Strange Events and More: Canadian Giants, Witches, Wizards, and Other Tales

Linda M. McClure is an administrator at the University of Alberta in
Edmonton.

At first glance these books appear to be about paranormal events;
however, many of the people and stories are a part of Canadian history.
Most of the events took place between the 17th and 20th centuries; one
story about a poltergeist at the Moose Head Inn at Kenosee Lake,
Saskatchewan, begins in the 1990s and continues to 2002. The volumes are
divided into sections on water serpents, wild men, ghosts, curses,
mystery ships, devil’s playgrounds, giants, witches, healers,
clairvoyants, wizards, and premonitions. Within each section are two or
three stories drawn from each province; for example, the section on
giants covers Anna Swan from Nova Scotia and Edouard Beaupre from
Saskatchewan but not another well-known Canadian giant, Angus McAskill
from Cape Breton.

The writing is very accessible and the storytelling is interesting,
quickly capturing and holding the reader’s attention. The introduction
to the section on curses, for example, begins, “No one knows whether
Major R. Sumerford of Vancouver, British Columbia, was cursed. He may as
well have been, for between 1918 and 1930, he was struck by lightning on
three occasions. After his death in 1932, lightning struck a fourth
time, shattering his tombstone.”

Each story is long enough to give the reader a good account of the
event, yet short enough to read on a coffee break. Both volumes feature
a map of Canada showing the places where the events are said to have
occurred. Although Bertin refers to photographs in the first volume,
there are none. The second volume does include a few pictures, and
these make the events even more intriguing. Readers interested in the
occult will find the stories quite entertaining.