The Toronto Time Traveller

Illustration from The Toronto Daily Star The ferry captain could see the plane coming. Captain Ernest Straher was alone at the wheel as the aircraft approached, the only person on the top deck of the Sam McBride at the time. The ferry had just dropped a load of passengers off at the Centre Island dock and was now making the return trip into the city. The boat was about halfway across the bay when a seaplane began to race across the waves, picking up speed for its take-off.

Wild kidnappings, hidden tunnels, weird buildings and more... The Festival of Bizarre Toronto History starts on Monday! We’ll spend seven days diving into some of the strangest stories our city has to offer — a week filled with walking tours, panels, lectures, trivia, and more. You’ll find the full schedule below! You can buy a ticket for the entire festival or any one of the individual events.

The bog with a channel dug by rescuers (City of Toronto Archives) It was a vast expanse. An endless field of treacherous mud. It stretched off in every direction, hungry and dark and dangerous. And somewhere in the middle of it all was one fragile little human slowly being swallowed alive. For two hours he called for help, his desperate cries floating through the chilly air of an October night. And for two hours, no one answered. His name was Thomas Chambers and he had been given some terrible advice.

I’m very excited to announce The Festival Of Bizarre Toronto History is coming back for another year! We’ll spend a wonderfully weird week digging into the strangest tales our city has to offer — seven days at the beginning of June filled with lectures, panels, interviews and walking tours. This year is going to be bigger than ever before, with even more in-person events added alongside all the usual online lectures and interviews.

The shortest off-season in Blue Jays history is over and baseball is back! If you’re a fan, I’m sure you already know the team is celebrating its 50th season this year. And in honour of the anniversary, they’re rolling out a whole slate of new ways to connect with the history of the franchise. There’s going to be a statue of Joe Carter outside the Dome, a Hall of Excellence inside it, a documentary series coming this summer, and a variety of nostalgic promotions scheduled throughout the season.

I’m giving a ton of online lectures these days. I just kicked off my series about the history of baseball in our city with the Toronto Public Library this week. (The next edition of TORONTO BASEBALL TALES is happening on April 17l more on that below). And I’ve got a new public course all about THE HISTORY OF RIOTS IN TORONTO beginning this Thursday (more on that below, too).

The Jubilee Riots of 1875 With St. Patrick’s Day coming up this week, I thought I would dig into my archives and share an updated version of an old post about one of the strangest facts in our city’s history. For more than a century, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade wasn’t held in Toronto because it was simply too dangerous. The annual celebration was cancelled in the late 1800s and didn’t resume until the 1980s, when people felt it was finally safe enough to return.

The Niagara River, with Navy Island on the right (background image: Toronto Public Library) It was a big day at the Kingston Penitentiary. The prison was playing host to an exceedingly special guest. Charles Dickens was in town. Kingston was the latest stop on his North American tour and a visit to the city’s new jail was the highlight of his stay. As the celebrated author was shown around the facility, he was deeply impressed.

Kensington Market in 1932 (City of Toronto Archives) The story begins in Kensington Market nearly a century ago. This was during the hard days of the Great Depression and the Second World War. Kensington was still known as the “Jewish Market” back then, filled with synagogues and delisandmarket shops. It was a hub for Toronto’s growing Jewish population — the biggest ethnic minority in what was still a very British city.

The Toronto Time Traveller turns four years old today! It was back in January of 2022 that I sent out my first post. I wasn’t entirely sure what the newsletter would become when I did, if there would be much interest or how long I’d be able to keep it going.