there is already talk that the shiny new campus will be haunted by Irish Famine spirits.

The Irish Famine’s impact on Montreal was probably the most devastating tragedy in the city’s history. In 1847, over Irish 75,000 refugees, many of them stricken with Typhus, landed on Montreal’s wharves in a city of only 50,000 people.

They were escaping a British colonialism, exacerbated by a potato famine that left over a million dead on Ireland’s shores. As the Irish starved, the British exported food from Ireland and absentee Anglo-Irish landlords evicted tens of thousands of starving farmers from the lands that the colonizers had stolen.

While crossing the Atlantic Ocean on “Coffin Ships”, many of the refugees contracted typhus fever and died at sea, at Grosse-Ile Quarantine Station or in Montreal.

Those who died in Montreal were buried in mass graves along the Lachine Canal and at the site of the fever sheds in Point Saint Charles where the Black Rock Monument stands today.

The colonial tragedy left over 600 Irish orphans whose parents had perished, along with countless widows and other estranged family members.

John Francis Maguire recounted the tragedy in The Irish in America (1868):

“This deplorable havoc of human life left hundreds of orphans dependent on the compassion of the public; and nobly was the unconscious appeal of this multitude of destitute little ones responded to by the French Canadians. Half naked, squalid, covered with vermin generated by hunger, fever, and the foulness of the ship’s hold, perhaps with the germs of the plague lurking in their vitiated blood, these helpless innocents of every age–from the infant taken from the bosom of its dead mother to the child that could barely tell the name of its parents–were gathered under the fostering protection of the Church.”

Officials at the newly-constructed St. Patrick’s Church, which opened in 1847, scrambled to help as best as they could, along with other religious orders.

While many of the orphans were adopted (including hundreds into French-speaking households), there was a great need to provide additional care for those who fell through the cracks.

Overwhelmed by the growing number of patients, the government authorities appealed to the Grey Nuns for help. At first, they cared for the refugees in a house located on the Saint-Gabriel farm, then in a building on Saint Laurent Boulevard.

Unfortunately, the refuge had to close its doors due to lack of resources. The nuns subsequently housed the sick in various temporary locations. The need for a permanent refuge and orphanage was obvious.  

The following year, a remarkable priest named Father Patrick Dowd was deployed from Ireland to take charge of St. Patrick’s Church and the situation facing the Famine refugees.

Father Dowd was born in Dunleer, Ireland in 1813. He studied for the priesthood in Newry and was ordained in 1837 at the Seminaire de Saint-Sulpice in Paris.

He became a Sulpician in 1848.

At the time, Montreal’s Catholics worshipped only in French. In 1846, Father Joseph-Vincent Quiblier, the Sulpician superior of the Petit séminaire de Montréal, travelled to Ireland to recruit Irish priests. When Father Patrick Dowd answered the call, the Irish archbishop told Father Quiblier: “You are asking for my own heart,” but he gave permission for Father Dowd to come to Montreal.

Father Dowd arrived in June 1848 and was appointed to serve the burgeoning Irish immigrant community, which had fled to Montreal during the Great Famine. At St. Patrick’s Church, he quickly became known as “the unofficial bishop” of Montreal’s Irish community. As pastor, he was both revered and feared.

His blunt words and sometimes vindictive behavior were tempered by his extraordinary ability to charm. He possessed an extraordinary intelligence and boundless energy. Father Dowd was also well known for his unshakeable firmness, inexhaustible charity and selflessness. These qualities no doubt explain why his parishioners revered him so much.

As a man who gave his all to Montreal’s Irish, he would go on to do great things for the Irish community in Montreal.

When Father Dowd arrived, he immediately started planning for the construction of both an orphanage and a refuge for the vulnerable. At the time, the Grey Nuns were struggling to operate their refuge for widows, young girls in need of protection and victims of domestic violence. With a lack of resources and no permanent home, the task of caring for the needy was extremely challenging.

Father Dowd got to work raising funds. After just three years, in 1851, the doors opened to St. Patrick’s Orphanage. Located to the north-west of the church, the imposing 4-story structure faced Dorchester Street (today’s René-Lévesque Boulevard).

Father Dowd then purchased a sizeable burial plot in the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery. Given that the death rate among Irish Famine survivors was elevated, he knew that there many would perish too young. Orphaned children who survived Typhus had weakened immune systems and there were many mental health issues facing those who had lost their loved ones. Destitution and homelessness only further worsened health outcomes. Some of the refugees turned to begging and prostitution to try and survive.

Next, Father Dowd began planning for a permanent refuge. After years of fund raising, famous architect Victor Bourgeau was chosen to design the building. The mission of this institution was to care for old men and women, to provide refuge for young girls and find places for them in suitable homes. The refuge also provided night lodging for homeless individuals and families.

In 1865, St. Bridget’s Home and Night Refuge opened its doors to some of the city’s most vulnerable people. Many of those who sought comfort there were Irish Famine survivors who never recovered from their losses. The refuge was a bustling place that always provided a free breakfast for those who had spent the night.

Unfortunately, as the years passed many of the residents perished and were buried in the cemetery plot Father Dowd had arranged on Mount Royal. Causes of death included everything from old age and diseases like typhus, cholera and smallpox to suicides and even people dying of heartbreak.

Over 200,000 people used the refuge’s services in its first 20 years of existence.

In 1883, a major problem arose. The Anatomy Act of Quebec was passed on March 30. It stipulated that all hospitals, orphanages, prisons, poorhouses and other government-funded charities were obliged to hand over corpses of those who had died there unless the body was claimed by a family member within 24 hours.

The rationale behind the new law was to put a stop to all of the body-snatching to meet the needs of Anatomy students.

Medical schools that acquired bodies from anyone but the municipal Anatomy Inspector would be fined as much as $200, as would government-funded charities that refused to hand over their unclaimed dead.

Father Dowd was very uneasy about this new Anatomy Act because the Catholic Church generally frowned upon human dissection, considering it a form of desecration. When Father Dowd objected, the government coerced the orphanage and refuge into sending the dead bodies to Anatomy under threat of punishment.

The Quebec Anatomy Act was an undeniable success. In March, 1884, the Canada Medical and Surgical Journal announced that no grave robbing had been reported in Quebec that winter, stating: “The requirements of the Medical Schools have been amply met.”

Father Dowd was not happy about the government’s coercion, especially given the fact that most orphans had no families to claim their bodies. While evidence is scant, there are rumours that Father Dowd found ways to secretly bury some of his parishioners in the cemetery plot through stealth and by cooking the record books.

As he grew older, his powerful voice began to wane during his sermons. In early December, 1891, he was admitted to the Seminary’s infirmary with pneumonia. Father Dowd passed away on December 19 at age of 78.

Given his popularity in life, over twenty thousand people filed past his remains. Father Dowd’s funeral was held in Notre-Dame Church and was attended by 4 bishops and 200 priests. Unlike many in his flock who were sent to Anatomy, Father Patrick Dowd was buried in the crypt of the Grand Séminaire among his fellow deceased Sulpician priests.

While the orphanage was demolished in 1904, the refuge continued to operate under the leadership of the Grey Nuns. In 1928, St. Bridget’s Refuge was renamed the Father Dowd Memorial Home. For decades, it would continue to provide services to some of the city’s most needy. However, as the years passed the building slowly began to show its age.

By 1977, the refuge was deemed outdated and structurally unsound. It did not meet modern safety standards and was starting to crumble. The pastor and chairman of the Board of Saint-Patrick decided to abandon the home after securing a new location in Côte-des-Neiges.

Once the residents had relocated, the forlorn building was boarded up and left to decay.

The empty shell of the old refuge looked out of place so close to the beautiful St. Patrick’s Church. Many passersby and worshippers speculated that the abandoned building had the look and feel of a “haunted house”. Others called it an “eyesore” that brought up nothing but painful memories.

After numerous complaints, the original St. Bridget’s Refuge was demolished in 1979. The Board of Saint-Patrick then converted the building’s footprint into a parking lot. The foundations of the demolished refuge were paved over with asphalt.

As the years passed, there were some new developments. On St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1989, the church was promoted to the title of Minor Basilica by Pope John Paul II. The designation was requested by Paul Grégoire, the cardinal archbishop of Montreal.

On April 7, 1992, a terrible fire broke out at the new Father Dowd Memorial Home in Côte-des-Neiges.

Triggered by a lit cigarette on the top floor, five elderly people died and several others were seriously injured.

In 1997, St. Patrick’s Basilica and the City of Montreal entered a deal allowing the St. Bridget’s Refuge site to be transformed into an unofficial greenspace. The Power Corporation financed the landscaping, which highlighted the foundations of the old refuge. The City of Montreal provided benches, garbage cans and annual maintenance.

The small park was an oasis in the sea buildings that is Downtown Montreal. Local residents, parishioners, tourists and office workers on lunch break enjoyed the greenspace.

However, on April 30, 2009, City of Montreal officials informed St. Patrick’s Basilica that it was cancelling the 1997 agreement. There seemed to be a dispute of some sort between both parties.

The following May 15, the City interrupted the maintenance and surveillance of the premises and municipal employees dismantled and removed benches and garbage cans.

In his missive, the Director of Public Works noted: “We are sure that the assistance granted by the City to make this place a pleasant place will have benefited the Fabrique Saint-Patrick and its faithful.”

Soon after, the greenspace started to deteriorate. The Basilica received complaints from neighbors about uncleanliness, illegal occupation and dangerous nocturnal activity on the premises. There were also sightings of a disheveled ghostly beggar who would approach people at night with a tin cup extended before vanishing into thin air.

During our research, Haunted Montreal found one local resident who would encounter this ghost frequently while walking her dog at night. The situation was becoming untenable.

According to the Catholic Register, St. Patrick’s Basilica decided to sell the St. Bridget’s site after the City of Montreal launched a lawsuit for back taxes owed from the church’s parking lot. The basilica had operated the parking lot tax-free for decades, but the city claimed it was a business enterprise and thus should not have been exempt from taxes.

As such, St. Patrick’s Basilica decided to sell the land and set up a foundation. Warden Peter O’Brien said at the time: “The sale will secure the financial future of the historic church.”

HEC purchased the land in May 2018 and announced that it would build a $184-million pavilion on the St. Bridget’s Refuge site.

Local residents were not impressed and launched an unsuccessful campaign to save the greenspace. Phil Chu, who lived two blocks away, said neighbors wanted most of the foundations and green space to remain intact. “The ruins and the green space are not properly preserved in the HEC plan,” he said.

However, a spokesperson for the business school said the project would include a commemorative element recalling the site’s history: “We plan to retrace the foundations of St. Bridget’s Refuge on the ground both inside and outside our building and to use some of the stones from the existing foundations to partially rebuild the walls.”

At the time of this writing, workers at the new HEC campus have dug up some of the foundations of St. Bridget’s Refuge to incorporate them into the new building.

Meanwhile, the City of Montreal claims it has offered to enhance the remaining greenspace in front of the basilica.

One of the problems of reincorporating the remnants of haunted houses into a new structure is that paranormal activity can transfer and infest the newly-constructed building. Montreal’s most famous example of this phenomenon is the Duggan House, which incorporated dressed limestone from Simon McTavish’s haunted castle when it was demolished in 1861.

As such, paranormal experts speculate that the term “school spirit” will take on a very different meaning when the HEC campus opens to students.

According to Dominique Desormeaux, a paranormal investigator with Haunted Montreal and 13 Sprits Paranormal:

“The HEC is building on grounds that have been tainted with negative energy, heartbreak, death and sickness. The site is haunted by all of that activity and by building on top of the land, by digging and constructing, they will stir up that energy.”

When asked what is in store for the new HEC campus, Desormeaux replied: 

“Some spirits will not be at rest, so you can expect a large variety of paranormal activity. These will likely include cold spots, full-body apparitions, the malfunctioning of electrical devices and some people being touched, pushed and scratched by invisible forces. Spirits could even put fear into people and prey on the weak of mind, which could lead some to depression and even to their own demise.” 

With such tragic history and dire predictions of paranormal activity, Haunted Montreal awaits to see what happens when the new HEC campus opens to its first cohort of students.

Company News

With the spring finally here, Haunted Montreal’s seasons of public outdoor tours is now available! Offered every Saturday night, we have four tours on rotation (Old Montreal, Griffintown, Downtown and Mount Royal.)

Our Haunted Pub Crawl is also offered every Sunday at 3 pm in English. For tours in French, these happen on the last Sunday of every month at 4 pm.

We are also offering a special Irish Famine in Montreal Walking Tour to honor over 6000 victims buried under the Black Rock in mass graves. It is on Saturday, May 27 at 1 pm (in English) – the day before the annual Walk to the Stone.

Our Paranormal Investigation in the Old Sainte Antoine Cemetery begins on June 2 in French and June 3 in English.

Private tours for any of our experiences (including outdoor tours) can be booked at any time based on the availability of our actors. Clients can request any date, time, language and operating tour. These tours are based on the availability of our actors and start at $190 for small groups of up to 7 people.

Email info@hauntedmontreal.com to book a private tour!

You can bring the Haunted Montreal experience to your office Christmas party, house party school or event by booking 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

Our team also releases videos every second Saturday, in both languages, of ghost stories from the Haunted Montreal Blog. Hosted by Holly Rhiannon (in English) and Dr. Mab (in French), this initiative is sure to please ghost story fans!

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).

Finally, we have opened an online store for those interested in Haunted Montreal merchandise. We are selling t-shirts, magnets, sweatshirts (for those haunted fall and winter nights) and mugs with both the Haunted Montreal logo and our tour imagery.

Purchases can be ordered through our online store.

Haunted Montreal would like to thank all of 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, 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 every month, please sign up to our mailing list.

Coming up on June 13: Old Montreal’s Forgotten Cemeteries

Old Montreal is a very popular tourist destination that sees millions of people visit every year. Famous for its cobblestone streets, historic architecture and European vibe, the neighborhood also hosts a dark and disturbing secret. As the site of French colonization, many cemeteries were laid out within the once fortified city. Today, those exploring Old Montreal do so blissfully unaware of the thousands of skeletons that still lie beneath the streets, public squares and historic buildings. With so many forgotten corpses, it’s no wonder that Old Montreal is considered the city’s most haunted area.

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.

Translator (into French):

Claude Chevalot holds a master’s degree in applied linguistics from McGill University. She is a writer, editor and translator. For more than 15 years, she has devoted herself almost exclusively to literary translation and to the translation of texts on current and contemporary art.

With over 350 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!

Haunted Montreal is now in winter mode and is not offering a season of outdoor public tours until the spring. The good news is that we are pleased to announce that the Haunted Montreal Pub Crawl runs year round on Sunday afternoons. We are also looking for an indoor haunted location for our new Paranormal Investigation. Lastly, our ghost walks can still be booked for private groups, including Haunted Griffintown and Haunted Downtown. Haunted Mountain is not available due to dangerous icy conditions on Otsirà:ke / Mount Royal until it melts in May.

Our February blog examines Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel and the persistent rumours that the oldest church in the city is also the most haunted.

Haunted Research

The Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel is both the city’s oldest church and, if paranormal experts are to be believed, one of the most haunted locations in Old Montreal. Also known as the Sailor’s Church, this quaint stone structure is topped with three statues including the magnificent Lady of the Harbour, flanked by two Angels of the Apocalypse.

The church is shrouded in mystery. Not only are there the bodies of several nuns buried in the crypt, but it is also the location of Saint Marguerite Bourgeoy’s sacred remains, a miraculous statue, and a possibly haunted 1848 painting called “Le Typhus” by Theophile Hamel that depicts the gruesome impact of the Irish Famine on the city.

There are also several reports from tourists at having photographed either a man in a tuxedo or a priest from the outside of the church’s stained-glass windows. Some believe the ghost captured on film is none other than Famine priest M. Gottefrey, who suffered a terrible injury in the church hours before dying in the summer of 1847 while caring for Irish refugees.

To understand the significance of the church, it is important to look at some history. The island of Tio’tia:ke is part of the traditional territory of the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka or Mohawk First Nation. As part of European colonization, a French Catholic organization called “The Notre Dame Society of Montreal for the Conversion of the Savage Peoples of New France” established a colony called Ville-Marie on the island in 1642 when the Mohawk people were in their southern territory.

It wasn’t long before an all-out war broke between the French colonists and the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka First Nation, which lasted until 1701.

In 1652, colony leader Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, visited his sister in France and invited her colleague, Marguerite Bourgeoys, to join the colony as its first teacher.

According to Bourgeoys:

“One morning, when I was fully awake, a tall woman dressed in a robe as of white serge, said to me clearly: “Go, I will never forsake you.” And I knew that it was the Blessed Virgin, although I did not see her face.”

Being a devout Catholic, she decided to join the colony where she was tasked with educating French children and “converting” Indigenous children to Catholicism. While today her “education” might well be considered cultural genocide against Indigenous people, in the mid-1600s, Catholic doctrine was almost ubiquitous in France and adherents believed that all non-Catholics were heathens in need of conversion.

It was a dangerous time for colonists to leave the palisaded settlement as the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka First Nation wanted their territory back and were willing to fight for it.

It was during this war that Marguerite Bourgeoys had the idea for the church.

In 1655, she rallied the colonists to build a chapel as a site of pilgrimage outside of the colony’s palisade, despite the danger. Before long, enough stones and materials had been collected to lay the foundation. However, in 1657, due to a change in ecclesial jurisdiction in the colony, the new Sulpician leaders suspended construction work for several years.

When the “The Notre Dame Society of Montreal for the Conversion of the Savage Peoples of New France” gifted her a stable to be used as a schoolhouse, Marguerite Bourgeoys kept herself busy with indoctrinating her students with Catholic ideology while also teaching them skills deemed useful for the colony.

In in 1658, she founded the Congrégation de Notre Dame, a religious community for women that was not cloistered and which spent a considerable amount of time with “education”. They instructed not only the colony’s children and Les Filles du Roy (orphaned girls sent by the King of France to “populate the colony”), but also various Indigenous people, especially children.

The Congregation was directly associated with “The Notre Dame Society of Montreal for the Conversion of the Savage Peoples of New France”. The overall and feverish goal was to colonize and actively “civilize” the Indigenous people who had lived there for thousands of years by converting them to Catholicism. These religious zealots believed that they were “saviours”, and mainstream history has largely recorded them in this manner to the present day.

In 1676, with the help of the new Order of Sulpicians, Bourgeoys established a small school for Indigenous girls in a village located at the base of the mountain, known as the Mountain Mission.

It’s effectiveness in evangelizing the students was seen as successful by the French. As a result, funding was granted to further her “educational” projects.

Marguerite Bourgeoys died in 1700, leaving a legacy of practical and religious “education” for French colonists – and cultural genocide against Indigenous peoples.

Following her death, the mission she founded moved from its location on the mountain to join with the Sulpicians at the Sault-au-Recollet.

For 20 years, the religious authorities continued their efforts to evangelize the children of the Nipissing, Kanienkehà:ka and Algonquin First Nations.

The mission would then move to Oka, in the area where Kanestetake exists today.

In 1678, the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel was finally completed after numerous setbacks. A statuette that Marguerite Burgeoys had acquired in France of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was placed in the church as a religious relic.

The chapel would continue to serve the community until a fire broke out in 1754, reducing it to a smoldering ruin.

The colonists claimed a miracle when the statuette acquired by Marguerite Bourgeoys was discovered in the ashes unscathed inside its reliquary.

Just six years later, the city capitulated to British forces, who saw the site of the ruins as an ideal location to construct a barracks. The Sulpician priests intervened and persuaded British authorities that the chapel be rebuilt instead.

In 1771, a new church in the Norman-Gothic style was erected on the foundations of the old ruins and the “miraculous” reliquary and statuette were placed above the entrance on St. Paul Street. With the British in charge of new immigrants arriving from the United Kingdom, Irish and Scots Catholics soon began attending religious services in the church.

In 1831, the little statuette went missing and was presumed stolen along with its jewel-encrusted reliquary. In 1844, the statuette was discovered in one of the attics of the Mother House of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame.

Its reliquary was found in a dusty corner of the chapel 50 years later. It was only in 1988 that the statue was permanently returned to the chapel, now encased in a protective glass.

As the numbers of Irish immigrants rose dramatically, Sulpician authorities decided to build the new Saint Patrick’s Church, inaugurated in 1847. This was the same year that the Irish Famine devastated Montreal. Both Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel and Saint Patrick’s Church were instrumental in providing assistance of over 75,000 typhus-stricken Irish refugees. The shocking details can be read at the Haunted Montreal Blog about the Black Rock (issue 35).

Tragedy occurred on July 11, 1847, when a priest named M. Gottefrey had a terrible accident after tending to the Irish refugees in the fever sheds. According to the Annals of the Grey Nuns:

“On the 11th , M. GOTTEFREY, having to exercise his ministry at the convent, arrived in the evening, probably after returning from the SHEDS. A few of our sisters met him, he told them with his vivacious and joyous humour: “Courage, my dear sisters, the sufferings are short, but the reward is eternal.” In wishing goodnight to the superior whom he found very anxious and preoccupied with her patients, he said to her: “Take care to not kill yourself.” It was 6:30 in the evening. He directed himself towards the Church of Notre-Dame de Bonsecours to be given the Holy Sacrament which he wished to receive as the last rites. Reaching the third floor of the sacristy and wishing to open the door giving passage to a gallery, he forgot, perhaps, or he did not know most probably that we had got rid of this gallery, and since he had made a great effort to open this door which we had taken care to nail shut sufficiently, he rushed into a drop of more than THIRTY feet high. We transported him to the Hotel-Dieu, where it was not long before he expired and went to receive, the palm of the good servants always ready to immolate themselves in the service of the divine Master.”

At the time, Bishop Bourget contracted typhus during the course of his duties and was nearing death. He prayed to the Virgin Mary for a divine intervention to save his life.

He promised that, if spared, he would restore the church as a pilgrimage site, create a new statue to adorn the church and commission a votive painting about the Church’s role during the Famine.

When the bishop survived the epidemic disease, he made good on his promises and commissioned Theophyle Hamel to paint “Le Typhus”, which was installed on the ceiling above the main entrance to the chapel, where it can still be seen today. It depicts the bishop and three orders of nuns tending to the typhus-stricken Irish famine refugees.

At least one American tourist believes the painting is haunted. Indeed, in late 2019, when looking up at the painting she witnessed something incredible. The tourist stated: “In the painting, the typhus victim of the dead man with the child clinging to him suddenly opened his eyes and stared directly at me! I was shocked! I grabbed my phone to snap a photo, but when I looked up his eyes were closed again. And no, I wasn’t taking advantage of Canada’s new legal marijuana laws, if that’s what you are thinking.”

Many tourists have reported paranormal activity within the church and its vicinity. On July 2, 2014, another visitor attending a ghost tour took some strange photos of the church and later wrote:

“While the tour guide was showing us around, I decided to capture moments and took pictures of the buildings and churches. One of the pictures was the Notre Dame De Bon Secours’s windows on the side of the building. I’ve shown the picture to my friends and we were wondering if one of the stained glass on the side of the building had an image of a man. I have attached here the photo and if you zoom in the 2nd window, you will see a man wearing a black tuxedo looking right back at the shooter. We just want to confirm if there really is an image of a man on the window.”

One paranormal expert believes the image is none other than the ghost of M. Gottefrey and that far from wearing a tuxedo, it is his ripped collar in the image, caused by his terrible plunge into the pews.

Another point of interest is the chapel’s maritime connection. It is also known as the “Sailor’s Church” because God-fearing seafarers would pray for safe crossings, trans-Atlantic or otherwise. Another of Bourget’s promises was to install a statue of the Virgin Mary, and in 1848 Charles Dauphin’s “Star of the Sea” was. This inspired a larger statue of The Lady of the Harbour on the rooftop in 1892. She faces the port, flanked by two Angels of the Apocalypse holding trumpets.

There is a fascinating Montreal legend about an apocalyptic and paranormal day when The Lady of the Harbour turned her back on the port, resulting in some serious tragedy. The story can be found in the Haunted Montreal Blog about the Phantom Calèche (issue 37).

Several miniature ex voto ships also hang from the chapel’s ceiling, gifts from thankful seafarers over the years.

Marguerite Bourgeoys became Canada’s first female Saint when she was Canonized on October 31, 1982. The Hallowe’en ceremony at Vatican City was presided by Pope John Paul II.

On the 350th anniversary of Marguerite Bourgeoys’ arrival in Montreal in 2003, celebrations marked the occasion. Two years later, the remains of Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys were placed in the left altar, below the statue of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours. A few weeks after that, the remains of devout recluse Jeanne Le Ber were inserted into the east lateral wall of the chapel.

Le Ber is one of the city’s most devout personalities from the “New France” era. On June 24, 1685, then 18-year-old Le Ber took a simple vow of perpetual seclusion, chastity, and poverty.

Once a recluse, she spent long periods of time below a church altar when not self-flagellating, sewing or praying – right up until her death in 1714. Given her bizarre life of eternal seclusion and repentance, some paranormal experts believe that she too has returned as a spirit.

Today, visitors to the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel can enjoy exploring the church in quietude and examining the exceptional relics, architecture and artworks. It costs nothing to enter.

For a fee, guests can explore the Margueritge Bourgeoys Museum to learn more of the history, climb up to the steeple for a panoramic view, and visit the creepy subterranean crypt.

According to archaeologists, the bodies of several nuns lied buried beneath the crypt. Apparently, they were victims of an epidemic during the New France era and were buried below the first church. There is speculation that they too may haunt the chapel.

With all of the chapel’s storied history, statues, artworks, relics and various human remains, it’s no wonder that Montreal’s oldest church, Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, is also reputed to be its most haunted!

Company News

Haunted Montreal is now in winter mode! For this first time ever, we will be operating year-round with our award-winning Haunted Pub Crawl, every Sunday afternoon.

Private tours are also available for Haunted Griffintown, Haunted Downtown, the Haunted Pub Crawl and our new Paranormal Investigation into the old Saint-Antoine Cemetery, weather-permitting for outside tours.

The Haunted Mountain Ghost Walk is not offered in the winter due to dangerous and icy conditions on the slopes.

Haunted Montreal would like to thank all of our clients who attended a ghost walk, haunted pub crawl or paranormal investigation during the 2019 – 2020 season!

If you enjoyed the experience, we encourage you to spread the word and to write a review on our Tripadvisor page, something that helps Haunted Montreal to market its tours.

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

Coming up on March 13: Réseau Express Métropolitain’s Ghostly Gamble (Part 2)

The Réseau Express Métropolitain recently extracted over a dozen skeletons from the Black Rock Famine cemetery. Many of them were children who had succumbed to typhus. Tragically, they were buried in mass graves after crossing the Atlantic Ocean on “coffin ships”. The REM’s rationale for the exhumation was to install a concrete pylon for its upcoming $6.3 billion electric train network. This act prompted fears that ghosts of the Irish Famine Dead could easily haunt the system. Artists have already begun creating visuals depicting a paranormal station atop the pylon that serves as a disturbing connection between the living and the dead. Part 1 of the blog speculated about some of the ghosts who might infest the REM network. Part 2 offers Haunted Montreal’s innovative and inexpensive solution to try and protect the $6.3 billion electric train system from becoming haunted by Irish Famine ghosts and spirits.

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.