‘Erased from history’: A century on from Canada’s anti-Greek riots
News
Historians and Greek community members say 1918 riots in Toronto reminiscent of anti-immigrant rhetoric, xenophobia now.
Toronto, Canada – The mobs marched down Yonge Street in the heart of what is now Canada’s largest city in August 1918.
Tens of thousands of people, angry over perceived social injustices, spent hours rampaging through the streets. Their target? The Greek-owned restaurants and shops that had come to symbolise their grievances.
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Analysis
“That night, crowds of 20-25,000 people destroyed almost every Greek business in the city, crying out, ‘Tonight’s the night we hunt Greeks’,” says historian Thomas Gallant.
“One restaurant was so badly damaged that a [local newspaper] reporter said it could not be more damaged if a bomb had gone off in it.”
Now, more than a century after “the single largest anti-Greek riot anywhere in the world in history” shook Toronto, experts such as Gallant say the events of that summer should serve as a cautionary tale.
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