The Christie Pits riot occurred on 16 August 1933 at the

Christie Pits Christie Pits (officially Willowvale Park until 1983) is a public recreational area in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at 750 Bloor Street West at Christie Street, just west of the Toronto Transit Commission's Christie subway station. T ...

(Willowvale Park) playground in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Ontario, Canada. The riot took place in the context of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

, "

Swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍, ) is a symbol used in various Eurasian religions and cultures, as well as a few Indigenous peoples of Africa, African and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American cultures. In the Western world, it is widely rec ...

Clubs" and parades and resentment of "foreigners" in Toronto, and the rise of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

and the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

in Germany in 1933.

Background

The riot occurred in the midst of the

and six months after

took power in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The Toronto papers, including the ''

Toronto Telegram ''The Toronto Evening Telegram'' was a conservative, broadsheet afternoon newspaper published in Toronto from 1876 to 1971. It had a reputation for supporting the Conservative Party at the federal and the provincial levels. The paper competed wit ...

'' and the ''

Toronto Daily Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands division. The newspaper was establis ...

,'' as well as the

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

journal, ''Der Yiddisher Zhurnal,'' reported on how Jews were being dismissed from professions in Germany, including lawyers, professors, and teachers, as well as incidents of violence against them. Thus to Jews, the swastika represented degradation and physical violence against Jews, and was inflammatory. At that time, the Jewish community in Toronto was predominantly poor, working-class migrants. Jewish families and youths in particular would therefore cool off during the hot summer months by staying in town and going to the predominantly Anglo

Beaches A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

area to swim. This resulted in complaints and resentment from some local residents. Some of the locals formed a "Swastika Club", which openly displayed the Nazi symbol to express their displeasure and make Jews feel unwanted."The Christie Pits Riot and the birth of multicultural Toronto"
, ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper and the flagship publication of the American-owned Postmedia Network. It is published Mondays through Saturdays, with Monday released as a digital e-edition only.

'', August 15, 2008 On August 1, 1933, the Swastika Club became the subject of an editorial in Toronto's ''Jewish Standard'', which prompted multiple protests from local Jewish residents. On August 2, mass protests of young Jewish Canadians occurred at The Beaches, that were met by counter-protests from the members of Swastika Club. The leaders of the Swastika Club initially insisted that the swastika had nothing to do with Hitler. They said they merely wanted to keep the Beach clean. This resulted in a tug of war between city officials and Jewish leaders, who tried to have the Swastika Club disband voluntarily, and the Swastika Club leadership, which pushed for legal action. By August 14, the situation reached a stalemate, with the leadership of Toronto Swastika Club participating in the Kitchener Swastika Club meeting, where an openly antisemitic agenda was pursued.

The riot

The riot, which lasted six hours, broke out after a quarter-final

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

game at

between two local clubs: Harbord Playground, consisting predominantly of Jewish and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

players, and St. Peter's, a baseball team sponsored by St. Peter's Church, a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church at Bathurst and Bloor. The night of the riot was the second game between Harbord and St. Peter's. Two nights earlier, at the first game of the series, a swastika had been displayed. Police were warned in writing that there could be trouble at the second game, but those warnings were ignored. After the final out of the second game, Pit Gang members displayed a blanket with a large swastika painted on it. A number of Jewish boys and young men who had heard about the previous Swastika incident rushed the Swastika sign to destroy it, supporters of both sides (including

Italians Italians (, ) are a European peoples, European ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region. Italians share a common Italian culture, culture, History of Italy, history, Cultural heritage, ancestry and Italian language, language. ...

who supported the Jews) from the surrounding area joined in, and a fight started. The ''

'' described the event the next day:

Aftermath

There was criticism of the police for not being ready to intervene, as they had been during previous potential problems in the Beach area. After the riot,

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Stewart warned against displaying the swastika and there were no further riots. The riot revealed the

xenophobic Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...

attitudes toward Jews and other non-Anglo immigrants (such as Italian immigrants) among some Anglo Canadians. Jews represented the largest minority in Toronto in 1933 and were thus a target of xenophobic residents. The event had some parallels to the 1875

Jubilee riots The Jubilee riots of 1875 were an outbreak of Protestantism in Canada, Protestant-Catholicism in Canada, Catholic sectarian violence in Toronto. The riots happened during a series of Catholic religious pilgrimages related to the Jubilee (Christia ...

, an outbreak of Protestant–Catholic sectarian violence in Toronto and Anti-Greek Riots which previously occurred in the city in 1918.

Legacy

Some sources have interpreted

The Tragically Hip The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as the Hip, was a Canadian rock band formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984, consisting of vocalist Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker (known as Bobby Baker until 1994), bassis ...

's 1999 single "

Bobcaygeon Bobcaygeon is a community on the Trent–Severn Waterway in the Kawartha Lakes, City of Kawartha Lakes, east-central Ontario, Canada. Bobcaygeon was incorporated as a village in 1876, and became known as the "Hub of the Kawarthas". Its reco ...

" as alluding to the riots, as the song's lyrics contain the words "riot" and "Aryan". This has been disputed, as the song is set in a contemporary context rather than the 1930s, and the words do not appear in close conjunction; however, the same verse contains a reference to

The Men They Couldn't Hang The Men They Couldn't Hang (TMTCH) are a British folk punk group. The original group consisted of Stefan Cush (vocals, guitar), Paul Simmonds (guitar, bouzouki, mandolin, keyboards), Philip "Swill" Odgers (vocals, guitar, tin whistle, melodic ...

, who wrote "Ghosts of Cable Street", a song about the anti-fascist

Battle of Cable Street The Battle of Cable Street was a series of clashes that took place at several locations in the East End of London, most notably Cable Street, on Sunday 4 October 1936. It was a clash between the Metropolitan Police, sent to protect a march ...

riot in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1936. Their lyricism often combined separated historical events in the same song. “50 Mission Cap” has a similar historical twist. In August 2008, a Heritage Toronto plaque was presented to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the riot. The incident was depicted in two graphic novels, ''Christie Pits'' by Jamie Michaels and illustrated by Doug Fedrau in 2019 and ''The Good Fight'' by Ted Staunton and Josh Rosen (ill.) in 2021.

References

External links

Christie Pits Riot of 1933
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