International cities that Canadian cities most resemble demographically

[Luisito]

Speaking of demogrpahics, I watched this video about race riots that took place in Toronto in 1933. A sad episode in Torontos history but the way they describe the city at the time is very interesting.

"....This is a largely forgotten episode in the city's history. How could a riot of such magnitude inspired by the nazi symbol happen here in 1933 when Toronto was the most BRITISH of cities?"

"The dominion of Canada was a patriotic backwater of the British empire"

Starts around the 2:04 minute mark.
• Video Link

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by Luisito

"The dominion of Canada was a patriotic backwater of the British empire"

Ha ha. I wasn't expecting that to be the first line in the video, and it made me laugh out loud.

It reminded me of this:

• Video Link

Speaking of demogrpahics, I watched this video about race riots that took place in Toronto in 1933. A sad episode in Torontos history but the way they describe the city at the time is very interesting.

"....This is a largely forgotten episode in the city's history. How could a riot of such magnitude inspired by the nazi symbol happen here in 1933 when Toronto was the most BRITISH of cities?"

I don't know if it really counts as forgotten history in the city. There's a plaque, local history buffs know the story pretty well, and it allegedly was touched on in the Tragically Hip's song "Bobcaygeon". This last point has been disputed, but the very fact that commentators glommed on to the idea that the Hip were singing about the Christie Pits riots means that it's not a completely forgotten event in the city's history.

[Docere]

Because before 1939 Nazi Germany was not "the enemy." PM Mackenzie King thought Hitler was a fine guy.

[Docere]

Certainly not forgotten in Toronto's Jewish community.

[Luisito]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

I don't know if it really counts as forgotten history in the city. There's a plaque, local history buffs know the story pretty well, and it allegedly was touched on in the Tragically Hip's song "Bobcaygeon". This last point has been disputed, but the very fact that commentators glommed on to the idea that the Hip were singing about the Christie Pits riots means that it's not a completely forgotten event in the city's history.

Originally Posted by Docere

Certainly not forgotten in Toronto's Jewish community.

Yes absolutely, My point was not that this incident was forgotten. SadlyI am sure similar incidents were common everywhere at that time. I was quoting what was said in the video. I was trying to emphasize how they were describing Toronto at the time as a British city. In many ways that is still true today.

[MolsonExport]

Lionel Groulx was apparently an anti-semite, yet he has a metro station that bears his name.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Lionel Groulx was apparently an anti-semite, yet he has a metro station that bears his name.

He also has a CEGEP and a number of other things named for him.

However you want to describe the "trend" (positively or negatively), it's fair to say that Quebec doesn't really take part in it. And neither does most of the non-anglo world, to be perfectly honest.

[Docere]

Though baseball is much more of a North American thing (the riots took place at a baseball diamond). The interwar period was the time when American influence was starting to displace British influence (though obviously there was a time when both existed simultaneously).

[Wigs]

If one reads Allan Levine's fairly comprehensive 'Toronto: Biography of a city' you begin to understand Antisemitism was rampant, particularly in the pre WW2 era of Toronto.
"Toronto the Good" was highly racist. I purchased the book a few years back for my Dad who's a born and raised Torontonian and he enjoyed it.

https://www.amazon.ca/Toronto-Biogra...c5e03d79661192

[Docere]

There was a lot of anti-Semitism in NA cities in the first half of the 20th century. Jews faced discrimination in universities and professions. And veering into the wrong neighborhood or walking down the wrong street could get you beat up if you were Jewish.

In 1930s Toronto, Jews mostly lived around Kensington Market and south of Bloor out to about Grace. Harbord was the "Jewish high school" in those days - lots of prominent Canadian Jews went there. Christie Pits was Anglo Canadian turf, bordering on the Jewish settlement.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Lionel Groulx was apparently an anti-semite, yet he has a metro station that bears his name.

I've heard significant complaints from Jewish coworkers originally from Montreal about this one.

[ToxiK]

If Robert Monckton can have a city and a university bearing his name, Lionel Groulx can very well have a subway station and a cégep.

[urbandreamer]

I still talk to my ex's Dad, a Jewish guy who grew up hearing stories about the Christie Pit's riot from his father. As he said, it was Eastend Anglo teenagers vs Jewish westend boys. But context is important: these were tough working class Scots/Irish mostly, not upper class WASPs from the Annex. Anyway, everytime I talk to him he starts out with "I hate English Canadians" and I go along with his shtick ... he's a racist ha. (Finally went to a nursing home, pretty certain he's got dementia but still has an insane, albeit racist sense of humor.)

My WASPY grandmother lived in the Annex in the 1920s-30s. A radical leftwing communist, she was involved in the Spadina/Kensington Market Jewish community, but did set the record straight regarding the rioters and what really happened.

[Docere]

Right, the Christie Pits thugs were not the patricians in the Annex.

Two older Jewish professors I had lived on Palmerston, one on Palmerston Blvd. another on Palmerston Ave about two blocks north, but on the north side of Bloor. The one who lived on Palmerston Ave. explained to me, Palmerston Blvd., back in the day, was where the Jewish factory owners, merchants and doctors lived. North of Bloor, Palmerston was skilled working class Anglo Canadian.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by ToxiK

If Robert Monckton can have a city and a university bearing his name, Lionel Groulx can very well have a subway station and a cégep.

There is still lots of stuff named for Jeffrey Amherst in Canada as well.

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by ToxiK

If Robert Monckton can have a city and a university bearing his name, Lionel Groulx can very well have a subway station and a cégep.

[trollface]

"Compte tenu de l'antisémitisme inquiétant de Lionel Groulx, nous avons décidé de effacer son nom de cette grande station de métro, qui s'appellera désormais "Station Arcand"

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

[trollface]

"Compte tenu de l'antisémitisme inquiétant de Lionel Groulx, nous avons décidé de effacer son nom de cette grande station de métro, qui s'appellera désormais "Station Arcand"

I know you mean Adrien but Denys might be up for "cancellation" as well.

The woke crowd didn't like his latest movie. Too critical of our times. (Guess they haven't been paying attention to Denys Arcand's work over the past 40 years.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2rFi9PLoFY

[ToxiK]

Originally Posted by Acajack

There is still lots of stuff named for Jeffrey Amherst in Canada as well.

I know. A great honor for one of the forefather of biological warfare.

[Acajack]

The "cancellation" episodes we're going though are totally lacking in seriousness and consistency.

The same Toronto city council that wants to cancel Henry Dundas' name over very inconclusive allegations about slavery also wants to rename a stadium for Rob Ford, who actually used racial epithets about black people and other minorities.

[lio45]

Pretty sure Montreal renamed its Amherst street? (While Sherbrooke did not.)