*SPECIAL: HAPPY CANADA DAY

Today, we will take a brief look at the history of Canada's beginnings. And when I say brief, I really mean it—over the next 30 minutes, you won’t learn much. After that, we’ll discuss some ghostly tales as a little Canada Day treat! Happy Birthday, Canada!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hello there. How are you? Oh, sorry. I didn't need to do that. Was I talking too well? Oh, I'm so sorry. Well, guys, if you're new here, hi, my name is Barb. And I don't typically post on a Wednesday. And if you're a regular listener, you would be saying, What the fuck are you doing? It's Wednesday. Well, guess what, guys? It's a special episode today. It is Canada Day. And I am super excited to bring you a special episode all about my home country. Now, of course, it wouldn't be an episode of mine if I didn't include a little spooky aspect. So hang in there. That is coming. Um, but first, again, if you're new, welcome. My name is Barb, and you're listening to Spirits, Witches, and Demons. So grab your drink of choice, whatever it may be. I personally am drinking a nice coffee today. You can't hear it, but there it is. And yeah, we're gonna dive in. I have a bit of material to go through. I just pulled it today because I thought we should do an episode for tomorrow. Yeah, it's super last minute, guys. You know, I uh I'm pretty known for that. Not many of my episodes are as strongly planned ahead. This one was absolutely off the cuff. So we're gonna go through it together and hopefully we will um survive it. Let's hope. Let's hope. So tomorrow, as I'm recording this, so as you're listening to it, it's today. Hey, hey, Canada's birthday. So the official document that originally united the colonies to create the country of Canada in 1867 is actually called the British North America Act. This was passed by the British Parliament Parliament, sorry, and it went into effect on July 1st, 1867, officially establishing the Dominion of Canada. Now, here's a fun fact, guys. If you're not from Canada, you or maybe you know nothing about this country, we are part of the British Commonwealth. We have always been since our inception in 1867. And the Dominion of Canada was what we were referred to, not just Canada. Okay? So the Dominion of Canada didn't leave us until 1982. That's right, like 44 years ago. Did I do that math right in my head, off the top of my head? Oh my god, I should drink that iced coffee more often. Anyway, uh this was when Canada patriated its constitution and gained full independence from Britain. That's right. We were under the Queen, RIP, until 1982. Therefore, I don't know all the political details. I am not a politician, I'm not into that shit. But from my understanding, if our government made, say, XYZ decision up until 1982, the Queen could override that. The monarchy could override it, and they had last say. So as of 1982, we're fully independent. And that's great. But we've only been fully independent for like 44 years, which is a brand new country, right? We're doing fucking good for a brand new country, I have to say. I have to say we're doing amazing. Now, this was the foundational document that renamed the Constitu uh renamed the British North America Act, which was signed in 1867, to the Constitution Act of 1867. Now, the Confederation event itself, uh sorry, the Confederation is an event itself. We that's when we were um we were joined together. So the definition of confederation is the historical process of a political event of uniting British colonies to form Canada. The date was July 1st, 1867, and the Confederation, the actual verb itself describes the act of coming together as a federal union. The Constitution, however, is the law. This is the supreme legal framework that governs how Canada is run. The scope? It includes written laws, unwritten conventions, and court decisions. It also includes both the original 1867 rules and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms from 1982. So both are con combined in our Constitution. So to sum it up, you can think of the Confederation as the birth of the nation, while the Constitution is the rule book and tells us how the nation is to function. You kind of want to dive deeper. So I looked at one one of three different areas. So the role of the British Parliament in both eras, nah, we don't need to go into politics. Um, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and how it works today. Sure, we could dive into that, but I thought maybe I'd like to know more about the people that are dead. I'd like to know about the dead people, and that is the Fathers of Confederation. So there were 36 men. Of course, it was all men. Guys, come on. Women, when women rule this world, it will be fucking amazing. Anyway, I'm I'm not gonna get on that high horse today. The core leadership. It was uh 36 men officially recognized, but the small group of prominent figures acted as the driving force behind the negotiations. Those people were our first prime minister of Canada, Sir John A. McDonald. Again, I'm not deep diving into these people. I'm just naming some dead fu some dead guys, basically. John A. McDonald, the chief architect of the Confederation of Canada, very first prime minister. He wrote most of the British North America Act. Uh, Sir George Etin Cartier, I think I pronounced his name correctly. He was the key political leader from Canada East, quote unquote. That was known as Quebec today. Uh he ensured French-Canadian language, religious, and legal rights were protected in the new country. George Brown, a powerful reform journalist from Canada West, Ontario, despite being a fierce political rival of McDonald, Sir John A. McDonald, remember him? Uh, he put aside animosities to form a coalition a coalition government to make confederation happen. Sir Charles Tupper, he was the premier of Nova Scotia, who successfully fought to bring his province into the Union despite strong local opposition. Nova Scotia's always been a fighter, I have to say, I'm a proud Nova Scotian. I'm a proud blues blue noser. And if you don't know what that is, look it up. Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley, the Premier of New Brunswick, who convinced his province to join and famously suggested the name Dominion of Canada. So here, if you have been following along with all these dead guys I've been talking about, we have the guy from Quebec, the guy from Ontario, the guy from Nova Scotia, and the guy from New Brunswick, and another guy that was just up there in uh Ontario, McDonald. But we have those four provinces that that's what made Canada. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario. That's it, guys. That's what made our country. Pretty amazing, right? So we think of like the difference between the document signed in 1776 in the United States, the Declaration of Independence, it fundamentally different is different from Canada's foundational documents because it created a brand new country through political separation, where Canada, those uh 36 men and the five of those 36 that came together, what they did was they recognized the existing colonies under British rule. The USA also uses the term revolution, declaration, and constitution in distinct ways that differ sharply from the Canadian context. So again, guys, I will talk about dead people. So don't run, don't run. Spirits are gonna come into it. I promise. I'm not straying from my usual content. This is just the foundational work, okay? So we're gonna get through this dry shit together. Any one of us who hates politics and hates this shit, I'm sorry. Have a drink, go refill, okay? So here are some differences between our two countries because I know I have a lot of people out there. Hi, how are you? I'm sorry, but I'm I'm gonna continue talking like this. I I have to say sorry, and maybe I'll throw a few A's in there a few times. Hey bye, how you doing? And anyway, just because it's Canada Day, right? I have to. I have a hard time saying my own country's name. Isn't that fucked up? I think I get tongue twisted or something. Maybe I talk too fast, maybe it comes out of my brain faster than it comes out of my mouth. I don't know. But when I slow it down and I say Canada, it's fine. But when I say it fast, it's like Canada. Anyway, is it just me? Am I just focused on that? Anyway, okay. So here's what we're we're just going to do some key comparisons. There's uh one, two, three, four. Is it four? Yeah. Four different areas that we're going to just compare the two. Canada, 1867, and United States, 1776 slash 1787. Okay? So the foundation founding document in Canada, British North America Act, passed by Britain. In the United States, Declaration of Independence. And happy birthday to you guys too, because your birthday is on Saturday, uh, written by the colonies. So the premier purpose of both uh in Canada was to unite existing British colonies into one federation. And in the United States, it was to formally break away from the British Empire. The path to sovereign status in Canada, it was the evolution, bracket, peaceful, gradual, legal changes over time. In the United States, it was a revolution, a violent war for independence. The rule book, the Constitution, split between 1867, the structure, and 1982, the rights. That's for Canada. United States, the Constitution was written in 18 sorry, oh my goodness, I just said that all the fuck wrong. It was written in 1787 and replaced the Articles of Confederation. So the crucial document distinction, um do I really want to go into this? Ugh, you know what? I'm over it, guys. I'm over it. I do have more on the Constitution uh and uh the American Con uh Declaration of Independence versus the Canadian Confederation and our Constitutional Act. But aren't we over it? Like, oh, this is a fun point though. Canada's uh 1982 Charter of Rights compares to the US Bill of Rights. So that's if you're thinking of it in in like what does that equal to us, it's the Bill of Rights. Our chart our Charter of Rights is your Bill of Rights. Um the Confederation or the difference between Canada's peace, order, and good government mandate versus the U.S. life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness philosophy. Basically the same kind of thing, although to be fair, no no shade to Canada. I kind of like the US one better. But I mean, I could just say that for myself. I like my life, my liberty, and my pursuit of happiness. Anyway. Um, the timeline on how Canada gradually gained independence without war. Well, I mean, that's true. But we did have war on our soils. I mean, but we fought America. That's true, eh? Anyway, uh, let's not go there. Okay, let's get to the ghosts. Where are the ghosts? Okay, before we get there, I do want to say, where was our con like, where was the actual Confederation event held? It was actually held in various places over various time periods. The very first document signed was actually signed in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, which fun enough, let me just Google this because I don't know the exact date, but when my nails are too long, when did PEI become a province? Do do do. Okay, so Prince Edward Island actually did not join Canada until July 1st, 1873. Okay, so that was six years after Canada became the Dominion of Canada. Pardon me. And the original um the original document that was signed in Prince Edward Island was actually signed in 1864, three years before the country became the country. So some of the things that I found when I looked at, I kind of wanted to know, like, are there any ghost stories around the Confederation events? Like, uh, are there any of the original Founding Fathers, uh, part of Hauntings? Like, what kind of stories are out there? And lo and behold, there's not a whole fucking lot. That's why I went into the whole, like, how do we become a nation? Bullshit. Okay, so some of the things I've found is the Cradle of Confederation hosts a number of spooky tales centered around the city's historical venues. So it's more around the actual venue than the event itself. So the Confederation Center of the Arts, which is located in the heart of Charlottown, this is the cultural hub. Uh, it was built over historical streets and burial grounds. It is famous for the Confederation Center of Arts of the Arts Ghost Tour, which I did look up. Let me go back to my internet, to my inters of the nets. Where are you? Okay, so they do have a ghost tour. If you're in the Atlantic region and you're traveling around this summer, you might want to go if you're stopping by um Charlottown, especially if you're doing an overnight there, from July 7th until November 7th this year. There is uh ghost hunts and or sorry, not ghost hunts, ghost tours. Sorry. I do ghost hunts, I don't know if they do. Um 637 and 730. And their tickets are, I'm just pulling it up, pulling it up. Oh, internet, come on, hurry up. Technology's great until it doesn't fucking work, right? Oh, okay. I don't know how much they are, it won't open. Um, does it tell me down here? Nope. Of course it doesn't. Why won't you tell me how much you are? Well, this is boring part of the show. I'm gonna have a drink. That is so fucking good, I have to say. That is one good iced tea today. Iced tea. Oh my god, it's not iced tea. It's iced coffee. Yeah, I need more of that apparently. Okay. I'm not seeing it there, so I'm just gonna keep going. Okay. So uh this is where guides share local legends of long buried secrets and unexplained sounds echoing from older colonial buildings nearby. So great. I love a ghost tour. Don't get me wrong. Somebody giving me anecdotal stories on ghosts in the area or possibilities and blah blah blah. Love it. But I personally want to go talk to them. I want to take my equipment and actually go talk to the spirits, right? The bin stead or bin steed haunting. A famous 19th century ghost story just outside Charlottetown. This haunting occurred in a house where residents reported violent rumblings, shrieks, and moans that terrorized the area shortly after Confederation. Well, damn, I want to go there. Who else wants to come with me? Who wants to go with me to the Ben Binsteed haunting? Can you go there? Okay. I'm just googling it because I did not do my research. You cannot tour or visit the interior of the property. Well, that fucking sucks. It must be private. It must still be private or something. Okay, good enough. And next we have a Quebec. So the most famous thing that happened in Quebec's history was if you're not familiar with Canadian war history, we had the Plains of Abraham. This was the site of the 1759 Battle of the Plains of Abraham. This was a battle between the French and the British. And this was the year after the British took the fortress of Lewisburg here on the island of Cape Breton. So it was actually so the Brit the British take a lot. No wonder the Americans wanted to like get away from them. No offense to anyone in Britain. I love you guys. I've been to the UK, absolutely gorgeous, and I'll be back, trust me. But your historical figures were kind of fucked up. Your ancestors were kind of messed up. And fair enough, most European ancestors that landed in North America were kind of fucked up too. So, but what I'm saying is there was a lot of battles between the French and the British, both on um Quebec soil and on Nova Scotia soil. So that's um the Plains of Abraham. So the site of the 1759 Battle of the Plains of Abraham, visitors and security guards have repeatedly reported the ghosts of soldiers. Apparitions are allegedly seen near Tunnel 1, the barracks, occasionally accompanying this by the sounds of cannon fire and the smell of sulfur. Sulfur is spelt wrong on my report here. Um not that you guys care. Like you're gonna see it. Who cares if it's spelled wrong? You said it right, which is shocking, isn't it? Ottawa, Ontario, the Parliament buildings, the historic center block, where not oh my god. Okay, this is where I have trouble reading. I'm just gonna call myself center and drink a coffee. Okay. While not where confederation was negotiated has had the center block block, if you forgot that part, the center block has had reports of paranormal activity over the decades. The most famous political apparition is the lady in red. Well, I'll be there's not a lady in white. There you go. Maybe because we're Canada, she has to be in red. Anyway, that's a joke, guys. That's a joke. The spectral figure repo reportedly seen wandering the halls by night with watchmen and politicians alike. Watson's mill, located on Manotech, just south of Ottawa. I think I said that right, if I didn't. This 19 no, this 1860s mill dates directly to the Confederation era. It is famously haunted by Anne Crosby Courier, a 20-year-old newlywed, who died in a tragic accident at the mill in 1861. Locals and museum staff claim to see her ghost near the second floor windows. Ontario Legislative Building in Toronto, in Toronto, uh Queen's Park. Long before Ontario's provincial legislature was built on the site, it was the location of a psychiatric asylum. Both the lady in white, there we are, and the spirit of a female inmate who hanged herself. I always thought it was hung, and I know I'm wrong with that, but I in my ears when I hear the word hanged, I really want to say hung. I I know the English language is fucked up because. Because hanged is correct. Hung means something else. It's not oh, anyway, we're not gonna get into the English language today, but I'm just saying it sounds weird in my in my brain, but it is correct. Hanged herself, um have uh have been reported wandering the halls alongside the ghost of a World War I hero, Captain Charles Rutherford. Interesting. Wonder if you can visit that place. Okay, so the historical site of the Canadian Confederation was Province House in Charlottetown. While the building itself is largely uh known for its political history, local folklore, and seasonal guided walking tours, we've chilling tales of restless spirits along buried secrets lingering throughout the historical capital. The province house itself does not have any official documented resident ghost. The surrounding area and nearby historic manors of Charlottetown are steeped in supernatural legends. So another one is the Gravedigger's Ghost Tours. So that's something if you're visiting, maybe still goes on, I don't know. Um yep, that's with the Confederation Center of the Arts. So we already talked about that. Beaconsfield Historic House, located in Charlatan, 1877, Victoria, Victorian Mansion, is known for ghost tours that share tales. Again, ghost tours, guys. Can we just get in there and hunt for them? Can we talk to them? I really want to talk to them. If you want to dive deeper, yeah, you can go visit these places and and see what see what's up. So I wanted to also, we talked about the lady in red in one place and then the lady in white in the other place. Um the lady in white has been the stereotypical in every haunting out there, no matter who you talk to, no matter what show you watch, there's always a quote-unquote lady in white. And I wanted to know why. Is there a real reason for this reoccurrence of this late why are ladies always in white? Is my basic question. So I asked, like, what's the deal? So the lady in white or woman in white is a universal urban legend and folklore archetype. The core theory behind her is that she is a restless spirit of a woman who suffered a tragic, violent death, betrayal, or loss of her children, and remains trapped in the mortal realm by grief and unfinished business. So I have heard that before, and that is what I believe. So whenever you're watching uh paranormal content on YouTube, uh listening to podcasts, or maybe going ghost hunting yourself, and you encounter a story, uh a location that claims a lady in white, it's not that they like to dress in a white garment, it's because of their actual story. The color portrays to their story. And it's something I've always believed in, and I'm glad I did my research to get this information for you guys. Because trust me, um this person right here that's talking to you sometimes can't formulate those sentences in her own brain. I gotta write them down. So here we are. The legend spans across cultures and is analyzed through a few sp uh specific lenses. The cultural archetypes of and origins. Almost every country has its own version of the Lady in White. Anthropologists and folklorists attribute the this to a universally recognizable human tragedy. The La La Lorona theory. In Latin American folklore, she and I probably said that name so fucked up, she is often identified as La La Lorona. La Lorona, the weeping woman who drowned her children in a fit of rage and now wanders for eternity. Well duh, that was pretty evil. The Yuri theory. I think I said that incorrectly too. The Japanese folklore Vengeful Female Spirits Yuri Yuri traditionally appear in white burial kimonos. The noblewoman or servant. In European folklore, she is typically a former noblewoman, jilted lover, or a wronged servant, often associated with a family with family lineages and old estates. The symbolism of the color white. The color of her clothing is highly symbolic of and ties directly to the historical and sociological theories about women. Burial shrouds, historically modern uh before modern caskets, bodies were frequently buried in plain white sheets or white nightgowns. The ghosts are literally seen wearing their burial clothes. Purity and innocence, because women historically died under tragic circumstances, often due to murder, betrayal, or being jilted, and the white represents her innocence and unjust death. The wedding dress. In many Western legends, the woman was abandoned at the altar and died in her on her wedding night. Okay, there's a few of those around, but I don't not every woman dies in her wedding dress. I'm sure some did, but I'm gonna take that one with a huge grain of salt. Sociological and psychological perspectives. Anthropologists and historian historians suggest the legend persists because it acts as a cultural reflection of real world sociol so my fuck. Societal I really wanted to make that word something else. Real world societal vulnerabilities through history. Maternal mortality Before modern medicine, countless women died from childbirth complications. Many legends like the Brazilian Dama Branca? Dama Branca or Dama Brinca are directly tied to the w to a woman dying while giving birth. Honor killings and abuse. Ugh The ubiqu ubi ubiquity ubiquity of jilted lovers and women murdered by husbands or fathers reflect the dark history of domestic violence and horror killings. Nope, not horror killings. They were horrible and they were horror, but these are called honor killings globally. I'm not even gonna dive into any of the religions that do honor killings or whatever. I'm not diving into that, guys, because I truly don't understand it, and I don't want to learn about it. Is that fair? I r it's something I'm just I'm not willing to open myself up to right now. I'm going to continue this paragraph, but I'm just letting you know this stuff, I really don't understand it. And maybe that's the strong woman in me. Thank God I was born Canadian. Thank God into a very European-based family that didn't have these ideals and beliefs. That's all I'm gonna say on the subject, okay? Let's get back to it. Uh the Ghost Wanders rode seeking unfaithful men or her lost uh children, perse um person per her children if eyes betrayed love and the lack of protection women historically faced. Psychological protection. The legend of a woman dressed in white serves as an enduring coping mechanism or ghost storing vehicle to process grief loss and the sudden tragedy of unnatural death. And there you fucking go, dude. We finished it, guys. We finished it. We've made it through. Happy birthday, Canada. I hope you really enjoyed that. I will be back on the mic for Sunday's episode. Uh, probably on Saturday, you know how it goes. And uh Sunday, I got it their name wrong last week, so I apologize, guys, if you're listening. Um, okay, so I'm gonna look it up so I don't fucking get it wrong again. And I am sorry again. Um I'm terrible. I am absolutely terrible. Nope, it's TikTok I need to go to. Ticker talker. Okay, turn my volume all the way off. Thank, thank you. And that's not the account I need. As you know, guys, I got like four accounts on every fucking social media. I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Well, I do know what I'm doing. But I don't, all at the same time. What the hell is this? Okay, let's let's stop looking at what's actually going on on social media and actually go to Okay. Their social media, their TikTok is called a hot mess. So like a hot mess, but haunt. You get it? I got it. It took me a while, but I finally got it. Um, yeah, so I am interviewing them on Sunday. So that will come out, and I was just about to say that video will come out, so I have been playing with toying with the idea of setting up a few cameras and actually capturing it for YouTube. We'll see. We'll see how I feel then. I do need to test this mic to see if it can capture five voices at the same time. I don't know, but um, it should be fun and fine. It'll be fine, it'll be fine, it'll be fine. Anyway, guys, I'm looking forward to it. I'm super excited. Um, I guess that's it. I guess I'm just going to go out tomorrow and celebrate Canada Day. I have uh friends coming in tomorrow, so I get to celebrate with them. And yeah, until the end of the week, guys, or the start of next week. However you look at it. Until then.