Latest Episodes

Having just set out from Quebec City the previous day, in the early hours of May 29, 1914, the passenger ship Empress of Ireland sank in the Saint Lawrence River near Rimouski, Quebec. She was on a return trip to Liverpool, England and due to heavy fog, the ship collided with the Norwegian collier SS Storstad. Just two years after the Titanic calamity in international waters off the coast of Nova Scotia came the deadliest shipwreck in Canadian history. The event was so significant it is number 11 on the list of deadliest all-time Canadian disasters, just behind number 10, the Halifax Explosion. The collision occurred when most of the 1,057 passengers and 420 crew members were fast asleep. The aftermath was devastating; the liner plummeted beneath the waters in less than a quarter of an hour, resulting in the tragic loss of more than 1,000 lives.

Episode 263: Approaching the week of 4/20, cannabis enthusiasts worldwide are preparing for a unique celebration. However, it’s essential to acknowledge the dark history of cannabis prohibition in Canada and the USA. The criminalization of cannabis wasn’t based on scientific evidence of its harmful effects or widespread health concerns but was fuelled by moral panic, racism, and xenophobia. It served as a tool to maintain a rigid social hierarchy, where those in power and privilege oppressed and marginalized those considered inferior. The ‘war on drugs’ transformed into a ‘war on cannabis,’ ultimately becoming a war on minorities in both countries.

Canada played an important role in the Cold War, a period of intense geopolitical tension and rivalry between the Western powers and the Soviet Union that lasted from the end of World War II in 1945 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. As a member of the Western Bloc and a close ally of the United States, Canada was involved in a wide range of Cold War activities, including the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the construction of a network of radar stations in the Canadian Arctic known as the DEWline, and the creation of a series of underground emergency government bunkers known as Diefenbunkers. The Cold War also had a significant impact on Canadian society, shaping public attitudes toward issues such as national security, nuclear weapons, and international relations.

At the outset of World War II, a number of Canadian citizens of German and Italian decent, as well as Jews who were immigrating to Canada, fleeing Europe were rounded up and put into internment camps. After the Japanese attack on the United States in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, on 6 December, 1941, North Americans were afraid. The Second World War had come far too close to home. Just over a month after the Pearl Harbour attack, a process began which saw the mass internment of Japanese Canadians from 1942 until 1949. Many of the detainees, including women and children, had been born in Canada. The country they’d grown up to love had uprooted them from their homes, seized their properties and taken away their rights and freedoms.

During the harsh winter of 1941, as World War II raged elsewhere, closer to home, a tragedy occurred on the remote, ice-covered island archipelago in Hudson Bay called the Belcher Islands. After witnessing a dramatic meteor shower, a tribal group of Inuit people believed the world was ending. Inspired by a copy of the New Testament Bible translated into Inuit syllabics by Anglican missionaries, 27-year-old Charlie Ouyerack, self-professed shaman of the tribe, claimed he was the second coming of Jesus Christ. Charlie determined his friend, Peter Sala, a skilled hunter and navigator, to be God. Their cult, Charlie, Peter, Peter's sister Mina and their followers, labelled any deniers as satanic heretics, eventually leading to the brutal murders of nine people within the group.

Episode 207: After World War II, Canada’s economy rose. Work was much easier to come by than during the depression. Even though he’d been able to secure decent employment, family man and world war veteran with movie star good looks, Edwin Alonzo Boyd, was bored. He’d had his share of trouble already and was feeling the itch again. In the fall of 1949, he robbed his first bank. This crime kicked off events that would lead to one of the most infamous Canadian criminal gangs of the era. Over just a few years, The Boyd Gang, named for their charismatic de facto leader, Edwin, robbed numerous banks broke out of one of Canada’s toughest prisons, not once but twice. To some, they were folk heroes. However, public sentiment turned firmly against them after members of the gang, Steve Suchan and Lennie Jackson, murdered Toronto Police Department Sergeant of Detectives Edmund “Eddie” Tong and severely wounded his partner Roy Perry.Sources:Regina v. Boyd, 1953 CanLII 88 (ON CA), Edwin Alonzo Boyd: Life and Crimes of Canada’s Master Bank Robber by Nate HendleyFatal Intentions by Barbara Smith - Ebook | ScribdLine of Fire by Edward Butts - Ebook | ScribdJohn J. Robinette by George D. Finlayson - Ebook | ScribdThe Desperate Ones by Edward Butts - Ebook | ScribdNow You Know Canada’s Heroes by Doug Lennox - Ebook | ScribdLost Rivers — Don JailHistoricist: Titillating and Terrorizing Toronto - Torontoist — ArchivedGeocities — BOYD GANGToronto’s Infamous ‘Boyd Gang’ - CBC ArchivesCBC Archives — Suchan and Jackson hanged back to backEdwin Alonzo Boyd | The Canadian EncyclopediaToronto Feature: The Boyd Gang | The Canadian EncyclopediaWHAT THE BOYD GANG FIASCO CAN TEACH US — Macleans Magazine — 1952ExecutedToday.com » 1952: Lennie Jackson and Steve Suchan, of the Boyd GangSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 205: In this Away Game we are off to post World War One Germany where in the early 1920s, a brutal serial killer, Fritz Haarmann, killed at least 27 young men and boys. Many of his crimes, it appears, were committed to impress his lover, a man named Hans Grans. Although Haarmann admitted it was he who murdered and dismembered the victims, he claimed that ultimately, in a few cases, it was Grans who chose who was to die.Sources:Weimar Republic - HISTORYList of German serial killers - WikipediaAuthor & Radio Host | Alan R. WarrenButcher of Hanover: Fritz Haarmann by Alan R. WarrenSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 198: If you’ve had any interest in the Wild West, you’ve no doubt heard of a many of the storied gunmen and bandits from the era like Butch Cassidy, Jesse James and Billy the Kid. You probably also think of the United States, but Canada has its own legends and colourful characters from the era on both sides of the border. For example, legendary gunslinger and lawman, Bat Masterson, was was born in Henryville, Quebec. Sometimes the outlaws were women, like one notorious Canadian-born, lady bandit and the subject of this episode, whose most famous alias was Pearl Hart. After a rough life with criminal exploits that started during her troubled childhood, Pearl got herself into big trouble in Arizona in 1899 and was finally taken into custody after robbing a stage coach.Sources:Pearl Hart - WikipediaPearl Hart – Lady Bandit of Arizona – Legends of AmericaBandit Pearl Hart holds up an Arizona stagecoach - HISTORYThe life and times of Pearl Hart, Ontario’s cigar-smoking, Wild West superstar | The StarPearl Hart: The Amazing Life of The Bandit QueenFemale bandit Pearl Hart: “I shall not be tried under a law in which my sex had no voice in making”The wild life and death of Old West feminist bandit Pearl HartPearl Hart - ‘Bandit Queen’ of the Old West - WednesdaysWomenPearl Hart, the Last Lady Outlaw - HeadStuffWild Women of the Wild West: Pearl Hart ~ Lady Bandit of ArizonaListen to Wildcat Audiobook by John BoesseneckerThe Encyclopedia of Lawmen, Outlaws, and Gunfighters - Leon Claire Metz - Google BooksThe Cosmopolitan — Volume 27 — Google Play BooksPearl Hart: Smooth-talking card shark led Pearl’s slide to perdition | Local news | tucson.comSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 194: On June 25, 1950,  after months of increasing tension, the Korean War or what has been called Canada’s forgotten war, began when North Korean troops invaded South Korea. Countries, including Canada, belonging to the newly formed United Nations jumped in quickly to defend democratic South Korea from the the communist forces from the north. Canada contributed the third largest number of soldiers among UN countries to the war. More than 26,000 Canadians served in the conflict on land, at sea and in the air. Over the next three years of the conflict there were 516 Canadians killed, another 1042 were wounded, 33 became prisoners of war and 16 soldiers are still missing in action. Lest we forget.Sources:Veterans Affairs Canada — Land of the Morning CalmWhat is The Memory Project? — The Memory ProjectSeeking the families of Canadian Army soldiers missing in Korea — Canada.caRegister to find your missing military family member — Canada.ca“We really didn’t think we would survive,” Mike Czuboka, Korean War “Extraordinary Hero” award recipient shares his story - 580 CFRA - Omny.fmGerald Edward Gowing - Veterans Affairs CanadaThe Kims: Leaders’ Biographies - North Korea: Introductory Sources - LibGuides at Cornell UniversityRead Korea Online by John Melody and John M. Rockingham | BooksRead Deadlock in Korea Online by Ted Barris | BooksRead Triumph at Kapyong Online by Dan Bjarnason | BooksRead The Korean War Online by Michael Hickey | BooksRead Reluctant Neighbor: Canada, the U.S.A. and the Korean Crisis Online by Darryl Hurly | BooksRead Everyday Heroes Online by Jody Mitic | BooksRead Canadian Foreign Policy: 1945-2000 Online by Arthur E. Blanchette | BooksSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine

Episode 157 - From the late 1920s until after the Second World War, Lila and William Young ran the Ideal Maternity Home and Sanitarium for Unwed Mothers at East Chester, Nova Scotia. The pair have been referred to as ‘baby farmers’ who sold healthy newborns to wealthy couples with the means to pay and left the less viable to die of starvation. Estimates are that more than 100 and as many as 400 to 600 babies may have died in their care. Many of these deceased infants were quietly buried in wooden butter boxes at various sites around the area, while it is believed that others may have been disposed of in the nearby Atlantic Ocean. Co-host: Carol Browne Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideal_Maternity_Home https://canadiancrc.com/Butterbox-Babies_Killers-Child-Trafficking-Canada/Butterbox_Survivors.aspx https://canadiancrc.com/Butterbox-Babies_Killers-Child-Trafficking-Canada/Butterbox-Babies-Baby-killers-child-trafficking-selling-babies-Canada-adoption-story.aspx https://murderpedia.org/female.Y/y/young-gladys-lila.htm http://archive.macleans.ca/article/1995/1/9/maternal-damnation https://www.amazon.ca/Butterbox-Survivors-Robert-Hartlen/dp/1551092905 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/184030298/eva-margaret-nieforth https://www.scribd.com/read/238627429/Deadly-Duos https://www.scribd.com/read/350837071/True-Crime-Confidential-Volume-4-True-Crime-Confidential-4#b_search-menu_662236 https://www.scribd.com/read/230097379/Cold-North-Killers-Canadian-Serial-Murder https://web.archive.org/web/20010606012612/http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/bhartlen http://bastards.org/nova-scotiahttps://commons.allard.ubc.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=emeritus_pubs Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine