Haunted Canada: The First Terrifying Collection

In many cultures and countries around the world, ghost stories can serve a variety of purposes. They can function as cautionary tales to disseminate particular values or morals, as a way to acknowledge and keep a community’s memories alive, or as a means to educate people about their shared history. Alternatively, ghost stories can also function as a form of entertainment to give people a good scare, such as the popular pastime of telling ghost stories around a campfire. Suitable for ages nine and up, Pat Hancock’s Haunted Canada: The First Terrifying Collection will enthuse young readers as it provides a veritable compilation of short, easily digestible spooky stories from different communities across Canada that will offer a different look at Canada’s past from that which appears in conventional history and social sciences textbooks.

An avid researcher and collector of facts about Canada’s history, Pat Hancock is known for her Crazy Canadian Trivia books as well as her Haunted Canada books, the first three of which are now handily available in this single volume. The first book in this series, Haunted Canada: True Ghost Stories won the 2004 Diamond Willow Award for Saskatchewan Young Readers' Choice and was also listed on the 2003 Ontario Library Association’s “Best Bets” book list. The other two books included in this collection are Haunted Canada 2: True Tales of Terror and Haunted Canada 3: More True Ghost Stories.

The stories in Hancock’s collection avoid simplistic and one-dimensional representations of ghosts. Ghosts are not simply portrayed as malevolent phenomena that need to be exorcised or as pitiful and vengeful beings with unresolved injustices in the present. Instead, the collection’s diverse representation of hauntings broadens the scope to include ghosts, other paranormal activity, as well as unusual beings. Several stories focus on hauntings or other unusual phenomena that occur in a specific building, community, or location, which range from short-lived instances to recurring and long-lasting events. These include stories that deal with ghostly sightings that relate to the untimely or unforeseen death of specific individuals due to unexplained or unnatural causes, and so these people’s ghosts are restless and seek justice and acknowledgment for their plight. Another common type of story in this collection deals with ghosts with unresolved issues from their past lives. Regardless of the type of phenomena or its cause, a common element in these stories is that some element of mystery remains since people cannot adequately explain the phenomena they have experienced or the motivation behind the phenomena’s appearance.

For example, one of the collection’s more conventional types of tales revolves around ghostly sightings of a mysterious woman looking out the second-floor window in Helmcken House, the oldest house in British Columbia that still has its original foundations. Some people believe that this ghost may be Helmcken’s wife Cecilia who could not bear to leave the house after her early death at the age of 31. A more unusual tale from Montreal deals with an unexplained figure known as The Grey Man, whom both a mother and her children have seen in the kitchen. Greyish and translucent, the figure appears harmless, although the reason for his appearance remains unknown.

In other instances, the ghosts are represented as positive beings that help the people in the present or that communicate in either an overt or cryptic manner. One story describes a ghost who leads a ship to the American schooner D. Talbot in time that they are able to rescue the entire crew. Other stories in this collection feature ghosts that behave in an unusual or playful manner. For example, it appears that one ghost from Montreal is attempting to communicate through cryptic means such as knots, but it is inconclusive as to what exactly is being conveyed. Another couple of stories involve hauntings sighted in public places. A ghost named Captain George is reportedly said to haunt the Kings Playhouse in Georgetown, Nova Scotia, and to enjoy playing pranks on people, such as by appearing suddenly backstage or grabbing the ankles of patrons who are sitting in the theatre. Another ghost named Sam has been seen in Calgary's Planetarium Theatre, but he appears harmless.

Other stories focus on phenomena such as unexplained fires or objects that are mysteriously moved or thrown around. In some cases, the phenomena appear more malevolent and cause property destruction or emotional distress for the families involved, such as the 1920s fires that have occurred in Caledonia Mills, Nova Scotia, or the objects that have been thrown around a home in Baldoon, Ontario, from 1829 to 1831. A few unusual stories with unexplained extra-terrestrial phenomena also feature in this collection. One story comes from Huntsville, Ontario, in which a man named Oscar Magosci encountered an unidentified flying object in 1975 during one of his camping trips in the area. Seeing what appeared to be a flying saucer, he stepped inside and found himself in an eerily lit chamber before exiting and watching it fly away, never to be seen again. Another concerns a woman from Toronto who claims to have been abducted three times by aliens and that, during one of these abductions, something had been implanted behind her left ear. Although doctors did find something implanted behind her ear, an analysis of it proved inconclusive.

The book's language and informal, conversational style of narration make it suitable for readers ages nine to twelve, but it can also be enjoyed by older or younger readers because of its accessible subject matter. Hancock's writing style conveys the impression that someone is narrating the story to readers, much like storytellers who tell oral stories to their audience. As a result, it is suitable to be read aloud to younger readers. Although these stories do contain several references to death, they do not contain any graphic descriptions and only contain a few brief details about how particular people have died. Consequently, there should be no significant concern when these stories are read to younger children under the age of nine.

Line drawings by Andrej Krystoforski and Kara-Anne Fraser, as well as some archival photos and illustrations, usefully supplement the stories. In keeping with the book’s historical content and tone, the illustrations are appropriately printed in black-and-white. A small illustration centred above each story's title gives readers a useful visual cue about the story's main topic. For example, stories about specific historical locations may include an illustration of an historical house at the beginning whereas nautical tales would be prefaced by an appropriate illustration, such as a ship, lighthouse, or dramatized ocean scene. For stories about unusual creatures, the visual cue of footprints in the dirt appears at the beginning of the chapter. Photos are also inserted occasionally, such as a photo of a reputedly haunted historical building or a photo of two well-known British actors who perished in the Empress of Ireland shipwreck.

In an educational context, this compilation can be readily incorporated into elementary and secondary schools or even a college- or university-level course. At the elementary or secondary level, the book’s subject matter could provide teachers and librarians with a creative way to interest students in learning about Canada’s diverse histories and cultures. The extent to which this collection’s stories are true is questionable, but they, nevertheless, are an engaging read and may motivate some students to learn more about the communities from which the stories have originated. Due to the volume’s genre and the appeal of its subject matter to a wide audience, teachers and librarians could also approach the book in a more conventional manner and include it as part of a literature unit or course in a variety of ways. For example, it could be included as part of a short story unit or a course about storytelling. Thematically, teachers would find it easy to situate this book in a literary unit or course about the representation of the supernatural or, more broadly, a popular culture course about this same subject.

Given its varied representations of hauntings, Haunted Canada: The First Terrifying Collection will provide much to discuss as it draws upon stories from different cities and locations across Canada. A college- or university-level pop culture class could consider how the representations of hauntings in Hancock’s collection compare with those that appear in other representational mediums such as film and television, through which it would also be interesting to consider the relationship between books and multimedia. If her book was considered as a literary work, Hancock’s collection could be situated in relation to other ghost stories or perhaps other stories disseminated within those communities.

However, the collection, itself, would have added value for readers if it had included additional material to supplement and enhance the readers’ experience. Since this book contains previously published stories, a table of contents or index would help readers locate stories on specific topics, cities, provinces, or time period. Alternatively, grouping the stories together based on at least one of these criteria would also help readers. Due to the lack of these features, teachers may need to do some preparatory work to facilitate students’ experience of the collection before using it in the classroom.

In her introduction to Haunted Canada: The First Terrifying Collection, Pat Hancock mentions that spooky stories can scare people but also thrill them, especially if the stories have not really happened or have not happened to them personally. She avoids making the claim that these stories are “real”, but she does leave things open to interpretation and allows readers to draw their own conclusions about the stories, many of which are open-ended. By Hancock’s doing so, the stories will give readers pause to consider the extent to which these stories are fictional and whether, quite possibly, there may be some element of truth to them. A story that appeared to be a cautionary tale concerned a man named Peter MacIntyre from Prince Edward Island who did not believe in ghosts and accepted a dare to spend the night alone in a reputedly haunted forest, an act which led to his untimely death. Perhaps this tale is warning people that they should not be cavalier or dismissive of such stories, whether they believe them or not, since to do so is to unnecessarily tempt fate.

Pat Hancock is a member of the Writer’s Union of Canada. A biography, contact details, and a listing of her publications are available at https://www.writersunion.ca/member/patricia-hancock.