The summer of 1933 is one of hot weather and high tensions.
No place feels it more than Christie Pits —
a baseball diamond in midtown Toronto
next to Jewish and Italian immigrant neighbourhoods.
The surrounding neighbours make no secret of the fact
that immigrants are not welcome.
And the message is clear.
Those hate-filled voices against Jews
were part of a deeply troubling movement
unfolding in many parts of the world.
In Germany, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party rose to power in 1933.
A vicious campaign against Jews and other minority groups soon followed.
But the dangerous attraction of the Swastika
was growing on both sides of the Atlantic.
During the Great Depression some Canadians looked for scapegoats
to blame for their hardships.
In fact, anti-Semitism was nothing new in Canada.
In the first half of the twentieth century,
Jews were relegated to second-class citizens.
The few allowed into Canada as immigrants
faced systemic discrimination:
Businesses refused to hire them, universities restricted their enrolment,
and entire neighborhoods prohibited the sale or rental of housing to Jews.
Across Canada, local political leaders were vocal about their prejudice.
They spread violent propaganda against Jewish people,
turning decades of intolerance into hate.
In Toronto,
young Anglo-Canadians formed Swastika Clubs
and embraced the Nazi symbol...
…one that was impossible
to separate from the atrocities
perpetrated against the Jews of Europe.
In protest against Hitlerism, Jews took to the streets.
They were joined by labourers,
union representatives, and left-wing political groups.
Motivated by different causes, they stood united against fascism.
Thousands protested,
but Swastika Clubs continued to incite hostility against Toronto’s Jews
No laws prevented this
and so clashes regularly broke out between the two groups.
That was the backdrop to August 16th, 1933,
as Christie Pits seemed ready to explode.
At the ball diamond, fights erupt in the stands.
Supporters of the predominantly Jewish
Harbord Playground baseball team,
members of the Swastika Club,
and other Anglo-Canadians trade punches.
Police have difficulty breaking up the fights.
As the game ends,
a homemade swastika flag is unfurled on the slope
next to the ball diamond.
It’s the spark that ignites all tensions.
Bob Mackie: The swastika came at the end of the ball game.
All hell broke loose…
When this race riot broke out, it really broke out.
All I saw was people getting hit…
The bats all disappeared.
We had fifteen bats and they were all gone.
Narrator: The riot quickly spills out of the ballpark.
Bob Mackie: Truckloads! Truckloads from Spadina Avenue came up.
Now there were some tough guys down there…
Narrator: Reinforcements arrive to support both sides
Italians and other immigrants persecuted by the Anglo majority
fight alongside the Jews.
Violence explodes across the night.
For six long hours thousands of people fill the streets of Toronto...
… with Jews, Italians, and others taking a stand
against racist ideas of what it means to be Canadian.
After the unprecedented violence,
Mayor William James Stuart promises to prosecute
future displays of the swastika.
It’s a small victory,
paid for with black eyes and broken bones,
but it’s one of Canada’s first anti-hate policies.
Other lessons from the riot
take longer to learn.
Of the Western countries that took in refugees
during the Second World War,
Canada accepted the smallest number of Jews fleeing Nazism.
The Christie Pits Riot remains one of the worst
outbreaks of ethnic violence in Canadian history.
The Jews and Italians who took to the streets that
hot summer night in 1933 fought for the Canada we live in today—
one that recognizes multiculturalism as a strength.
That struggle continues to be our responsibility...
... as hate crimes against Jews are still widespread across Canada.