Discover Toronto's history as told through its plaques

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Riot at Christie Pits

Photos by Alan L Brown - Posted November, 2008

On the northwest corner of Christie Street and Bloor Street West stands this 2008 Heritage Toronto plaque. This is what it says:

Coordinates: 43.663610 -79.419179

Click here for a larger map

On August 16, 1933, at the end of a playoff game for the Toronto junior softball championship, one of the city's most violent ethnic clashes broke out in this park (then known as Willowvale Park). Toronto was a predominately British and Protestant city struggling through the Great Depression, and youths in several neighbourhoods were harassing those they considered "foreigners". Widespread prejudice against Jews made them particular targets. Two nights earlier, on August 14, fans of the predominately Jewish "Harbord Playground" team were provoked by local "Pit Gang" members with a makeshift swastika, a symbol made familiar by the recent rise to power of the Nazi party in Germany. At the end of the game on August 16, another large swastika was displayed. Jewish fans attacked its bearers. As word of the fight spread, reinforcements - including Italian friends of Jewish youths - rushed to the area. The resulting five-hour riot involved baseball bats and iron bars, and spilled onto the streets. Though no one was killed, Torontonians were shocked by the violence. Mayor Stewart questioned the inadequate response of the Chief of Police to warnings of impending violence, and stated that anyone displaying the swastika emblem would be liable to prosecution.

Related Toronto plaques
1918 Anti-Greek Riots
The Types Riot

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Conflict

Here are the visitors' comments for this page.

> Posted November 25, 2011
A grim reminder of what man should never become!

> Posted June 1, 2010
Fantastic that the city made a plaque on the Riot. Such a important part of Toronto's history!

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