Watson - Canadian Monsters & Mysteries

Copyright 2022 by W.T. Watson

Published by Beyond The Fray Publishing

People everywhere and in every age have been fascinated by monsters. Monsters have peered up from the unknown depths of the oceans, frolicked in lakes and rivers, and jumped out unexpectedly from wildernesses

- Betty Garner, Canadas Monsters

I moved to Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, in the fall of 2020 and, almost immediately, began to note that this place was different from the areas of the United States where I have lived. At first, the change was barely noticeable. I had spent a lot of time in Canada over the years since my spouse is a native, but, as I actually lived here, I began to notice little things that I was not aware of before.

It did not matter how cold the weather got, the worst any Canadian would say about the chill was that it was a brisk day. People apologized more, and one seldom encountered anyone belligerent. Homeless people were fewer and farther between. When my spouse sprained an ankle, the hospital staff apologized for charging for a walking boot (crutches would have been free). People in government who were outed for doing something unethical simply resigned.

Little things, but they all added up to make a big difference in my life. Given that my spouse now has a permanent university position, it is doubtful that we will ever return to the States, and I am prepared to retire in Canada (although we may try to find a more moderate climate when that time comes).

As a writer of both fiction and nonfiction, it was only natural that I start to explore the world of the paranormal in Canada. Every place has its own unique lore, and as I began to explore, the seeds of this book were planted. One of the first things I stumbled across when I began to research the weird in the Great White North was a website called Canadian Bucket List, where I read an interesting article on Monsters in Canada.

Of course, I was familiar with Sasquatch and Ogopogo and the Wendigo, but did you know that the Native people in the far north tell of a mythical creature that appears to be half-orca and half-wolf called the Akhlut?

The beast was said to be a shapeshifter that could appear as a killer whale in the water or as a hybrid wolf-whale on land. One discovered the Akhlut by checking for animal tracks near the water. If wolf sign came out of the water or went into the water, then there was an Akhlut on the loose! The beast is not too picky about what it eats and will gobble up both animals and humans that cross its path.

If you are interested, the CBC Kids website (cited in the bibliography) has some excellent artwork of this mythical creature. This is one of the unknown animals I think I would rather avoid, though seeing one at a respectful distance would be fascinating.

The Akhlut was interesting, but I also found a legendary creature called the Mahaha. The name says it all, for this far northern demon was said to take the form of a narwhal, polar bear or orca with fiery red eyes. Shades of the Phantom Black Dog! The Mahaha, according to the Curiocity website, was dreaded not for the fact that it would eat you but rather for the notion that, if it caught you, it would tickle you to death. For the tickle averse, this might be a fate worse than death.

Having read about these beings of Northern myth, my appetite was whetted, and I started to dig into strange occurrences in Canada. I quickly discovered that I was only going to be able to include a sampling of the high strangeness in my new home, and that is exactly what I have endeavoured to do in the pages that follow.

In order to limit the size of this text, I had to be very selective. I have chosen not to delve into Canadian haunting stories, for example. The lore of ghosts and hauntings in Canada is dense and would, honestly, require a book of its own, something I will consider in the future.

In like manner, I will not cover the ubiquitous Sasquatch in this book. While the Hairy One is certainly a native of Canada, he is being more than adequately covered by some of my fellow Beyond the Fray authors as well as other well-known and respected writers. I have noted a dearth of coverage in my native province and may explore that for a future book.

I will also not touch on the lore of the Wendigo since Chad Lewis and his co-author have so ably covered this subject. Lewis and company relate sightings and stories from Canada and the US in their wonderful book Wendigo Lore: Monsters, Myths and Madness available from Beyond The Fray Publishing.

In the lake monster section of the book, I have also chosen not to discuss Champ, the monster of Lake Champlain. Canada is a land of lakes, and I found so many monster sightings across the country that I wanted to focus on some of the lesser-known aquatic monsters in this text, though we will delve into the better-known Ogopogo and Caddy sightings in these pages.

Even without these staples of monster lore, this book will take you to meet cryptids you may have never encountered before. Is it possible, for example, that relict herds of mammoths roam the far north? This is a possibility that we explore in the cryptid section along with devil monkeys, giant beavers and snakes, a possible underwater moose and much more.

Nor do I neglect the cryptids of the skies in this text. The reader will encounter Thunderbirds and other giant flying things before we turn our attention to one of my favourite mysteries, the Manwolf, and the classic Canadian canine mysteries, the loup-garou and the Waheela.

As I noted earlier, Canada is a land of many lakes, and if you listen to the witnesses, it seems that many of those lakes are inhabited by monsters other than the giant snakes we will encounter early in the text. We will look at a good sampling of witness testimony about lake monsters and then turn that same lens upon the sea to find that sea monsters seem to be common off both Canadas Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

Once weve taken a sample of the cryptids of the land, sea and sky, we will turn our attention to what the First Nations people of Canada often call Little People. Many of the settlers in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland came from the lands of the fairy faith, and their beliefs and the spirits that engendered them seem to have transferred straight to their new homeland. We will talk about legendary interactions with the faery as well as more modern faery sightings and encounters.

After dealing with the Little People, well also look at stories of the Shadow People as well as phantom ships and trains that play a strong part in the lore of the Great White North.

No book on mysteries would be complete without a dive into the UFO stories of Canada. There are some fascinating cases to review, including the better-known Shag Harbour and Falcon Lake cases and a number of others that are not so widely known but, perhaps, ought to be. It seems that the open spaces and clear night skies in many parts of Canada produce a wide range of UFO sightings and encounters.