Originally Published in The Great North Arrow

WHERE IS TOM THOMSON’S FINAL RESTING PLACE? CANOE LAKE, LEITH?

By Ted Currie

The mystery of Tom Thomson’s death, for most researchers, began with the "who done it!" Most Thomson researchers agree his tragic, unceremonious tumble into the depths of Canoe Lake, in July 1917, was an assisted event. He didn’t topple over the gunnel while having a mid-lake pee, as some contend, and there’s little to suggest he had suicidal intent. When I began my own research on the Thomson caper, back in the mid-1990's, Mowat Hotelier Shannon Fraser, had replaced cottager Martin Blecher Jr., as the prime suspect, in Thomson’s allegedly violent demise.

After reading most of the books and articles, about the circumstances surrounding his death, including the 1970 CBC documentary on the Algonquin cold case, I have focused my attention on the actions of those in attendance at Thomson’s Coroner’s Inquest, held at the Blecher family cottage. Without going into detail, because frankly it simply isn’t warranted, there were two aspects of the gathering that are troubling.

First of all, there had been no opportunity for the coroner to view Thomson’s body. It had already been buried. Despite what may have been considered a compassionate act, to bury the badly decomposing body, it was a substantial breach of protocol. The coroner had every right to demand the body be exhumed. As it turned out, the body was going to be raised soon after the inquest anyway, by family request, for reburial in the family plot, in Leith, Ontario. The serious questions that linger today, can be traced back to the fact the coroner had not examined the body for signs of foul play.

Second, those in attendance, from the Canoe Lake community, all who knew the painter, and his foibles, his excesses and willingness to scrap, outrightly refused to make their concerns known to the coroner, preferring instead to go along with the easy-fix theory, Thomson had simply drowned. I am convinced, from all the books I have read, on the subject, that he didn’t have many friends around that lake in 1917, contrary to popular opinion over the decades. Imagine yourself in that same situation, attending a coroner’s inquest, and knowing full well that Thomson had been in a scrap with at least one person, close to the time his body slipped into the depths of Canoe Lake. Even if you had only heard about the incident, wouldn’t it be logical, obligatory, to bring it to the coroner’s attention? There was a deafening silence you might say that has resonated to this day, as part of the stranger than strange circumstances, surrounding the artist’s death. There was most definitely a cover-up then and in evidence thereafter, which may explain why there are hundreds upon hundreds of conflicting details, and stories still in full vigor.

Blecher and Thomson had gotten into a fight, during a drunken get-together the night before, a number of people having heard the German-American cottager threaten the artist, to stay out of his way in the future. How could you not make some minor mention, for posterity’s sake, at the very least, about the fact there had been an incident worth knowing about? The coroner, did afterall, ask for these concerns, from those in attendance. Of course the coroner’s report, I understand, went missing. Yet it is accepted fact, that the coroner’s suspicions had not been raised beyond what initial medical (on-site) examination of the body had revealed. Accidental drowning seemed to fit the cursory examination, and the responses from the less-than-keen coroner’s inquest. Why were concerns not raised? They were raised once the inquest was complete, and the coroner was aboard a train headed home to North Bay. There were suspicions of murder, and that’s exactly what Thomson biographer, Blodwen Davies discovered from her 1930's interviews around the Canoe Lake community. Was the coroner being adversely influenced by political meddling, to close the book on the case before it got ugly? We’ll never know for sure!

Most at the coroner’s inquiry, that July night, knew Thomson had a love-interest on the lake, in Winnie Trainor, who may or may not have been pregnant at the time. There may have been pressure on Thomson to marry Winnie, and it is suspected Shannon Fraser knew about the situation, and may have even tried to strong-arm the painter to do the right thing. He was a long time acquaintance, of Winnie’s father, and may have believed he was helping a friend out of an embarrassing situation. Then there was money owing to Thomson from the hotelier, which also may have sparked the argument, leading to the dust-up, allegedly causing the artist to fall and hit his head on a fire grate. There are accounts, suggesting it was Fraser and his wife, who rowed the unconscious but not deceased Thomson, out onto the lake in darkness, with his dove-gray canoe in tow, to make his disappearance look as if it had been a simple case of misadventure.

Why all the suspicion after the coroner’s inquest? Books have been filled with innuendo and speculation ever-since. It is rumored that doubts about his accidental drowning were full blown gossip, only days after the coroner’s conclusion had been signed-off. Why was it that Thomson’s friends, "alleged" I think is better stated, decide to withhold evidence, like the fight witnessed between Blecher and Thomson, yet would go on to talk about it for years to come. Under the same circumstances, and being true friends of a caring nature, any one of us might have interrupted the proceedings, that night, to advise the coroner of some incidents, and suspicions, which could have led to the manifestation of foul play. But those intimates of Thomson, decided silence was infinitely better than drawing attention to other friends, work-mates, gathered in that cottage room.

The other most blatantly ridiculous situation, a carry-over of suspicions raised shortly after exhumation, from the Mowat Cemetery, his first graveyard accommodation (of two that are known), is the nagging problem of having one deceased artist, and two resting places for his bones. There is huge speculation whether or not, the undertaker in charge of the exhumation, actually removed Thomson for reburial. Or simply sent a dirt filled, soldered-shut, metal box instead. There are published accounts that Tom Thomson’s father asked that the exhumed metal casket be opened, so he could attest to the remains being those of his son. Then there are denials this ever happened. And then there was the sensational, headline-grabbing, 1950's unauthorized grave opening, at the Mowat Cemetery, when a group of eager-beaver Thomson bone-hunters found remains in a supposedly vacated plot.

While the Thomson mystery gains momentum, contrary to what some folks wish, most agree that there’s one all consuming issue. Moreso than the cause of Thomson’s demise, is the rather unfortunate "two-plot, one corpse" scenario. For those who believe it’s best left alone, they tend to be the same ones perpetuating the mystery in the first place. While it is understandable that an exhumation is a deeply upsetting event, it seems to me a lesser consideration than the reality the mystery will always have its theorists, researchers and sundry historians; who will doggedly perservere on the matter, in all degrees, until someone, at some time finally relents to the common sense of the matter. An exhumation will allow for a DNA examination, and will support, or put to rest, at least part of the Tom Thomson mystery.

Although we all respect the rights and privileges of the Thomson family, and their longstanding desire to avoid an exhumation at Leith, Ontario, where the artist is supposed to be, the bone of contention is an occupied grave in the tiny Mowat cemetery, where an exhumation, in part, was already conducted. Of what consequence would it be, if the family believes the artist’s body is properly in Leith, to having the Mowat skeletal remains, exhumed and given the full CSI treatment, which I have suggested before. Without disturbing even a spoonful of earth in Leith, an exhumation at the Mowat plot would allow this part of the mystery to be resolved. Is it Thomson or not? If it is ruled by science, not to be of the Thomson DNA, then we know our best known landscape artist is resting in peace..... in one place only!

Solving this mystery will not alter or diminish in any way, the respect Canada and Canadians have for the work of Tom Thomson. I have heard this weak argument, and I refuse to give it any legitimacy whatsoever. Thomson’s work is compelling with or without a mystery attached. There are some who feel we shouldn’t perpetuate the mystery, yet they are dead set against its resolution if there was such opportunity. If you were to ask a hundred Thomson art enthusiasts, scholars and historians, if they would support a DNA examination of bones found in Algonquin Park......in Thomson’s vacated grave, how many today would say "Why not?" Fifty out of a hundred? More or less? But the question moreso, is why would they care at all, because the artist was moved to Leith. Right? So attempting to find out who is buried there, shouldn’t really be a moral dilemma whatsoever. Of course, this is when we find out how deep the mystery is, when even Thomson intimates admit to being less than certain, just where their artist kin is buried.

If the matter of Thomson’s resting spot is ever resolved, and I believe it will be in the future, it could never detract from the influences we have celebrated, the result of Thomson’s creations.

"Thomson never fumbles. He orchestrates, with an imposing and decorative largeness, the rugged and sumptuous natural aspects that present themselves to his vision. His painting is strong, and without subterfuge, the painting of a man immensely concerned with the nature he depicts." The following observation was made by a French art critic, at an exposition in Paris in 1927. It was the regard Thomson was earning, independent of any mystery being attached, or any controversy about where he had been laid to rest following his 1917 death. By the time a full blown crisis was raised, to a wide audience in Canada, in the 1970's, Thomson was already a legend. His reputation didn’t need a mystery to propel him to acceptance, or full appreciation, as one of the country’s great national painters. Thomson had arrived quite on his own. This can never diminish, and it is short-sighted to believe that any truth revealed about the artist, could destroy what we have enshrined in our national character.

Today we are working wonders with forensic technology, from identifying those who perished on the Titanic, to understanding what killed the crewman of the failed Franklin expedition. Forensic advancements have helped us clarify and correct misinformation, held as truth for generations, and it is to our general improvement as a civilization, to embrace its full potential. It is not a tool for sensationalist profit but a way and means to set things right that have been wrongly attributed. It can only be a positive change in the Thomson mystery, to serve respectfully the artist’s own right to rest in peace, by finding out precisely where the artist is really buried. If it is in the Mowat Cemetery, then we need to erect a substantial national memorial marker, and make this important site a public place of visitation. Just as recognized today, as his plot in Leith, Ontario.

It seems to me a matter of national significance to solve this two grave, one artist dilemma.