Friday, August 1, 2014

Remembering a dark part of Toronto's history from 1918

Every now and again I stray away from my arts reporting to cover other areas of interest to me, and I hope to you, too.  This weekend, I want to write about an unfortunate chapter in Toronto's history we don't hear enough about now, yet should never be forgotten.   And with the 100th anniversary of this event only a few years away now, perhaps the time has come to bring the story to light once again.

A couple of years ago, not long after Toronto made headlines with the G-7 riots that scarred the city, my far better half and I were watching a documentary on TVO that opened our eyes to a story we had heard nothing about up until then:  the 1918 anti-Greek riots in Toronto.  Afterwards, I did some online research and came across the website www.violentaugust.com, which deals with the story and the aftermath of the riots, and provides a short video on the subject, extracted from the documentary produced by Burgeoning Communications.

The story is both frightening and maddening that it could have happened at all.  But it did, and what happened is enough to make you rethink the so-called Canadian experience.

By way of a preamble, the First World War forced many countries to choose sides, or in the case of Greece, to remain neutral.  Neutrality appeared to be the best option at the time, especially since it allowed the 3,000 or so Greeks living in Toronto to move about freely and carry on with their lives.

But with that neutrality came a price.  What if Greece no longer remained neutral, then what?  And while neutral, many Greeks in Canada at the time chose not to enlist and help with the war effort.  Many came to be considered slackers who had dodged the draft.

When the war ended, returning veterans saw a Toronto they were not familiar with.  It had changed, becoming dirtier, busier, and perhaps they started to feel they were being left behind.  The tension and anger many of these returning vets carried with them at the time boiled over while about 10,000 were gathering for a conference in Toronto during the summer of 1918.

On Friday night, August 1st, 96 years ago tonight, about 20,000 soldiers and civilians attacked and destroyed every Greek restaurant they could find, while police and militia, overwhelmed by the violence, were helpless to react and simply stood by and watched.

But it didn't end on that Friday night.  It grew and spilled over into Saturday night, August 2nd, when the police regrouped and fought back.  Using clubs and whips and striking out indiscriminately, the police fought with rioters and civilians for hours in the downtown core of Toronto.  Numbering at the height at about 50,000 participants, the melee resulted in hundreds of injuries, including women and children, and saw damage escalate to more than $1-million in today's dollars.

Although the Greeks in Toronto numbered only about 3,000 at the time, they operated about 35% of the city's cafes and restaurants as well as most of the shoe-shine shops and many of the fruit and vegetable markets at the time.  So they contributed enormously to the city economy in their own way, and don't forget, many of these businesses employed most if not all members of the family.

So by wiping out the family business, rioters were depriving entire families of their livelihoods, and all for what?  To express their anger at Greece not supporting the allied war effort.

The riot was the largest in the city's history and one of the largest ant-Greek riots in the world.  And yet today, many people know nothing about it.  That is a shame and should not be allowed to continue.

This is why I encourage anyone reading my post to go to www.violentaugust.com and read about this tragic event and watch the video trailer.  Better still, invest the $18.95 plus shipping and handling to acquire the video and learn more about the riots that rocked a city almost a hundred years ago and now is all but forgotten.

If the video is not to your liking, you can visit your local library and search for the book The 1918 Anti-Greek Riot in Toronto by Professor Thomas Gallant, George Treheles and Michael Vitopoulos.  It will open your eyes.

This weekend, take a moment as you enjoy your long weekend break and think back 96 years ago to what happened just across the lake on this very Friday and Saturday night.  And then perhaps, we can start moving towards engaging people in developing a proper commemoration of this weekend's events in 1918 when the 100th anniversary comes up in 2018.

I would hate to think history - and us - have forgotten the tragedy entirely 100 years afterwards.  I think we owe it to those who suffered back then to acknowledge their hardships and remember them, as well as pledging never to allow something so mindless as this event to ever happen again.

Enjoy your weekend.

August 1st, 2014.

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