Lorna Poplak is a Toronto-based writer, editor, and researcher.
With two award-nominated non-fiction publications with Dundurn Press, articles appearing on the TV Ontario website and in other publications, and inclusion in a new short story anthology, Lorna is establishing herself as an authority on the history of crime and punishment in Canada.
LATEST NEWS
IN THE CITY’S PICTURESQUE NECROPOLIS, FIND A WHO’S WHO OF 19TH-CENTURY TORONTO
The Toronto Necropolis (Greek for “city of the dead”) opened on Winchester Street in Cabbagetown in 1850.
Between 1850 and 1899, 22,307 people were buried at the Necropolis. Weathered grave stones scattered higgledy-piggledy throughout the cemetery’s 18.25 acres bear mute testimony to battles and disease, heartbreak and loss, and lives cut short.
Many famous — and infamous — individuals whose stories fuelled the headlines found their resting place in this non-sectarian cemetery.
Read the full article on the TVO website!
Booze peddlers, ruffians, and railways: The checkered past of one tiny Ontario town
Biscotasing (or Bisco), located on Lake Biscotasi some 120 kilometres to the northwest of Sudbury, owes its existence to the railroads — specifically, the Canadian Pacific Railway, which, in the early 1880s, was punching its way across the Canadian hinterland tie by tie, rail by rail, to link the east and west coasts of this vast country.
Boarding houses, shanties, and tents sprang up to accommodate a fluctuating population of workers and hangers-on — sneak thieves, professional gamblers, brothel keepers, and the like.
Biscotasing was humming in the late 19th century. But the combination of money and liquor was combustible — and in 1885, it exploded into the Whiskeyville riot
Read the full article on the TVO website!
Funeral Procession of Thomas D’Arcy McGee in Montreal. (Wikimedia)
The assassination of Thomas D’Arcy McGee: A murder mystery for the record books
John Wilson Murray’s Memoirs of a great detective: incidents in the life of John Wilson was first published in 1904. (Internet Archive)
‘Old Never-let-go’: The (mostly) true story of Ontario’s first detective
On February 21, 1890, Detective John Wilson Murray of the Ontario Department of Criminal Investigation received word that two woodsmen had made a grisly discovery in Blenheim (now Benwell) Swamp, near Princeton: amid a tangle of briars, fallen logs, and dense brush, the body of a man with two bullet holes in the back of his head.
FOLLOW LORNA ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Lorna Poplak
A full house to see Lorna’s presentation this evening!
Lorna Poplak is at Oshawa Public Library.
Ready to begin!
Lorna Poplak
Welcome, one and all! On Tuesday evening, October 15, I will be participating in the Oshawa Historical Society’s Local History Speaker Series. I will talk
Lorna Poplak
The Word On The Street Toronto will again be taking over Toronto’s Queen’s Park Circle during the weekend of September 28 and 29! I’ll be
Lorna Poplak
My research this month took me to Montreal, where I visited the impressive Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec / Grande Bibliothèque (BAnQ for short).
Lorna Poplak
No Canadian bookstores on the list, unfortunately. But quite a few just a short plane ride away! #independentbookstore #secondhandbookstore #lovebooks
The Ultimate Guide to Wondrous Independent Bookstores
We think book havens are heaven.
Lorna Poplak
After the rains, a view of Bayview Extension from the Bloor Street Viaduct. #wildweather #roadclosed #flood #torontorains #stranded
Lorna Poplak
Joseph Bloor. William Lyon Mackenzie. George Brown. Thornton and Lucie Blackburn. Read about them — and other famous and infamous individuals who found their resting
Lorna Poplak
On a scorching day in Ottawa, about to engage in some cool Canadian research at Library and Archives Canada. Dundurn Press Crime Writers Canada Sisters
