INDEPTH: CANADIAN MYSTERIES
Canadian mysteries
CBC News Online | June 13, 2005
When Deep Throat's true identity was revealed on May 31, 2005, a decades-old mystery was laid to rest. CBC News Online looks at a few Canadian mysteries that have yet to be solved.
 Tom Thomson (CP Photo/National Archives of Canada)
What happened to Tom Thomson?
Tom Thomson, a prolific Canadian artist whose work inspired the Group of Seven, was reported missing two days after he set out on a canoe trip on Canoe Lake in Ontario's Algonquin Park in July 1917. His body was found six days later, with a badly bruised temple and fishing line around his ankle. A coroner's report concluded Thomson had died by accidental drowning, but no autopsy was performed. Some believe he lost his balance in the canoe and struck his head on the gunwale. But others believe he was murdered in a dispute with a local lodge owner over some money.
His family arranged to have his body buried in the family plot near Owen Sound, Ont., but according to persistent rumours, his friends buried him near Canoe Lake and put sand in the family plot. His family has never allowed the grave to be exhumed.
» CBC ARCHIVES: The mysterious death of Tom Thomson
Did the wrong man hang for Thomas D'Arcy McGee's murder?
 Thomas D'Arcy McGee. (Courtesy: National Archives of Canada)
Irish immigrant and tailor Patrick James Whelan, arrested a day after the government posted a $2,000 reward, maintained his innocence throughout his trial. He was hanged in a snowstorm in February 1869, one of the country's final public hangings.
Controversy surrounds Whelan's conviction. Sources say the bullet found at the scene didn't match the recently fired revolver found in Whelan's possession.
Experts have suggested modern-day ballistics tests on the bullet, kept at the Ontario Archives, could prove whether Whelan's gun was used.
Who killed Sir Harry Oakes?
Sir Harry Oakes became the richest man in Canada and one of the wealthiest people in the British Empire after finding gold and iron ore mines in Ontario. However, he moved his family to Nassau, Bahamas, to escape high Canadian taxes.
His July 7, 1943, murder is still a mystery. A family friend found the charred remains of his body on a gasoline-soaked mattress that had been set on fire. Investigators discovered his skull had been bashed in four times. His son-in-law was tried for his murder, but he was acquitted.
Other suspects included legendary mobster Lucky Luciano and the governor of the Bahamas, the Duke of Windsor (who had briefly been King Edward VIII before abdicating the British throne).
Is the Sasquatch real?
 Some believe this to be a female Sasquatch in northern California, seen in this frame, taken from footage by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin in 1967. (AP Photo/Sasquatch Research Project, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin)
Sasquatch, an aboriginal word meaning "hairy giant," refers to a large manlike creature believed to be roaming the woods.
In April 2005, a man from a northern Manitoba community captured on videotape what he says was a Sasquatch. However, the video, which was shown on an American television network, failed to live up to its billing as "footage of the century."
Skeptics say no one has ever produced any concrete evidence such as skulls or bones, arguing footprints, film or photos can be manufactured.
» CBC ARCHIVES:
Tracking Sasquatch
Does Ogopogo exist?
Sightings of a creature living in B.C.'s Lake Okanagan have persisted for generations. The first official sighting of Ogopogo – the Okanagan Lake Monster – came in 1872, after a local woman reported a creature swimming against the waves during a storm.
According to reports, the dark green, snakelike creature has a goat-like, bearded head, humps on its body and ranges in length from about five to 20 metres (15 to 70 feet). Witnesses say it moves fast along the surface of the lake.
Aboriginals called it N'ha-a-itk, or lake demon. According to legend, the creature was a murderer possessed by demons. The gods punished him by turning him into a sea serpent.
» CBC ARCHIVES:
Ogopogo
Did a UFO visit Shag Harbour, N.S.?
 Was there a UFO in Nova Scotia?
A search of the area turned up nothing except a yellowish-brown foam floating on the surface. A preliminary report was rushed off to Canadian Forces Headquarters in Ottawa as seven navy divers from HMCS Granby searched unsuccessfully.
While many still believe a UFO was involved, other Cold War-inspired conspiracy theories include a downed Russian aircraft or sunken Russian submarine.
» CBC ARCHIVES:
The truth behind UFOs
What happened to Ambrose Small?
When Ambrose Small walked off into a snowy Toronto night on Dec. 2, 1919, the wealthy theatre-chain owner was never heard from again.
Earlier in the day, he had completed a deal to sell his theatres to a British company for $1.7 million. Later that evening was the last reported sighting of Small.
Leads poured in as police searched beneath the floorboards and in the furnace ashes of his theatres. No body was ever found. Like Elvis, sightings of Small were reported from South America to London to France despite his being pronounced officially dead in 1923.
In 1935, a special investigation by the Ontario attorney general cleared his wife, Teresa, who some had speculated arranged for her husband's death. The case was officially closed in 1960.
Did Russians kidnap an Inuit family?
In 1945, an Inuit family returning by dogsled to Hall Beach from Cape Dorset vanished. Their sled was discovered, but no bodies were ever found. At the time, people in the community believed a Russian or German plane abducted the family and that they were alive in Russia.
In 2004, Rankin Inlet North MLA Tagak Curley, on behalf of the missing couple's child, called on the Nunavut legislative assembly to launch an investigation into the disappearance.
What ever happened to Ron Bax?
On March 1, 1992, Yukon sculptor, taxidermist, outdoorsman and gun expert Ron Bax is believed to have shot and killed his wife's friend Krystal Senyk in her cabin in Carcross, Yukon. Bax then disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again.
A few years later, a 1995 segment on the U.S. television program "America's Most Wanted" failed to turn up a clue.
According to local lore, he killed himself in the mountains where no one would find him. Others believe he's living on an isolated tropical beach. The RCMP still have an open file on him, which includes a warning that he is armed and dangerous
» EXTERNAL LINK:
RCMP file on Ron Bax
Who was the Mad Trapper of Rat River?
In 1931, mysterious newcomer Albert Johnson set up a small cabin on a prime trapping spot on the Rat River in Fort MacPherson, NWT. Neighbours soon complained someone was messing with their traps.
Four times the Mounties tried to apprehend Johnson, using guns, dynamite and dogs. One officer died in a shootout as Canada tuned in to radio reports of the manhunt. Through extreme blizzards, -40 weather and up 2,100-metre-high mountains, Johnson evaded police for weeks to make his way to northern Yukon, a feat many woodsmen said was impossible. Johnson was shot nine times by police after being spotted by a search plane at Eagle River, Yukon. In a canister around his neck, he carried about $2,500 in cash and a number of gold teeth.
Fingerprints never identified Johnson, no family members ever claimed his body and no one ever heard him speak.
Is the Bambino's first homerun ball in Lake Ontario?
On Sept. 5, 1914, 19-year-old Babe Ruth hit his first homerun as a professional baseball player at Hanlon's Point Stadium on the Toronto Islands. Many believe the baseball wound up sinking to the bottom of Lake Ontario.
Others say the ball was stolen, bronzed and is on display at a downtown Toronto bar.
Who ordered the destruction of the Avro Arrow?
 The Avro Arrow shown during the rollout ceremony, Oct. 4, 1957. (CP Photo/Canadian Armed Forces)
Nobody in the government or military has ever admitted to giving the destruction order.
One theory has it that Prime Minister John Diefenbaker gave the order under pressure from the U.S., while others say it was the Department of Defence or even Avro president Crawford Gordon.
» CBC ARCHIVES:
The Avro Arrow
Is there buried treasure at Oak Island, N.S.?
First discovered by a teenager in 1795, the mysterious “money pit” of Oak Island, N.S., has stymied treasure hunters for decades.
Modern engineering has failed to crack the mystery of various layers of logs and metals, mysterious inscriptions on stones, and booby traps that have either flooded the pit or caused it to collapse inward.
Who's responsible? Guesses range from the Freemasons and the Knights Templar to the Vikings, or British or French explorers.
What's inside? Theories abound, including pirates’ booty, the royal jewels of France, the treasures of King Solomon's temple, and the Holy Grail.
» CBC ARCHIVES:
Oak Island Money Pit
Butter tarts - a true Canadian invention?
Is a mixture of butter, sugar and eggs inside a flaky pastry shell one of the few truly Canadian recipes?
Nobody knows where the butter tart comes from, but there are many theories. Some say it's a variation of pecan pie brought north by slaves from the United States, while others believe it could be related to Quebec's sugar pie. Other regional recipes could have spawned the tasty treats, including Mennonite “shoofly pie” or “backwards pie” from the East and West Coasts. Or it could have come from across the ocean, a Canadian cousin to England's treacle tart.
» CBC ARCHIVES:
What makes a great butter tart?
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