The Coldest Winter

Peter Sala (left), Courtesy of Avataq Cultural Institute

As World War II raged on in 1941 , the Inuit communities living on Belcher Islands in the Hudson’s Bay were experiencing one of the harshest winters yet. Seals, an essential food source for the Islands’ residents, had become scarce. The threat of starvation was coming quickly.

Searching for hope in their darkest hours, many turned to the Bible for comfort and answers. Most importantly, Christianity offered a promise of salvation, which some took to mean an imminent rescue from this brutal winter.

It was after a bizarre meteor shower one January night that their saviour appeared: Charley Ouyerack, a 27-year-old ‘angakok’ (shaman).

Ouyerack announced that he was Jesus Christ, and he brought harrowing news: the world was at its end. To support his cause, Ouyerack enlisted the help of the island’s most revered hunter, Peter Sala, and proclaimed him to be God. Together, Ouyerack and Sala would save their people through any means they deemed necessary. It was then that their reign of terror began, as they quickly amassed a large following who were willing to follow their saviours’ every order.

Their first task? The execution of every sled dog in the community because there was “no need for sled travel at the end of the world.”

The first to question the pair’s holiness was a 15-year-old girl, Sara Apawok, whose older brother Alec was one of Ouyerack and Sala’s most loyal disciples. Apawok was immediately branded a heretic and became the cult’s first victim. Alec and his fellow disciple Akeenik bludgeoned her to death. Soon after, two more non-believers were murdered by the cult.

That March, Sala’s sister, Mina, declared that the apocalypse had arrived and Jesus was coming. The cult’s followers (including men, women and children) were led out onto the sea ice and ordered to strip naked for the meeting of their saviour. In the midst of this hysteria some of the followers came to their senses, ordering their children to put their clothes back on and herding their families back to their igloos. In the end, six would perish from exposure; Mina’s mother and sister both died, along with four children, one of which being Sala’s son. 

Sanikiluaq (belcher islands), courtesy of sanikiluaq.ca

Meanwhile, Sala had been recruited by Ernest Riddell to guide him via dogsled to a Hudson’s Bay Co. post at Great Whale River. While away, Sala confided in a metis man by the name of Harold Ungarden, who was well known in the local Inuit community, about the killings on the island. Ungarden quickly notified Riddell, who contacted the RCMP.

Unfortunately, because of the island’s harsh climate and remote location, the RCMP was unable to send help until April; by then, the damage had already been done. Three members of the cult, Mina included, were taken into custody. However, to these starving people, the promise of three warm meals a day was the salvation they had been looking for.

Trials held following the horrific events on the Belcher Islands determined that they were most likely a result of dire circumstances. Ouyerack, Sala and four of their accomplices were charged with murder; Mina was deemed insane and unfit for trial, and was charged with the murder of one of the children who died of exposure on the sea ice. 

Interested in learning more? In 2017, author Lawrence Millman published his book At The End of the World, which gives a more in-depth account of the murders. The book can be purchased here.

Sources:
Iaciofano, C. (2017, January 17). Cambridge Writer Tells Of Little-Known 1941 Belcher Island Murders In 'At The End Of The World'. Retrieved from https://www.wbur.org/artery/2017/01/17/millman-end-of-the-world.
James, D. A. (2017, March 26). 'At the End of the World' tells a shocking tale of murder in the Arctic. Retrieved from https://www.adn.com/alaska-life/we-alaskans/2017/03/26/at-the-end-of-the-world-tells-a-shocking-tale-of-murder-in-the-arctic/.
Morton, J. C. (2014, March 30). When 'God' and 'Satan' battled in a barren land; the Belcher Islands Murders. Retrieved from http://jmortonmusings.blogspot.com/2014/03/when-god-and-satan-battled-in-barren.html.

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Kira Frazer

The 30 rats in a trench coat that form the entity known as Kira Frazer emerged from the sewers on Halloween of ‘97, and have been wreaking havoc upon humanity ever since. She hopes to be the first rat-formed-entity to get a college diploma.

Country Roads, Take Me Home

photo courtesy of Pexels

Public transportation is a nightmare. This is something everyone has either heard or said at least once in their life. Whether you’re travelling across the city or across the country, you’ll inevitably be met with sticky floors, stained seats and an acrid smell you can’t seem to place nor get rid of. The only way we make this commute bearable is by putting on our headphones, closing our eye, and pretending we’re anywhere else until we reach our stop. 

It’s likely that 22-year-old Tim McLean was thinking the same thing as he settled in for his long ride home to Winnipeg in July of 2008. McLean, a carnival worker, had left Edmonton around noon on a Greyhound bus after working a fair, and spent several hours sitting peacefully alone at the back of the bus until, after a scheduled rest stop, someone decided to sit next to him. There was nothing unusual about this new passenger: he was tall, likely in his mid-forties, the only unusual thing about him being his decision to move from his seat near the front of the bus to the seat beside McLean. McLean didn’t seem to mind, however, and did exactly what any of us would do: put his headphones on and leaned against the window, quickly falling asleep.

In another universe, the man sitting next to McLean might have introduced himself. They might have talked, and McLean might have learned that this man, Vince Li, was heading to Winnipeg for a job interview after losing his job at Wal-mart. Li might have told McLean about his wife, Anna, or his former job as a computer software engineer in Beijing. In this universe, McLean awoke several minutes later to Li stabbing him in the neck. 

Tim Mclean’s memorial. (karen pauls, cbc news)

The events that followed were nothing short of horrific: as the driver frantically pulled the bus over, Li proceeded to stab McLean multiple times in the neck and chest, before beheading him completely, severing other body parts, and even beginning to eat McLean’s flesh, eyes and a part of his heart. RCMP officers arrived at the scene at 9 pm, a stand-off between them and Li ensuing until he tried to escape through a window around 1:30 am, and was then quickly apprehended. 

Li, who was later diagnosed as schizophrenic, believed that God was speaking to him: it was God that told him to sit next to McLean, saying that McLean was a “force of evil” who intended to kill him. Dr. Stanley Yaren, Li’s psychiatrist, explained that Li’s continued mutilation of the body was an effort to keep McLean from coming back to life, which, in his state of psychosis, he believed was still possible. While he pleaded insanity, it was clear that Li felt the weight of what he had done, saying this at his trial: "I'm sorry. I'm guilty. Please kill me."

At this point, you’re probably thinking that someone who committed such a vile act would be confined to a psych ward for life, right? Wrong. Li, who now goes by Will Baker, was granted an “absolute discharge” in February of 2017, and is presumably living a fairly normal life in Winnipeg thanks to many years of therapy and medication. Vince Li is no longer a threat to society: but how many others are out there just like him? We may never truly know how many people live on the brink of psychosis, but at least Li’s story has taught us one thing: never fall asleep on the bus.

Sources:
Abedi, M. (2017, February 10). Freedom Granted To Man Who Beheaded Greyhound Bus Passenger. Retrieved September 30, 2019, from https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/02/10/will-baker-greyhound-bus_n_14682796.html?utm_hp_ref=ca-vince-li.
McIntyre, M. (2009, March 6). "I saw the entire attack, heard the screams ...". Retrieved September 30, 2019, from https://web.archive.org/web/20090315135511/http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Health/Beheader+criminally+responsible/1356476/story.html.
Puxley, C. (2009, March 3). Man pleads not guilty in bus beheading. Retrieved September 30, 2019, from https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2009/03/03/man_pleads_not_guilty_in_bus_beheading.html.

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Kira Frazer

The 30 rats in a trench coat that form the entity known as Kira Frazer emerged from the sewers on Halloween of ‘97, and have been wreaking havoc upon humanity ever since. She hopes to be the first rat-formed-entity to get a college diploma.