Famous Members:            Names not released; traditionally, many of Canada’s top military leaders

The Black Watch Cadet Corps is a prestigious military fraternity headquartered in Montreal.  Most of the thousands who apply each year do not get in, even after grueling hazing details such as scrubbing toilets.  A Bigger Secrets informant described this hazing stunt:

A group of several hundred pledges are taken into the wilderness for a survival test.  They perform physical labors and attempt to live off the land.  There is not enough wild food to support the large group, and several days later, the group is exhausted and malnourished.

Then a Black Watch member leads them to a circus-sized tent set in the wilderness.  The tables inside are set with a smorgasbord of hot foods, and the pledges feast.  While the celebration goes on, the pledges are called away in groups of about a dozen and taken to a small building some distance away.  The door is locked behind the pledges after they enter.  Inside, a tablet is dropped into a pool of liquid.  It fizzes, producing an evil-smelling gas.  Most of the pledges throw up.

Our informant said some of the pledges feared death.  The setup is clearly intended to resemble a gas chamber, where a pellet of cyanide drops into a vat of sulfuric acid and releases hydrogen cyanide gas.  The informant did not know what chemicals were used in the Black Watch hazing.