\u2018Conditions ripe for an explosion\u2019<\/p>\n
Toronto was in the throes of a heatwave in early August 1918 as it prepared to host a national congress of the Great War Veterans Association, a group advocating for the needs of soldiers returning to Canada after World War I.<\/p>\n
The country paid a heavy price on the battlefields of Europe: Tens of thousands of Canadian soldiers were killed during the war, which ended in November 1918, while more than 172,000 arrived home injured.<\/p>\n
Those veterans returned to a lack of support from the Canadian government, which offered inadequate health care and no disability pensions. \u201cThey came back to a country that really wasn\u2019t all that welcoming,\u201d says Gallant.<\/p>\n
Most Greek immigrants in Canada did not serve in WWI, in part due to fears in government that some might harbour the pro-German views of Greece\u2019s King Constantine I. While it was not official policy to refuse to accept naturalised Greeks into the army, says Gallant, it only happened \u201cvery rarely\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found the enlistment papers of only about 10 who were accepted, because you didn\u2019t know who you were getting.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, in Toronto, many returning Canadian veterans lived near a military hospital that was in the same neighbourhood that the city\u2019s small-yet-visible Greek community was establishing itself.<\/p>\n
In 1918, Greek immigrants made up less than one percent of the population in Toronto, but they owned more than one-third of the city\u2019s cheap eateries and diners.<\/p>\n
The perception among members of the city\u2019s veteran community was that Greeks had grown rich while they, the ones who had sacrificed so much in the war, had been left destitute. And the visibility of the Greek community was key, says Gallant.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day, these veterans who ate at those diners \u2026 saw these Greeks \u2013 young men, very healthy, robust \u2013 who managed not to serve. And the Greeks came to epitomise what was called \u2018the slacker\u2019,\u201d or the draft dodger, he explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conditions were ripe then for an explosion.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Sandra](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/DSC_0371-1779714145.jpg\")
Sandra Gionas of the Hellenic Heritage Foundation with a pamphlet about the riots [Jillian Kestler-D\u2019Amours\/Al Jazeera]White City Cafe<\/p>\n
That explosion was set off at a Greek-owned restaurant known as the White City Cafe, where a drunk Canadian military veteran had become belligerent and abusive towards staff.<\/p>\n
Police were called and Claude Cludernay\u00a0 \u2013 the veteran in question \u2013 was held overnight in jail. But by the next day, rumours had begun to spread among the veterans in Toronto that Cludernay had been beaten \u2013 or even killed \u2013 by Greek immigrants.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of people massed outside the restaurant and, despite the pleas of owner Paul Letros, who tried to calm the angry crowd, the cafe was attacked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey yelled, \u2018Tonight we get justice,\u2019 and they started throwing bricks through the windows and ransacked the whole place,\u201d said Sandra Gionas, chair of the history committee at the Hellenic Heritage Foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mob grew throughout the night and, eventually, other Greek restaurants were going to be targeted,\u201d she told Al Jazeera outside the two-storey brick building at 433 Yonge Street which previously housed the cafe.<\/p>\n
Over the course of the weekend, more than a dozen Greek-owned businesses would be destroyed across Toronto, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in damages \u2013 the equivalent of millions of dollars today. No deaths or serious injuries were reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a map with the red dots of all the Greek businesses that were destroyed,\u201d Gionas says, opening a pamphlet that her organisation gives out during a walking tour of important sites linked to the riots.<\/p>\n
![\"Sandra](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/DSC_0400-1779714149.jpg\")
Sandra Gionas of the Hellenic Heritage Foundation in Toronto [Jillian Kestler-D\u2019Amours\/Al Jazeera]Episode \u2018erased from history\u2019<\/p>\n
The riots made headlines in Canada, Greece and other countries around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cAngry Mob Wrecks Dozen Restaurants,\u201d read one in the Toronto Daily Star on August 3, 1918. \u201cReturned Soldiers Raid Many Greek Restaurants,\u201d the Globe and Mail proclaimed that same day.<\/p>\n
\u201cA crowd of a thousand returned soldiers and sympathisers broke loose last night,\u201d the Globe\u2019s report reads.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom six o\u2019clock in the evening until after two o\u2019clock this morning they were absolute masters of all authority, defied the police and the military, and utterly tore to pieces the interiors of a dozen restaurants and stores, leaving wreckage in their path like unto the devastation they saw themselves after their advance in France following a great artillery battle.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the overriding narrative in 1918 was, by and large, that the Greek community was itself to blame for the violent incident, said Gallant, who has studied local newspaper clippings in the aftermath of the riots.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven the mayor [of Toronto] said, \u2018Yes, all of the grievances of the soldiers need to be looked at. Yes, the Greeks have not done their fair share for the war\u2019,\u201d he says. \u201cIt became blame the victim, the immigrant.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/s2-1779719068.jpg\")
A story in the Globe and Mail detailing the riots [The Globe and Mail, 1844-1936\/Retrieved from Toronto Public Library]<\/p>\n
Public attention also quickly turned to other issues, such as the rise of left-wing labour movements in Canada after the end of WWI, which led to the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 \u2013 the largest in Canadian history.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a \u201ccone of silence\u201d had fallen over the Greek community in Toronto as families tried to turn the page and rebuild, Gallant says. The goal was assimilation, and gradually, the anti-Greek riots were \u201cerased from history\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that often happens with episodes like this, when a minority population suffers discrimination,\u201d he explains. \u201cIn the case of a community that\u2019s trying to assimilate, the last thing they want is to sort of foreground this history.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was not until the early 2000s that more people became aware of what had happened, thanks in part to a book Gallant co-wrote, titled \u201cThe 1918 anti-Greek Riot in Toronto\u201d.<\/p>\n
In 2009, a documentary about the violent chapter in Canadian history also came out, reaching a wider audience. Gionas says she had never heard about the riots until she saw the documentary on TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was shocked to find out about them,\u201d she says, describing the story as \u201clargely forgotten\u201d for decades. \u201cI was like, \u2018I thought I was a student of Canadian history, how can I not know this\u2019?\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/DSC_0555-1779714172.jpg\")
A board game and trading cards store on Toronto\u2019s Yonge Street, the site of the former White City Cafe where the riots began [Jillian Kestler-D\u2019Amours\/Al Jazeera]Echoes of the past, today<\/p>\n
While more than 100 years have passed since the riots, both Gallant and Gionas said they remain more relevant than ever \u2013 particularly as Canada experiences a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment.<\/p>\n
Public opinion on immigration has hardened in recent years amid socioeconomic challenges. such as a housing crisis and soaring prices.<\/p>\n
Polling shows a majority of Canadians now believe there is \u201ctoo much\u201d immigration to the country, and anti-immigrant rhetoric has become commonplace, with politicians talking about \u201cbogus\u201d asylum seekers<\/a> and blaming newcomers for social ills.<\/p>\n That is a trend happening around the world, said Gallant, who points to events south of the border in the United States as one of the most extreme modern-day examples.<\/p>\n