preview

The Riot At Christie Pits

Better Essays

Today Canada is known as one of the most accepting and multicultural countries in the world. We view ourselves as accepting and open to other cultures and nationalities. This view is not only held by Canadians, but Canada is widely regarded by people worldwide as open and accepting. While this is very true today, this has not always been the case. When we look to our past we see some moments in our history which do not reflect the image that we have today. One of these moments is the riot at Christie Pits. Although this riot was a huge incident, it was only the tip of the iceberg. It was the culmination of years of anti-Semitism in Toronto and racism, and was merely the climax of a much deeper problem. The 1930s in Canada saw a spike in anti-Semitism akin to nothing that has happened before and nothing that has happened after. There were Swastika clubs formed and youth wearing swastika badges in the east end of Toronto. In Quebec, there was a party modeled after the Nazi party, called the Parti National Social Chrétien. While there is debate as to what were the reasons for this, there can be no debate that this was a dark time in Canada 's history and is in no way reflective of what Canada is today. However, in order to prevent these horrible occurrences from happening in the future, it is important to understand the causes of these events. This paper seeks to explore and understand some of the main causes of the anti-Semitism in Canada in the 1930s which culminated in the

Get Access