Ontario’s gay ghost hunters

Mark Larocque and Trevor Bishop explore the unknown


When it comes to the paranormal, what do you believe?

Thanks to TV shows like Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures, ghost hunting has become a hobby and obsession for many Canadians. But a homegrown, paranormal investigation group that is LGBT-inclusive didn’t exist until ghost hunters (and subsequent gay couple) Trevor Bishop and Mark Larocque met in 2010. Together, they formed the Ontario Gay Paranormal Society (OGPS). Based in southwestern Ontario, the OGPS covers “paranormal claims not just in our local area but across Ontario,” Larocque says. “Everything from ghosts and UFOs to Bigfoot and elementals.”

“We are trying to break down the walls that exist within paranormal groups and within the LGBT community,” Bishop says. “People look at the paranormal world with scepticism; much as the LGBT community gets looked upon skeptically. As an openly gay couple, we feel we can address both issues effectively — and we have opened at least some eyes.” Both men claim special sensitivities that suit them for ghost hunting: Trevor Bishop senses and hears spirits, especially spirits of children; and Mark Larocque is a psychic medium, and picks up energy from nearby spirits.

Since founding the OGPS, Bishop and Larocque have investigated places such as the haunted Fort St Joseph National Historic Site on Ontario’s St Joseph Island — “This is where the War of 1812 started,” Larocque says — plus private homes and businesses where spirits have been detected. Their adventures have been featured in print, on radio (including Toronto’s Proud FM) and TV (including the pair’s own community TV show, Paranormal Around the Region). The OGPS has also been accepted by Ghost Adventures as official crew members.

“Our team was the first team to be granted full access to Fort St Joseph, to conduct an actual nighttime paranormal investigation on the fort grounds and inside the historic buildings,” Bishop says. During the investigation, we saw shadow apparitions, and caught amazing EVPs [electronic voice phenomena] on audio, including something that sounded like gunfire from an old musket shot.”

Over the last five years, this duo have been busy successfully hunting ghosts all around the province. “We have both seen apparitions personally in many forms,” Larocque says. Bishop recalls driving home one night when they noticed that “two apparitions appeared along the side of the road standing in the ditch,” he says. “The apparitions were of an adult male and a young boy. We can still describe what they were wearing: ’50s style clothing, both dressed exactly the same, with blue jeans and white t-shirts with the sleeves rolled up like they did back then. Except one thing was strange about them — their faces did not manifest; we could see the trees behind them right though.”

 

“We asked each other as we were driving past, ‘Did you see that?’ and both of us looked behind as we passed, and they were gone,” Larocque says. Fortunately, the pair had turned on their digital recorder before they left. According to Bishop, the audio revealed “a boy’s voice saying clearly ‘Going home?’ as if we’d see him as we headed home.”

LGBT – and straight – ghost enthusiasts can contact the OGPS through ontariogayparanormalsociety.ca

Read More About:
Culture, News, Ottawa

Keep Reading

A still image of Anne, played by Amybeth McNulty, in braids and a coat, looking at another child in Anne with an E.

Why the adaptation ‘Anne with an E’ speaks to queers and misfits of all kinds

The modern interpretation of Anne of Green Gables reflected queer and gender-diverse people’s lives back at them 
Karla Sofía Gascón as Emilia Perez in Emilia Perez. Gascón wears black with colourful embroidery, has long hair, and a brown purse and delicate chain.

Trans cartel musical ‘Emilia Pérez’ takes maximalist aesthetic to the extreme

REVIEW: The film’s existence raises intriguing questions about appropriate subjects for the playful machinations of French auteurs
Dorothy Allison sits behind a microphone. She has long, light-coloured hair and wears glasses and a patterned button-up shirt.

5 things to know about Dorothy Allison

The lesbian feminist writer passed on Nov. 6

‘Solemates’ is a barefoot stroll through the history of our fetish for feet

Queer historian Adam Zmith’s newest book allows us to dip our toes into the past of a common, yet stigmatized, kink