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by Patty Pitts
There are more mysteries for student sleuths to solve on the University of Victoria’s home-grown national history mysteries website.
The violent and unsolved death of charismatic Doukhobor leader Peter Verigin in 1924 is the latest addition to the award-winning website, “Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History.” It joins “Torture and Truth: Angélique and the Burning of Montreal” and “Heaven and Hell on Earth: The Massacre of the Black Donnellys.”
Like the other mysteries, “Explosion on the Kettle Valley Line: The Death of Peter Verigin” invites students, teachers and history buffs to search through the rich online archive of photos, documents and newspaper accounts to “solve” the murder and learn more about Canadian history in the process.
Verigin, a female companion and seven other people, including a member of the B.C. legislative assembly, died when an explosion ripped through their rail car near Castlegar, B.C.
The new website was launched on April 27 by Iona Campagnolo, the Lieutenant Governor of B.C., at a special ceremony at the Royal BC Museum. The West Coast Doukhobor Choir performed their distinctive, traditional songs at the opening and closing of the event.
“There have been many theories about what caused the explosion but no one was ever charged,” says UVic history professor John Lutz, co-director of the bilingual website.
Like the other sites, this one encourages users to put their research skills to work to examine the evidence surrounding the explosion and learn more about the Doukhobor community and Canadian attitudes to immigrants in the years between the world wars.”
UVic adjunct history professor Larry Hannant developed the Verigin mystery site. “Was Verigin murdered or was it an accidental explosion?” he wonders. “The Doukhobor community itself is split on whether or not this was an assassination, and it’s very strange that neither the Canadian government nor the RCMP had any good leads. We’re certainly hoping that the website will raise some new discussion.”
Among the features on the Verigin website is a forensic report from a post-blast expert who has conducted investigations for the Canadian Forces and the RCMP.
xtensive newspaper articles from the era discuss some settlers’ unease with the new arrivals, who Hannant describes as “cultural rather than religious dissidents.” One article describes a public talk given about explosives just weeks before the infamous blast.
Another addition to the “Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History” website is the “Mysteryquest” feature which offers teachers assignments based on the mysteries for younger students. There are three suggested scenarios for the Verigin mystery for students aged 14 to 16. A scenario for students as young as 11 involves examining how heating methods in 18th-century New France contributed to the devastating 1734 Montreal fire.
The website receives financial support from the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Canadian Culture Online Program. Draw your own conclusions about Peter Verigin’s death at www.canadianmysteries.ca.
To find out more about another website project Lutz is involved with—this one with a distinctly local theme—see the feature story.
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