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.

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Episode 262: In early March of 1946, John Dick, a 39-year-old streetcar conductor in Hamilton, Ontario, disappeared. Weeks later, five local children found John’s torso on the city’s outskirts — his head and limbs were missing. Suspicion soon fell on John’s wife, Evelyn, who was arrested and charged with the murder. The pair had had a whirlwind courtship and had been married only months before John turned up dead. 

During the investigation, police discovered the body of a newborn encased in concrete in Evelyn Dick’s father’s attic. At her trial, evidence emerged of her volatile relationship with her husband, multiple extramarital affairs, and allegations of other criminal activities, including involvement in the alleged murder of her child. Despite her claims of innocence, Evelyn was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Her story was not close to over.

Sources:

1947 CanLII 12 (ON CA) | R. v. Dick | CanLII

1947 CanLII 116 (ON CA) | Rex v. Dick | CanLII

Evelyn Dick Photos | Digital Archive: Toronto Public Library

The Evelyn Dick Files – A second look at the post-war trials of Evelyn Dick

Evelyn Dick (nee MacLean) (@evelyndick1946) | Instagram

John J. Robinette by George D. Finlayson - Ebook | Scribd

Evil Wives Fully Illustrated: Deadly Women Whose Crimes Knew No Limits Fully Illustrated | Scribd

Documentary: The Notorious Mrs. Dick by Reel-to-Reel films for CTV | YouTube

EvelynDick.com

Evelyn Dick | The Canadian Encyclopedia

Canada: ONTARIO: The Dick Affair - TIME

Story of murderer Evelyn Dick enthralled and enraged Hamilton | TheSpec.com

75 years later: The endless fascination with Evelyn Dick | TheSpec.com

How Could You, Mrs. Dick? | Steel City History

Forgotten Rebels - Mrs. Evelyn Dick, live @ Lee’s Palace in Toronto. Nov 22, 2014 | YouTube

Mark McNeil — Song: Evelyn Dick | YouTube YouTube

Search Results: Evelyn Dick - ProQuest

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Episode 261: On September 5th, 1998, between 11:00 and 11:30 pm, Brianne Ruth Wolgram was last seen at the 7-11 store in Revelstoke, BC., in the company of three young females whose identities are unknown. Five days later, Brianne’s abandoned car was discovered 30 km south of Revelstoke, towards the Akolkolex Falls & River, on Echo Lake Road. Inside the car was her wallet, driver’s license and $200, but there was no sign of Brianne. Nearly 25 years later, Brianne’s family and friends are left wondering whatever became of the shy 19-year-old. Police have not ruled out foul play in her disappearance.

If you have any information on Brianne Wolgram’s disappearance or whereabouts, please email the Missing Children Society of Canada (MCSC) at [email protected] or contact Crimestoppers at 1.800.222.TIPS (8477) or the Revelstoke RCMP non-emergency number at 250-837-5255. You can also leave an anonymous message through the contact page at findbreanne.wordpress.com. You can also email [email protected], and we will pass the information to the proper authorities.

Sources:

The History of Revelstoke — Revelstoke Museum & Archives

Find Brianne Wolgram

Cold Case BC - MISSING: Brianne Wolgram | Facebook

Reddit: Breanne Wolgram

MCSC - Home

Brianne Wolgram | Missing Children Society of Canada | Archived

287. Use of Hypnosis—Purpose | JM | Department of Justice

Hypnosis Decision SCC: 2007 SCC 6 (CanLII) | R. v. Trochym | CanLII

Sotirios Konstantinos Kaviris - California Missing Person Directory

Second person, Allan Ellsworth, reported missing in Beaton area - Revelstoke Mountaineer

Public help sought as Revelstoke RCMP search for missing man - Okanagan | Globalnews.ca

The Ghost Story Guys Podcast

A Strange Little Place: The Paranormal Secrets of Revelstoke, British Columbia by Storr, Brennan | Amazon.ca

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Episode 260: 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.

Sources:

Gouzenko Affair - Canada’s Human Rights History

Spies, Lies, and a Commission by Dominque Clément

Did the Cold War Start in Canada? – All About Canadian History

The Gouzenko Affair - The Historical Society of Ottawa

Parks Canada - Gouzenko Affair National Historic Event

Canada and the Cold War | The Canadian Encyclopedia

NATO - Declassified: Canada and NATO - 1949

The Red Scare

Sound of SPUTNIK-1 | YouTube

DEWLine Museum – HOME – The Distant Early Warning Radar Line, the Coldest Part of the Cold War.

The Distant Early Warning Line and the Canadian Battle for Public Perception - Canadian Military Journal

The Distant Early Warning Line: An Environmental Legacy Project - Canada.ca

Diefenbunker.ca

Diefenbunker Museum Blog – Canada’s Cold War Museum Blog

Top Secret: The Lives of Employees at CFS Carp

Canadian Nuclear Weapons by John Clearwater - Ebook | Scribd

Underground Structures of the Cold War by Paul Ozorak - Ebook | Scribd

Cold War Secret Nuclear Bunkers by Nick McCamley - Ebook | Scribd

NORAD and the Soviet Nuclear Threat by Gordon A.A. Wilson - Ebook | Scribd

Now You Know Canada by Doug Lennox - Ebook | Scribd

Canada and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

North American Defence | PDF

Canadian Military Journal Vol. 12, No. 1

Current Time - 2023 - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

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Episode 259: After she’d been missing only one day, on the evening of May 7th, 2002, the body of 14-year-old Jessica Grimard was discovered by her father in a stream within a wooded area near her home in Rivière-des-Prairies, a suburban borough on the eastern tip of the city of Montreal, Quebec.

As her killer had placed Jessica in the water, washing away evidence, there was not much for the cops to go on. At first, police considered that Jessica had been killed by someone known to her. However, thanks to a few strange twists, the case would head in a new direction, eventually capturing a known sexual predator and suspected serial killer who had bragged about his crimes. The boasting included confessions of responsibility for two other 1993 deaths around Montreal, initially ruled accidental, that of 12-year-old Christine Speich and 20-year-old Anna Lisa Cefali. The killer had used water and fire to cover his crimes.

Sources:

Angelo Colalillo | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

Une marche pour commémorer le triste événement | TVA Nouvelles

Meurtre de Jessica Grimard: un an plus tard, la douleur reste vive | TVA Nouvelles

Grimard (Jessica) - La Mémoire du Québec

2000 CanLII 6067 (QC CQ) | R. c. Paccione | CanLII

2003 CanLII 10002 (QC CQ) | R. c. Chalfoun | CanLII

2005 CanLII 49803 (QC CS) | R. v. Colalillo | CanLII

2005 CanLII 49804 (QC CS) | R. v. Colalillo | CanLII

2006 QCCS 274 (CanLII) | R. c. Colalillo | CanLII

2006 QCCS 7903 (CanLII) | R. c. Colalillo | CanLII

Search - Newspapers.com: Angelo Colalillo

The Man Behind the Letters | PressReader.com

Letters to be examined in Chalfoun trial | CBC News

Colalillo laisse derrière lui son testament criminel | TVA Nouvelles

Colallilo (Angelo) - La Mémoire du Québec

West Island man who sexually assaulted about 20 women denied parole | Montreal Gazette

Cold Careers and Occupational Hazards: The Occupational Preferences of Canadian Serial Killers

Accused Quebec serial killer dies in hospital | CBC

Quebec murder suspect took own life: report | CBC News

The sudden death of a man ‘like a wolf amongst the lambs’ - The Globe and Mail

The Murderer Who Used Water To Hide His Trace | Real Stories |YouTube

Cold North Killers: Canadian Serial Murder | Scribd

Angelo Colalillo (1964-2006) - Find a Grave Memorial

Lifeless in a Stream | Real Crime | By Real Crime

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Episode 258: On the morning of February 20, 1989, stay-at-home mother of two Janice Faye Johnson was found unconscious, gravely injured and barely clinging to life at the foot of a flight of basement stairs in the Shelburne, Nova Scotia home she shared with her family, Clayton Norman Johnson and daughters Darla and Dawn. Even though she was still alive when she was found by a neighbour, who called for an ambulance immediately, Janice died in the hospital just after noon that day.

More than three years after her death, police arrested Janice’s husband, Clayton, a high school industrial arts teacher, and charged him with first-degree murder. Consistently maintaining his innocence throughout subsequent proceedings, on May 4, 1993, Clayton was found guilty of the first-degree murder of his wife. He was later sentenced to life in prison — his appeals, citing spurious forensic evidence, were rejected. He spent the next five years in prison.

Sources:

Clayton Johnson - Innocence Canada

Crown Halts Clayton Johnson Murder Prosecution - Government of Nova Scotia, Canada

Clayton Johnson Settlement - Government of Nova Scotia, Canada

Clayton Johnson: Innocent man convicted by so-called experts

Clayton Johnson walks as Crown balks at new trial | CBC News

Shelburne man, wrongly convicted of wife’s murder, dies | CBC News

1998 NSCA 14 (CanLII) | R. v. Johnson | CanLII

1994 NSCA 79 (CanLII) | R. v. Johnson | CanLII

Clayton Johnson - Wrongful Conviction - Pyzer Criminal Lawyers

Clayton Johnson: obituary and death notice on InMemoriam

Clayton Johnson wrongful murder conviction: Tide of Suspicion (1998) - The Fifth Estate — YouTube

Wrongly convicted man cleared in wife’s death - The Globe and Mail

Accident or Murder? | Forensic Files Wiki | Fandom

“Forensic Files” Accident or Murder? (TV Episode 1999) - Reference View - IMDb

Obituary | Clayton Norman Johnson of Barrington, Nova Scotia | H.M. Huskilson’s Funeral Home

Scribd | Justice Miscarried: Inside Wrongful Convictions in Canada 

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Episode 257: In Victoria, B.C., on the rainy evening of Friday, September 29, 1899, on her way home from work alone, forty-four-year-old Agnes Bings walked across a railroad bridge, cutting through the Songhees Reserve as she did every other night without incident. This night, however, would be her last. Someone took her life somewhere during the 20-minute walk between her bakery on Store Street and the Bings family home on Russell Street. The next morning, Agnes Bing’s body was discovered. She’d been strangled, and her body mutilated. Her slaying has never been solved, although there have been a few suspects, interestingly including the world’s most famous serial killer, Jack the Ripper, whose 1888 crimes also remain unsolved.

Sources:

HISTORY OF DOWNTOWN VICTORIA | LIVE SITE

Home | Victoria

Canada’s Jack the Ripper

Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency Records Relating To The Murder of Agnes Bings | PDF

Historical police records give a glimpse into Victoria’s seamier side | Times Colonist

The British Colonist 1858-1961

Agnes Bings (1855-1899) - Find a Grave Memorial

Murder & Mutilation In Victoria - Jack The Ripper Forums - Ripperology For The 21st Century

Unlocking the Dark Secrets of Victoria - Monday Magazine

Coroner Inquests in BC around the time of Agnes Bings’ Murder

Seeing Dead People E23 — Mrs. Bings Meets a Madman

The History of Garrick’s Head Pub | Victoria, BC, Canada

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Episode 256: Colten Boushie was a 22-year-old Indigenous man from the Red Pheasant First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada, who was shot and killed on a farm near Biggar, Saskatchewan, on August 9, 2016. His death received widespread attention and led to a national conversation in Canada about systemic racism and the treatment of Indigenous peoples in the criminal justice system. The trial and acquittal of the farmer who was charged with Boushie’s death, a man named Gerald Stanley, also sparked controversy and led to calls for reforms in the Canadian justice system.

Sources:

Red Pheasant Cree Nation – A prospering Nation

2017 SKQB 366 (CanLII) | R v Stanley | CanLII

2017 SKQB 367 (CanLII) | R v Stanley | CanLII

2018 SKQB 27 (CanLII) | R v Stanley | CanLII

Colten’s friend Eric talking about the shooting | Twitter

Victim, friends needed help with flat tire before farmyard shooting: witness | 650 CKOM

DocumentCloud | FSIN Media Release

The night Colten Boushie died | The Globe and Mail

The Legal Trial of Gerald Stanley - a second look at the case through the lens of law | CanLII Connects

CRCC Final Report on the Death of Colten Boushie

‘Have to keep talking about it,’ says Boushie’s mother, five years after Stanley acquittal | Star Phoenix

Colten Boushie, Gerald Stanley and a case that’s hard to defend | The Star

Read ‘The Rodney King of Western Canada’: Killing of Indigenous Man Heads to Trial Online

Who was Colten Boushie? | CBC News

Colten Boushie Archives - APTN News

‘White Lives Matter’ signs show up in North Battleford Saskatchewan

Debbie Baptiste | Canada’s National Observer: News & Analysis

Brad Wall - Racism has no place in Saskatchewan. | Facebook

We Will Stand Up | CBC Docs POV |YouTube

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Episode 255: On September 28, 2016, a police dog discovered the nude and decomposing body of a young woman on the grounds of Gabriola House, a famous and, at that time, abandoned mansion on Davie Street in Vancouver’s West End. The body was that of Natsumi Kogawa, 30, a Japanese woman who’d been in Canada on a Visa to study English since May that year. Natsumi’s friends and family had not heard from her since September 8, and she’d been officially listed as a missing person four days after that. 

On the same day as discovering Ms. Kogawa’s body, police arrested William Victor Schneider, a man from Vernon, B.C. Schneider’s brother Warren turned him into the police after William had told him where he’d put Natsumi’s body and that he ‘done something bad.’ Warren also recalled to police about overhearing a phone conversation during which he said he’d thought William had admitted to having killed Natsumi.

The legal proceedings that followed dragged on into the fall of 2022.

Sources:

Hirosaki – Travel guide at Wikivoyage

Tonari Gumi - Japanese Community Volunteers Association - Vancouver, Canada

FIND Natsumi Kogawa／古川夏好さん捜索情報 — Facebook

Search for Natsumi Kogawa - TokyoReporter

Japanese woman missing in Canada - Japan Today

Vancouver Shinpo - 古川夏好さん三回忌しめやかに

Vancouver Shinpo - その三十五　古川夏好（こがわなつみ）さんの一周忌

古川さん殺害、終身刑の男が控訴 | 日加トゥデイ/JC Today

Police Looking for Missing Woman | Vancouver Police Department

Update: Body of Missing Woman Found | Vancouver Police Department

EXCLUSIVE: Friends of murdered Japanese student, Natsumi Kogawa, speak out - BC | Globalnews.ca

A look at the troubled life of William Schneider, the killer of Natsumi Kogawa - Vernon News - Castanet.net

‘It’s my fault,’ court hears accused tell police in murder trial of Japanese student | The Star

Man gets life in prison for killing Japanese woman in Canada | The Japan Times

‘People listened’: Mother of murdered Japanese student grateful for guilty verdict | CBC News

New trial ordered for man found guilty of murdering Japanese student Natsumi Kogawa | Globalnews.ca

Murder conviction of B.C. man who killed exchange student restored: Supreme Court of Canada | Globalnews.ca

‘People listened’: Mother of murdered Japanese student grateful for guilty verdict | CBC News

1523 Davie St, Vancouver, BC • Vancouver Heritage Foundation | Vancouver Heritage Site Finder

YOU SHOULD KNOW: About The History Of “The Gabriola Mansion” In The West End – Scout Magazine

2021 BCCA 41 (CanLII) | R. v. Schneider | CanLII

2022 SCC 34 (CanLII) | R. v. Schneider | CanLII

Supreme Court of Canada - SCC Case Information - Docket - 39559

Supreme Court of Canada - 39559

Supreme Court of Canada - SCC Case Information - Webcast of the Hearing on 2021-12-10 - 39559

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Episode 254: On Saturday, June 23, 1990, three teenagers, Brigitte Grenier, 16, Kyle Unger, 19, and Timothy Houlahan, 17, all separately attended a music festival at a ski resort near Roseisle, Manitoba. The following morning, Brigette was discovered dead in a creek in a heavily forested area within the resort. She’d been sexually assaulted, beaten, tortured and strangled to death. As both had been seen with the victim during the hours before her death, police quickly targeted Kyle Unger and Timothy Houlahan as suspects in Brigette’s slaying. 

Forensic evidence pointed to Houlahan, and he, in turn, pointed to Kyle Unger as Brigette’s murderer, but Kyle was adamant he’d had nothing to do with Brigette’s death. The physical evidence against Kyle Unger was a single strand of hair found on Brigette’s sweatshirt. RCMP needed more, so they turned to their tried and true Mr. Big technique and, sure enough, acquired a confession from Kyle Unger. In February of 1992, both Unger and Houlahan were convicted of first-degree murder. Both appealed. Houlahan’s appeal was successful, and in July 1993, the Manitoba Court of Appeal ordered a new trial for him. Tim Houlahan completed suicide before his second trial. Kyle Unger’s conviction was upheld.

Did the justice system get it right? Unfortunately, we will see that it did not, at least not right away.

Sources:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Roseisle Pioneer Monument (Roseisle, RM of Dufferin)

1992 CanLII 13202 (MB KB) | R. v. Unger (K.W.) and Houlahan (T.L.) | CanLII

1993 CanLII 4409 (MB CA) | R. v. Unger | CanLII

Kyle Unger settles wrongful murder conviction | CBC News

Kyle Unger — Innocence Canada

Kyle Unger | News, Videos & Articles — Global News

Real Justice: A Police Mr. Big Sting Goes Wrong: The Story of Kyle Unger by Richard Brignall

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