THE TORONTO RIOTS OF 1918 Although the heated date over conscription, particularly the clashes in French Canada, are a well known part of Canada’s first World War history, less known are the Toronto Riots protesting alien workers. Although on one hand the Toronto public seemed most sympathetic towards returned men, as time went on the distance between the returned men and those who had stayed behind was growing. The returned soldier was in some cases having trouble getting work. Others had trouble fitting in. Many wrote that the streets and their reception in Toronto was the cause of some bitterness. Toronto of 1918 to the casual observer looked bustling and prosperous, and many noted that it seemed hardly as if there was a war on. There were many who were getting their first automobile. The stores were filled with luxury goods, the crowds appeared well dressed and oblivious to the sufferings at the front lines. Canada did not present the atmosphere of sacrifice that was a part of British life. Many were successfully and profitably running their lives. Those who had made money during the war did not want to have to face bitter discontented men. The thoughts of the returned man are summed up by this letter sent to the Star by a returned soldier on May 10th, 1917 relating to the debate over conscription: “I am a returned soldier, only recently returned from France, and know whereof I speak. This is no time for a ‘wait and see policy.’ Our gallant lads from Canada are being wiped out again the struggle to punish the Boche baby-killer. They are fighting for you and your home. They have sacrificed everything they held dear. Do you realize this, and can you examine your heart and say ‘my conscience is clear and I am doing everything I possibly can to help keep those gallant men reinforced?’ How many eligible men are there of your acquaintance still in civilian life? How you can tolerate them I do not know. It makes my blood boil when I see these husky young men, and then think of the gallant lads that fell fighting by my side. Many and many times in the front line trenches I have read in papers from home accounts of sporting meetings and large number of young men attending them. I cried out then “Why don’t they come?” The soldier who wrote related that he had lost his eldest brother, another brother was wounded, and two cousins and each lost a leg. His two best chums were killed by his side. As early as 1917, business owners at Yonge and College streets had lost their patience with unemployed Veterans who congregated near their stores and asked the city to remove the benches that gave a resting and meeting place for returned Veterans. The men called this place Shrapnels Corners, and it was to be a focal point in the riots of 1918. Business owners felt the presence of their men obstructed traffic to their stores and asked that the city authorities move the men to away from this downtown intersection. (Source: Toronto Star – September 27, 1917).

In general the public was still sympathetic, but it was obvious as early as 1916 that the public had become accustomed to the sight of the veteran as a part of the landscape. The author of the following may well have witnessed a scene at Shrapnels Corners: Letter submitted to the Toronto Star by Jane, November 10, 1916: DARE WE FORGET? FOR YOU--FOR ME! At a corner of a busy street, one noonday I espied (and longed with all my heart to greet) two soldiers side by side. Neither vainglorious nor proud, with interested eye they watched he busy, happy crowd that, careless, passed them by with scarce a hurried backward glance, or more than passing thought, and yet, there two "somewhere in France" our battles fierce had fought. The shell had done its deadly work; each cruel traces bore of "No Man's Land" where dangers lurk, of conflict hard and sore. Within a sling, a shattered arm was eloquent of pain; that I might be kept safe from harm he braved that deadly rain. His comrade, too, had faced the storm; one limb was torn away. His slight, emaciated form had crutches for its stay. With sympathy my heart o'erflowed their sacrifice to see; with fervent pride my spirit glowed--they suffered this for me. I longed to clasp those brave, strong hands, my gratitude display, but, bound by strong Convention's bands, I silent, went my way.

Some researchers today feel the Toronto riots were specifically focused on the Greek community, but in fact the riots of August 1918 were a disorganized and unplanned affair beginning with a brawl inside a restaurant. After all, the Greek community were not the only community with men among them who had not enlisted. However, they were visible as many had restaurants along Toronto's main street. The riots began on Friday August 2nd with the destruction of mainly Greek owned restaurants. They were followed up with “several pitched battles” between police and some returned men and civilians on Saturday and Sunday morning, however, with no further property damage. By Saturday the public gathered in a crowd of apparently several thousand at the police station and a demand was made for the release of an arrested prisoner. According to the Star report, the police “used their batons mercilessly on everybody within reach” and shortly “....nearly a hundred civilians were laid out on the sidewalk bleeding and groaning”. The violence continued with the crowd moving to Adelaide and Victoria streets. The violence moved to near the Arcade, a shopping centre. Here a veteran apparently shouted to his comrades to “Fall in”, but mounted police arrived and one veteran was reportedly hit on the head by the thick canes carried by officers on horseback. This “incensed the veterans and a general uproar followed”. The crowd continued along Yonge street followed by the officers. Eventually they ended at Shrapnel Corners were it was reported that the policemen attacked a disabled veteran named Pte. Mason Button. The riot worsened with the civilian crowd apparently shrinking back:

“The police charged with batons right in amongst the crippled soldiers occupying the seats at the corner. In a second crutches were countering the blows of the police batons. It was a pitiful sight. Veteran after veteran went down. Men on one leg hopped backward with crutch poised read to give blow for blow.” While Star reporters tried to get stories from Pte. Leonard Brown and Pte. W. Lawrence who were covered in blood from head wounds, another police charge took place across the street – “The police on foot charged into the crowd, using their batons freely, while the mounted police rode along near the curb, hitting out with their whips right and left.” Toronto Star – Aug. 6th, 1918 The Saturday and Sunday disturbances ended with around 500 injured and 10 arrested – “A feature of Saturday’s rioting was the large number of women in the crowds, many of whom openly sympathized with the rioters.” Although civilians were a great part of the disorganized mob, the returned men were a part of it and police charges were made against “...the crippled soldiers who occupied the benches at Shrapnel Corners.” Source for Saturday/Sunday riot account: Toronto Star – August 6th, 1918). It is difficult to verify just how accurate these newspaper reports were in terms of numbers and casualties, although the arrests and some of the testimonies were reported in the police court files that appeared in the newspaper. The focus of the anger was against aliens who enjoyed high wages and did not have to enlist. The Veterans had met and discussed their anger at Shrapnels Corners on Yonge street, and it was on this street that the riot broke out. Yonge street at the time had many restaurants and these restaurants were frequently owned by Greek immigrants, and staffed by Austro-Hungarians. During an inquest into the riot and interviews with the soldiers, most had just become angry and frustrated watching the workers in the restaurant, and the violence started with attacks upon the Austro-Hungarian restaurant workers, and then a general assault upon foreign businesses along the Yonge street strip. During the coverage of the riot, the newspapers reports acknowledged that the public sympathized and took the side of the rioting men. However, the editorials of the day asked that the public not scapegoat the alien worker as he was not responsible for the plight of the veterans. In fact, the alien was only able to take advantage of laws that meant that he did not need to enlist, and that he was free to work. The mayor of Toronto appeared during the riot and asked for calm. He later offered compensation to the business owners. The confusion surrounding the chain of events during the riot come out during an inquest that was conducted about two months later. Generally the men proceeded down Yonge street and were joined by civilians, reaching numbers estimated in the thousands. The police followed close behind but had great difficulty controlling the crowd. Much of the inquest centred around the complaints that the police had assaulted disabled veterans. An article entitled "Policemen all deny striking Pte. Button - Officers Say Legless Soldier Was Very Excited and Shouted, "Give It "Em" (Toronto Star - Sept. 27, 1918) reports on

the conduct of the police at the riot, specifically whether the police had struck Pte. Button who was an amputee. The police stated that the "utmost caution" was taken not to attack “crippled” soldiers. They followed the rioting crowd up to Shrapnel Corners" and asked the veterans to clear the area. The veterans reportedly said: “This is our corner, and we won't any further.” The policeman insisted that he did not witness anyone beating Pte. M. Button: "No. He was a cripple, and I would not have touched him." He was then asked if he felt that the way Pte. Button was brandishing his cane was "attempting to terrorize the police?" Another Constable stated that he saw Pte. Button near the fountain on Shrapnel Corners. Pte. Button told him an officer had hit him. The police officer then stated that someone hit him from behind, and next thing he knew Pte. Button was on the ground, and his comrades went to pick him up and carry him away. The Constable felt that in the confusion it was difficult to see what was happening. Another Constable stated that he did not strike any returned men, and qualified "None in uniform." A citizen testified that she saw Constable No. 477 strike a returned man at Yonge & Shuter, and witnessed two ladies taking the soldier to the hospital. "Who were the crowd sympathizing with?" "The soldiers." Finally, the inquest ended with conflicting reports and no straight answer about what really happened to Pte. Button. It was suggested that the blows on Pte. Button's head might have come from falling on the sidewalk during the riot. According to a Sept. 18, 1918 article entitled "Crippled Soldier Struck with Baton", the police were charged with "neglect of duty" in connection with the riot. It was stated that Pte. Button was struck while on the ground by three policemen. "Pte. Button stated that he was sitting on the seats at the south-west corner of Yonge and College streets known as "shrapnel corners," in company with other wounded returned men, when the crowd came up Yonge street on Saturday evening, about seven o'clock. The larger part of the crowd went up Yonge street...with the police not far behind." Pte. Button stated that the police came to "our corner" and were "hitting everyone they could reach". He said the "big policemen" told him to move on faster. He told the policeman he had artificial limbs and could not hurry. He then said that shortly after someone hit him from behind with what felt like a club, and he was hit at least 3 more times while on the ground.

A witness who worked at a bank building at Yonge & College claimed he saw Pte. Button hit by three policeman, but could not provide a physical description of these men. The police also allegedly hit the returned men who tried to help him from the ground. A report very shortly after the riot was sympathetic to the rioters, although the Star's editorial later condemned the violence and defended the restaurant owners as innocent victims with Canadian war profiteers and draft evaders as bigger criminals than a foreigners who "shine shoes". (TS - Aug. 7, 1918) On August 6th, 1918 the Star reported that the veterans during the riot were heard to stay "We've killed better men than these Toronto policemen in France," said one. "Wait until we get our revolvers; we'll kill these pigs!" Toronto Mayor Church appeared on the scene in his car and addressed the crowd, telling them to go home. "Booh!" said the crowd, "with one voice". Another account from the Toronto Riots reveals the lack of a specific direction on the part of the veterans. Toronto Star - August 19th, 1918 NOT TO SMASH AT HOME EVEN IF BRAVE AT FRONT And Pte. W. Herringer Gets Four Months for Share in Toronto Restaurant Riots Four months at the Jail Farm was Magistrate Denison's sentence on Pte. Wm. Herringer, veteran of three years of trench fighting, in Police Court today, for taking part in the riots of August 2. "Why were you rioting?" demanded the colonel. "What grievance had you against these restaurants?" "I went in and had a piece of pie and cornflakes, and was charged 40 cents." Col. Denison: "That is the reason you wanted to smash the place?" "Yes." Four constables testified as to Herringer's activities on the Saturday morning. His battle cry was "Over the top, boys; we'll show them what we went to France for." Constable Peacock said Herringer was throwing catsup bottles and dishes. "I threw only oranges," declared Herringer. "I had just come in from Mildmay and walked up Yonge street."

Mr. Cowley: "Were you throwing catsup bottles?" "No, sir, I didn't have a catsup bottle in my hand." "He's had three years' service your Worship," said Mr. Corley, "and he has been shellshocked and gassed." Magistrate Denison: "That's commendable, but no justification for smashing up restaurants."

Politicians had always sensed the mood of the public and were quick to pick up on the fact that an anti-alien stance might win favour. This speech was reported in the Star on August 7th, 1918: "Big Crowd Listens to Veterans' Views" John Galbraith, candidate for East York...immediately plunged into the alien situation..."Do you think these men that have been through the most horrible battles of the war, would have committed those acts on Friday night, unless they saw a reason for it?" he asked. "Those big fat slobs in Government positions should be put out and their places filled by returned men...Is it fair that these returned heroes some of them minus legs or arms, or otherwise mutilated for life, should be placed in the position of being forced to beg for work while those aliens are taking the best and living on the fat of the land?" he asked. "Such papers as the Mail and Empire and the Globe, that throw out such slurs against the returned men as to call them 'hoodlums' should be brought to time." (Prolonged cheers). In an article entitled “Justice and Goodwill to All” appearing shortly after the riots, it was noted that a lot of the damage was done by civilians who accompanied the veterans in the riots – “There is a lawless element which is eager to seize upon any pretext for disorder”. It was also noted that civilians did sympathize with the men, but that they are wrong in thinking that “...they help them by wrecking Greek restaurants”. From this Toronto Star editorial dated August 7, 1918: JUSTICE AND GOODWILL TO ALL Nothing could be worse for the soldiers than that the reputation that they have won by heroic service in France should be frittered away by actions which tend to obliterate grateful memories and create prejudice. The Great War Veterans’ Association acts wisely in condemning the riots, and upholding law and order. Then it is said that the returned soldiers have a grievance, that their pensions are too small, and that aliens are getting big wages and are making profit out of the war. In that case the right procedure is to formulate the grievances, and ask for a legal remedy from the Dominion Government and Parliament. It is not just, not does it serve any good purpose, to blame the aliens for taking advantage of the law and the conditions of labor as

they find them. If the law in unjust, let the law be changed. If husky Greeks who ought to be fighting are making money in Toronto, let a treaty be made with Greece, so that they may be sent to the front. Many others besides aliens are profiting by the war, and receiving incomes far greater than those earned by the highest-paid mechanics. Many even outside the ranks of the profiteers are living in luxury, in ease, and comfort. Old men, middle-aged men, married men are exempt from compulsory military service. They owe a debt to the returned soldier which can never be paid. There is no way in which their condition can be equalized with that of the soldiers. Greek Community Response The Greek business community had suffered in the riots with extensive damage to their businesses. Greek community leaders issued an official statement stating that they support the Allied cause. They stated that there are more than 2,000 Greeks in the C.E.F. with many from Toronto, and at least 5 Toronto Greeks had been killed while serving with the C.E.F, and 10 incapacitated. At least 135 Toronto Greeks had returned home to join the army. Those who were naturalized were entering the Canadian army. He admitted when questioned that those who were not yet naturalized could not be forced to go back to Greece and serve should a call come, but was confident they would not refuse to go "when the call comes that we are expecting daily". Inquiries at the Toronto Military Service Bureau confirmed there was no machinery for aliens into the Canadian army or forcing them to go home and serve in their home countries. (Toronto Star - Aug. 7, 1918) Very shortly after the riots an Editorial appeared in the Star that analyzed the soldier's concerns. In substance it was very balanced in its approach and may have been written today: August 9th, 1918 Aliens as Scapegoats The question of the treatment of returned soldiers is a much broader question than the position of aliens. It is not the aliens who stand in the way of justice to returned soldiers, though it may be convenient to make a scapegoat of the alien. If anything is wrong Governments are to blame, and to some extent the whole community is to blame. The attitude of the returned soldier is easily understood. He was asked to give up his position, to leave his family and his country, to sacrifice comfort and safety in order to secure the safety and liberty of us who remained at home. H answered the call. The result is that the rest of us were allowed to remain in practically the same condition as if there were no war at all. Some have made huge profits out of the war. Even those who are free from that reproach have been living in comfort, following their usual occupations, taking their usual amusement, living their normal lives.

Into such a community the soldier returns, crippled, shell-shocked, gas-poisoned, handicapped in the race of civil life. There is to the returned soldier something exasperating in the atmosphere. There is occasionally something cool and patronizing even in the attitude of those who want to be kind and helpful. There is not the heartfelt gratitude that would be expected from people who owe the security of heir property, their liberty, and their lives to the men in France. It is unfair and it is cowardly in the general civilian population to allow all the blame to be borne by a few aliens, who have little to do with the making of our laws and the conditions of employment. Rather let each of us examine his own conduct, and see whether he is doing his full duty to the returned soldier. Let us examine our laws, and see whether they are just to the returned soldier. Let us ask whether returned soldiers are carried back to Canada in comfort and decency. Let us criticize ourselves and our lawmakers rather than the aliens. Aliens may in some cases be making big wages, but the returned soldier would be little better off it the wages were reduced, or even if all the aliens were deported from the country. What the country needs is wise and just legislation --laws that will be just to the whole community, while acknowledging the soldiers' claim in special recognition. The remedy does not lie in rioting, neither does it lie in the suppression of rioting, necessary though that is. The riots should be regarded as symptoms of discontent with which the Government, Parliament, and the community should deal. We now have on our hands the problem of the returned soldier, which will be immensely greater and more difficult when soldiers return in the hundreds of thousands. The continual nagging at aliens serves only to divert our minds from the real problem, and to postpone the solution. It encourages the rest of us to shirk our own duties. FOREIGNERS AMONG US It cannot be denied, however, that soldiers who have returned from the war and soldiers who have been drafted to serve in the war have some justification for protest against the way in which foreigners in this country are exempted from war service, from tax-paying, from patriotic giving, while they enjoy extra high wages on account of the war. These soldiers say, and a great many others agree with them, that foreigners who are enemy aliens ought to be interned, and if released under license to work at current war wages ought to be taxed for the good of the country which is, at such a time as this, affording them security, shelter, and comfort. These soldiers say also, and a great many others entirely agree with them, that foreigners who are of allied countries ought to be as much in this war as we are ourselves, that being here they ought to be as much subject to draft as our own men of military age, or as much subject to draft as they would be if they were in their own country.

There ought to be a more complete co-operation between the allied nations. We are now in the fifth year of the war, and it is but of late that the allies in the field have come under one command. The results of this centralized command are highly satisfactory. On the sea, too, there is the most complete co-operation, both as to fighting ships and merchant marine. All shipping on salt water works as if from one central command. But in a very important respect the co-operation is left incomplete. It is understand that by this time next month arrangements will have been perfected by which in each of the allied countries citizens of all other allied countries will be made as liable to military service as if they were at home or as if they were natives of the country they happen to be in. In Canada, therefore, it is expected that foreigners from allied countries will be liable to military service either with our forces or with the forces of their own country, and that Canadians in the United States will be in the same position. Instead of Canada having to maintain expensive missions in the United States to gather recruits our citizens over there will come under American regulations. This plan if put into effect even at this late date ought to do much to improve a situation that causes much discontent. But it leaves the question of enemy aliens still to be dealt with, and if the war is to be prolonged a way of handling that problem will have to be found. We are strongly opposed to any attitude of injustice towards foreigners of any class. But we are equally opposed to any policy of injustice towards natives of this country.

The war was to end just three months later. There was not enough time to follow up on any laws to require aliens to serve, or to be taxed on their wages. As stated then, it was not the alien who was to blame, but the self-satisfied public who had stayed home and enjoyed a good life while others risked their lives at war. The public might be sympathetic, but the Government was not confident that handing out generous pensions and benefits. The tide was to turn and it was not long before public sympathy was exhausted and some voices would blame the returned man for his lack of success in the workforce.

M. I. Pirie September 2006