Graphic novel illustrates 'depressingly topical' history of Canada's largest race riot

On August 16, 1933, a group of Nazi-inspired men flew a homemade swastika flag at public baseball game at Toronto's Christie Pits Park. They were targeting a group of mostly Jewish men, who were playing a game that evening.

This sparked a massive riot involving 10,000 people, the largest race riot in Canadian history, not unlike the violent clash between white supremacists and counter-protesters in city of Charlottesville in 2017.

Christie Pits, a new graphic novel by Winnipeg author Jamie Michaels and illustrator Doug Fedrau, tells the story of that riot, and the climate in which it happened.

Michaels has been working on the book for three years, during which time, he says the subject matter became "depressingly topical."

"We certainly don't live in the same hateful conditions of 1933, but I believe that there are lessons to be gleaned from the Christie Pits riots that are as relevant today as when they occurred," he said.  (more...)

Graphic novel illustrates 'depressingly topical' history of Canada's largest race riot