HAUNTED CANADA 🍁 Ghosts, Hauntings, and True Crimes
Haunted Canada: A podcast of Canada’s most creepiest ghost stories, hauntings, true crimes and mysteries. Hosted by professional storyteller Nadine, producer of the awarding winning Edmonton Ghost Tours.
HAUNTED CANADA 🍁 Ghosts, Hauntings, and True Crimes
Episode 23 - 1. The Haunted Grey Nuns Convent and Motherhouse. Montreal, Quebec. 2. St. Louis Ghost Train. St. Louis, Saskatchewan 3. The Haunted Grange. Toronto, Ontario
Episode 23
- The Haunted Grey Nuns Convent and Motherhouse. Montreal, Quebec
- St. Louis Ghost Train. St. Louis, Saskatchewan
- The Haunted Grange. Toronto, Ontario
What if your campus dormitory was built over a crypt housing 276 bodies? Join us on an eerie exploration of Canada's most haunted locations, starting with the spine-chilling history of Concordia University's Grey Nuns Residency in Montreal. Hear tales of ghostly nuns, unexplained lights, and the unsettling sounds of prayer from beyond the grave. We'll also uncover the legend of the St. Louis ghost train in Saskatchewan, a haunting phenomenon that has perplexed locals for nearly a century, despite the railway tracks being dismantled.
Prepare for goosebumps as we recount a chilling encounter with the phantom train light and delve into the haunted corridors of Toronto's historic Grange House. This episode promises tales of haunted execution sites, spectral butlers, and ladies in red and white that roam the halls of this storied mansion. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, these terrifying stories will leave you questioning the thin veil between the living and the dead. Don't miss this bone-chilling journey through some of Canada's most haunted places!
References
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/grey-nuns
https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_19901209_youville_en.html
https://theconcordian.com/2014/10/grey-nun-ghosts-and-a-murderers-grave/
https://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/did-you-hear-that-or-am-i-going-crazy
https://www.producer.com/farmliving/ghost-train-story-haunts-small-saskatchewan-community/
https://www.jfre.ca/library/torontos-most-famous-haunted-houses
Welcome to Haunted Canada, nadine. If you want to support the creation of this podcast, please take the time to leave a five-star written review. Share this podcast and tell a friend. You can also support us through the link in the show notes titled Show your Support, buy Me a Coffee. If you have a ghost story, haunting or true crime that you would like for us to cover on this podcast, please email me through the website hauntedcanadacom. I will be reading out listeners' ghost stories that they send to me on this podcast. So if you have any ghost stories, strange encounters or hauntings from Canada or around the world, please send them to me so that I can share them with the listeners. Now on with the show.
Speaker 1:Welcome to episode 23 of Haunted Canada, where we're going to delve into three more ghost stories from across Canada. First we're going to head to Montreal, quebec, to talk about all the ghosts that are still present at the former Grey Nuns convent and motherhouse. Then we're going to talk about the St Louis ghost train in St Louis, saskatchewan. And then we're going to finish by delving into the historic and haunted Grange House located in Toronto, ontario. Concordia University's Grey Nuns Residency on the corner of Renny-Levesque Boulevard and Gee Street is believed to be one of the most haunted buildings in Montreal, quebec. The Grey Nuns Convent in Montreal is a massive multi-wing building that once housed the Grey Nuns, a Roman Catholic convent, yet today it is a student residency holding up to 600 Concordia University students, with a crypt in the basement, and many ghosts still haunt the historic structure From the ghosts of the former nuns that wander the hallways to the spirits of the children from the orphanage that died in the fire and the spirit of the man that was executed in 1752.
Speaker 1:The Sisters of Charity of Montreal, more commonly known as the Grey Nuns of Montreal, is a Canadian religious institute of Roman Catholic religious sisters founded in 1737 by Marguerite de Juvel. Marguerite de Juvel was a young widow who formed a charitable organization, later known as the Grey Nuns, who dedicated her life to helping the poor and the sick in the Montreal area in the 1700s. Marguerite was also the first Canadian to be elevated to sainthood when, on March 3, 1959, pope John Paul XXIII beatified Marguerite and called her the Mother of Universal Charity, she was then canonized as a saint on December 9, 1990 by Pope John Paul II. The Grey Nuns, as they were known, went on to help those who were less fortunate, with many chapters that grew across Canada. After several different moves over the years, in 1871, the Grey Nuns eventually settled into the new convent and motherhouse that still stands on the Concordia University campus in downtown Montreal to this day. This massive structure once housed over a thousand nuns and has served many different purposes over the years, including being used as a convent, a religious order, an orphanage, a hospital and a care home for the elderly. In 2007, concordia University purchased the Grey Nuns' motherhouse for $18 million, and when the Grey Nuns left the convent in 2013, the university converted the historical building into a resident housing for 600 students, with a section being used as a daycare. Throughout the renovations, the university wanted to ensure that a lot of the historical sections of the structure were upheld, and this was done by utilizing many of the big rooms, including turning the chapel into a now beautiful study hall that still has the marble altar with the portraits of many saints on the walls.
Speaker 1:One section of the Grey Nun's mother house that still remains in the Suden residency to this day is in the basement. There is a crypt that holds 276 bodies, with 232 of those bodies being the graves of the nuns that died at the convent and were buried there over 150 years ago. Many may wonder why the bodies in the crypt were never removed from the building, and the reason is because of health reasons, as many of the nuns that died that were buried in the crypt died of highly contagious diseases, so nobody wanted to disturb those graves, which means that over 600 students that live in the Grey Nun Residency today are sleeping above the graves of 276 dead bodies. The crypt in the basement of the mother house is open to the public for viewing and is still visited to this day by many people who will actually take pilgrimages to the former Grey Nun's mother house. Over the years, the students that have decided to live in the Grey Nun's residency at Concordia University have had and witnessed many strange and supernatural encounters Lights going on and off, doors slamming and the sounds of people praying in empty rooms. Many people have witnessed nuns in full habit wandering throughout the hallways of the massive building, while other students who are returning to the residency late at night have reported walking by a nun who shushes them, telling them to shh be quiet.
Speaker 1:One former employee who worked on the renovations of the building in 2014 often reported that when he arrived at work in the early mornings that he would walk into the chapel that was being turned into a study hall for the university. He said that he would often see a woman dressed in a nun's habit standing at the front altar, often see a woman dressed in a nun's habit standing at the front altar, then kneeling down at the front altar, and you could hear the nun praying saying the rosary. This always happened in the early morning when nobody else should be in the construction site at the time, so the worker would always walk towards the nun telling her that she couldn't be there during the construction period. Yet as he began to walk closer to the nun, he continued to hear the woman praying, saying the rosary, and then she would just vanish in front of his eyes. This would terrify the worker that he would often leave the building and not return until other workers were with him. On other occasions, when staff would walk by rooms that used to be the nun's bedrooms, they would often see a woman in a black robe and a habit kneeling at the bed praying. As soon as the residents would take a second glance, the woman would just evaporate in front of their eyes.
Speaker 1:To this day, staff and students will often see the apparition of a nun that many believe to be that of Sister Justine. According to local legend and folklore, sister Justine was a strict disciplinarian who met with a tragic death inside the convent, and to this day it is believed that it is her ghost that still haunts the convent. On February 14, 1918, valentine's Day, a tragic fire broke out on the top floor. 1918, valentine's Day, a tragic fire broke out on the top floor left wing of the mother house. This area was actually the orphanage that housed over 100 children that were waiting to be adopted by families. When the fire broke out, confusion ensued and as the fire rapidly spread, the flames grew higher and higher, with many of the children being so young that they just didn't know how to escape the flames, and, sadly, close to 50 small children died in that fire, with some of them being burnt to ash in that horrific fire. And to this day, the people who live in the Grain on Residency can often hear the sounds of children running throughout the top floor of the building.
Speaker 1:Students will often be in their dorm room studying, and they'll hear the sounds of children running up and down the hallway, yet when they open their door to check, the hallway is always empty. In the middle of the night, students and staff can often hear children and babies crying, yet when they search the area, no children are ever found. Many students have often reported that when they're walking through the hallways they'll often get the smell of something burning and they'll often catch a glimpse of a small child sitting at the end of the hallway, dressed in early 1900s clothing that seems to have been burnt. Yet when the staff or the students take a second look, the child has vanished. Other students have reported that when they're in the bathroom or in the shower that they can often hear the sound of children laughing and running up and down the hallway. Again Students say that when they get out of the shower and the room is still very steamy that they can often see small handprints a child's handprint on the mirror. Yet as soon as the steam from the shower dissipates, the handprints are gone.
Speaker 1:Students who have stayed in the residency have reported having strange dreams in the nighttime, dreaming that the residency itself is on fire and that they are desperately trying to get out and help others get out of the burning building. Yet it seems that all the doors are locked. So many students have reported having these terrifying dreams that a few of the students have actually packed up their bags and left the Grey Nuns residency, and when they do this, the nightmares always stop. The Grey Nuns residency actually also has a daycare in the historic building, and many of the young children that attend that daycare over the years have reported playing with children that are never seen by the adults. Staff will often see some of the children at the daycare talking and playing with someone that just isn't there. When the adults question the young children as to who they were playing with, the young children will often point and say that they were playing with a little boy or a little girl. Yet when the adult looks in the direction that the child is pointing, there's nobody there. The children have often described that their mysterious friends are young boys and girls, and they're often wearing burnt clothing. Staff believe that it's the spirits of the many children that died so tragically in the fire on the top floor of the building when it was an orphanage in 1918. While just outside the Grey Nun's residency there is a tall red cross that is steeped in murder and mystery. The cross marks a spot where a murderer was buried. The cross marks a spot where a murderer was buried.
Speaker 1:In 1752, a man by the name of Jean-Baptiste Goyer lived in a house near where the gates to the Grey Nun's mother house is today. Mr Goyer was a farmer, but he wasn't a very good farmer and he just was plain lazy and he didn't want to do any work. Yet Mr Goyer was jealous of his wealthy and successful neighbors, jean Faire and the wife Marianne Bastine. One day Mr Goyer told some people that he was going to go to Quebec City. Now, going to Quebec City in 1752 was a great distance and it would cost a lot of money. Yet Mr Goyer left for Quebec City.
Speaker 1:The next day the wealthy neighbors Mr Favre and his wife Marianne Bastine were found brutally murdered in their farmhouse, with all of their money missing. Many people became suspicious that Mr Goyer had murdered his neighbors, and when he supposedly returned from Quebec City a few days later, he became obsessed with talking and speculating about how the wealthy couple were killed. All this talking about the murder at the local bar, where Mr Goyer had plenty of money, made people suspicious. Because of Mr Goyer's strange behavior, he was arrested and eventually confessed to murdering his neighbors. Yet these confessions were not given willingly.
Speaker 1:In 1752, mr Goyer would have been tortured with the torture wheel, a method which involved nailing the accused's legs to planks of wood, pulling the body in different directions and asking the accused questions designed to make him confess. Mr Goyer confessed under the pain and said that instead of going to Quebec City, he had snuck into his neighbor's home in the middle of the night and he had murdered the husband and wife, killing them and stealing their money. Mr Goyer was convicted, sentenced to death and was executed by the torture wheel on the Place de Marche. To kill somebody on the torture wheel, the guilty person was attached to the wheel and this wheel would have been revolved, turned each way back and forth. This would smash and break the limbs of the guilty party. This was done in public, for everyone to watch, and it would have been a horrific and painful way to die. Once Mr Goyer was stretched on the torture wheel and all of his bones were broken and splintered, he was then left there in the public to die.
Speaker 1:Originally, a red cross was erected on the very spot where Mr Goyer was executed and buried, as a warning for others not to commit such terrible crimes. Over the years and the centuries. As Montreal has grown and expanded. The Grey Nuns actually moved the cross several different times as the streets widened and the expansion continued. The nuns eventually painted the cross a lighter shade of red, with the location of Mr Goyer's burial site being lost over time. Yet many people believe that his bones are probably still somewhere beneath Renny Levesque Boulevard To this day. Many people report that when they're walking by the Red Cross, that they'll often begin to experience phantom pains throughout their entire body, in their legs and in their arms, while others report hearing the sounds of someone crying out for help. A legend has it that it's the ghostly sound of Mr Goyer still calling out for help as his body was being broken on the torture wheel. From the ghosts of the nuns that still wander the hallways of the motherhouse to the spirits of the children that so tragically died in the fire on the top floor of the orphanage in 1918, and to the crypt that's still in the basement that houses 276 bodies, the Grey Nun's residency is truly one of the most haunted and creepiest locations in Montreal, quebec.
Speaker 1:In Saskatchewan, there's a small town called St Louis that was incorporated in 1952, with a population today just over about 400 people. Yet this small town has one of the most enduring mysteries, that of the St Louis Ghost Train, or sometimes referred to as the Ghost Light. This has been described by many as if a big, bright light, the light on the front of a historic train, a historic locomotive is barreling towards you down the tracks. Yet, as you can see, the light of the Ghost Train approaching in the distance, the phantom light never arrives. The story of the phantom ghost light goes back to the 1920s, when people who lived in the small community of St Louis, saskatchewan, would often see the mysterious ghost light train Sometimes described as a red light, while most times described as a bright white light floating off in the distance on the railway tracks coming towards you. As people would watch the mysterious light off in distance as it appeared to get closer and closer, yet it never arrived and then would just vanish in the night. Many people had always believed that it was a train on the railway tracks. That had always been a logical explanation for many years, until the trains stopped traveling through St Louis, saskatchewan and the train tracks were dismantled and removed. Yet even when the train tracks were taken up, the phantom ghost train light continued to return nightly. Many residents over the years would drive to a certain section of St Louis to see the phantom light of the ghost train. Even when the train tracks were removed, people would still see the phantom white light appear off the distance. As people watched the light, it appeared to get closer and closer, yet the light on the ghost train never arrived, leaving people mesmerized.
Speaker 1:Over the years, many people have tried to find and locate the St Louis Ghost Light Train by driving out to the section in St Louis near where the old railway tracks used to be. Many people would sit in their vehicles late into the night trying to catch a glimpse of the phantom light, and many people did have their own encounters. It has been documented that many people would often see this phantom light, and many people did have their own encounters. It has been documented that many people would often see this phantom light, this ghost train, approaching them, getting closer and closer, only to vanish in front of them, while other people reported that when they saw the light, they began to drive towards it, only to have the light vanish and then appear in the rearview mirror as if the phantom light is now behind them.
Speaker 1:One of the residents of St Louis, edward Lussier, spoke about his own encounters. In an interview that he gave back in 2014 with a paper called the Western Producer, edward said that quote when I was growing up in my teens, we used to go out there on the weekends to see if we would sit on the tracks, look southward and wanted to try to see the ghost train. So they all drove out to the area. As Edward and his cousin were walking, he said that the light came behind us and it lit us up in a silhouette on the tracks. My dad came running because he thought that we'd be scared, but we hadn't noticed anything. We didn't see the light ourselves, so that was kind of an eerie thing.
Speaker 1:There have been many legends and folklore over the years of where the phantom light came from, yet the most common story that I did discover leads back to the early 1900s, when the Canadian Pacific Railway would travel through the small town of St Louis, saskatchewan, apparently, one dark night. As the train arrived in St Louis, the conductor had to get off the train to check the tracks and the cargo. As it was dark that night, the conductor was using a handheld lantern to light his way. As the conductor began to walk back and forth in between the rail cars he slipped and when he slipped, one of the rail cars moved forward, decapitating the man, cutting off his head. The conductor died instantly died instantly. To this day, many people believe that the St Louis light is that of the train conductor still wandering the train tracks, still looking for his head. To this day, the story of the St Louis ghost train has been deeply woven into the folklore and culture of Saskatchewan, so much, in fact, that it was part of Canada Post's Haunted Canada series and has been featured on Creepy Canada and Unsolved Mysteries. While St Louis, saskatchewan, is a small community, it is known around the world for the famous story of the ghost train, a mysterious light that appears off in the distance yet never seems to arrive.
Speaker 1:The Grange House, built in 1817, is a historic Georgian manor house in downtown Toronto, ontario. This historic house is over 200 years old and today is part of and connected to the Art Gallery of Ontario. This historic and haunted house is believed to have many ghosts that roam throughout the home. The first two ghosts are believed to be that of the home's last residents, goldwyn Smith, whose spirit is often seen wandering throughout the mansion in a yellow velvet coat, while the second ghost is said to be that of William Chin, who worked at the home as a butler for over 50 years.
Speaker 1:On many occasions, a man dressed in a yellow velvet coat is often witnessed walking throughout the house. Dressed in a yellow velvet coat is often witnessed walking throughout the house, many visitors to the home initially believe that it is an employee in period costume working at the house. That is, of course, until people see the man in a yellow velvet coat walking east to west when all of a sudden he just disappears by walking through the walls in the conservatory. This man is believed to be that of Goldwyn Smith, who was the last resident of the house and is still seen sitting in the library to this day, while other employees at the Art Gallery of Ontario will often catch a glimpse of a man dressed in the butler's uniform holding a silver tray walking from room to room. Yet when the staff take a second glance, the butler has vanished. Staff believe this to be the ghostly spirit of William Chin, who worked at the house for nearly 50 years as the butler.
Speaker 1:Also, the apparition of the lady in red and the lady in white have also been seen wandering throughout the historic home. Many people who work at the museum have witnessed the two ladies sitting in the library, walking up and down the grand staircase and sitting in the bedrooms. Yet when employees see these two ghostly apparitions, it appears as if they're entertaining visitors with historic tales of the mansion. Yet just as the ladies are telling an eerie tale, they'll often walk out of the room and just disappear around the mansion. Yet just as the ladies are telling an eerie tale, they'll often walk out of the room and just disappear around the corner. Many visitors to the historic home just assume that as actors wearing paired costumes from the early 1900s. That is, of course, until employees tell them that there are no current staff wearing paired costumes working at the Grange. This always leaves everyone pretty spooked when they realize that they just had an encounter with the two ghosts at the Grange House. The staff at the Art Museum of Ontario have had numerous encounters with the many ghosts that reside at the Grange House and it is firmly believed that all the spares that reside there are kind and have remained behind to wander throughout the Grange, the house that they love so much.
Speaker 1:Well, everyone, that is the end of episode 23 of Haunted Canada, and I want to thank everyone for listening and also thank you to the show sponsor, the Edmund Ghost Tours. I will link it in the show notes. If you would like to support the continuation of the Haunted Canada podcast, to hear more episodes, please follow the podcast, give us a like and a five-star written review. Also, you can follow us on our different social media platforms. Or if you have a ghost story, haunting or true crime that you would like for us to cover on this podcast or that I can read out for all the sinister here, please email us through the website hauntedcanadacom. Have a good night, everyone, and stay haunted. Thanks for watching.