Gregory Klages: Canada’s Sherlock Holmes

Dr. Klages talks about what it’s like to solve a hundred year old mystery.

By: George Pereira
Photography Reporter

His body was eventually found and his death was determined to be an accident. However, there was a buzz of suspicion around the incident on the lake that led to the case being re-opened.

Murder, accident, or suicide, all assumptions with considerable evidence to back them up. Add to that the fact there are two suggested burial sites for the body and you have yourself one very complicated mystery.

Enter Gregory Klages, a historian and current professor at Guelph-Humber who, in 2003, joined the ‘Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History’ project with the intent to further explore this case, among several other unsolved Canadian urban legends.

“History is, in many respects what makes us,” said Klages, when asked why he took an interest with exploring Canadian mysteries. “Whether we are aware of it or not.”

Klages hosted a lecture on March 8 at the University of Guelph-Humber about the mystery and discussed what was discovered when Canadian Mysteries took a second look at the case.

The Project also took their findings and created a website that offers the content in an interactive package that is both accessible to younger students and informative to adults looking to learn more about different points in Canadian history.

The information is freely available and can be used in a curriculum format for teachers of elementary, middle, and high school history classes. Content also observes the requirements of each province’s educational standards.

Kimberly Noble, a media professor also teaching at Guelph-Humber, had a high level of praise for the researcher’s work.

“If the story comes to easily and you write something that’s already packaged, all you are is a conduit for that person’s material,” says Noble. “You have to dig and ask and ask the right questions.”

The Tom Thomson story marks the second in a series of lectures hosted by Guelph-Humber and served as an engaging follow-up to the well-received discussion hosted by Amy Muise in February.

As for the unsolved mystery of when the final lecture will be held, students are encouraged to visit the school website* or check their gryph mailboxes.

* School Website – www.onlineguelphhumber.ca