Search for "anti-semitism"

Article

Christie Pits Riot

The Christie Pits Riot occurred on 16 August 1933 in Toronto, Ontario. It remains one of the worst outbreaks of ethnic violence in Canadian history with over 10,000 participants and spectators. The riot was sparked by Nazi-inspired youth flying a swastika flag at a public baseball game to antagonize and provoke Jewish Canadians.

Article

Delisle-Richler Controversy

In June 1991, the newsmagazine L’Actualité published portions of Esther Delisle’s doctoral thesis. It argued that anti-Semitic and pro-fascist sentiments were prominent amongst the French Canadian intelligentsia prior to the Second World War. Delisle claimed that Lionel Groulx was responsible for anti-Semitic statements made in the pages of the influential Montreal newspaper Le Devoir between 1929 and 1939. This research interested Mordecai Richler, who referenced Delisle’s work in his controversial 1992 bestseller, Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! Requiem for a Divided Nation. Delisle and Richler’s arguments and conclusions remained controversial for over a decade.

Article

Canada and the Holocaust

The Holocaust is defined as the systematic persecution and murder of 6 million Jews and 5 million non-Jews, including Roma and Sinti, Poles, political opponents, LGBTQ people and Soviet prisoners of war (POWs), by Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. Jews were the only group targeted for complete destruction. Nazi racial ideology considered them subhuman. Though Jewish Canadians did not experience the Holocaust directly, the majority endured anti-Semitism in Canada. Jewish Canadians were only one generation removed from lands under German occupation from 1933 to 1945. They maintained close ties to Jewish relatives in those lands. These ties affected the community’s response to the Holocaust. There was, for instance, a disproportionate representation of Jews in the Canadian armed forces. Jewish Canadians were also heavily involved in postwar relief efforts for displaced persons and Holocaust survivors in Europe.