Great Unsolved Mysteries

Sometimes a little mystery can add a lot of intrigue.

Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History is a unique project that asks your students to think like historians to solve mysteries from Canadian history.

From their inaugural mystery, Who Killed William Robinson?, to the strange disappearance of Tom Thompson, this website is an engaging way to explore Canada’s past. In 2008, Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History received 2008 Pierre Berton Award.

There are many mysteries to solve, these two will get you started:

The Redpath Mansion Mystery — reveals the lives of the super-wealthy in turn-of-the-century Montreal, as well as those of their servants. It shines a light on family loyalty and tensions, health and disease, and on the built world of mansions, hospitals, and monuments a century ago. This is a story about a dramatic family tragedy and its setting.

Aurore! The Mystery of the Martyred Child — Aurore Gagnon was a young girl who died on February 12, 1920, under suspicious circumstances. What really happened to Aurore Gagnon? Who was responsible for the mistreatment and abuse that she had clearly suffered? How did this rural family become such a dangerous milieu for this young girl? And how did Aurore Gagnon become Aurore, l'enfant martyre, an icon of Quebec popular culture?