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St. Paul’s Avenue United Church
Latin American Community Spaces
Churches were often the first locations for community building for the Latin American population in Toronto. These institutions offered an affordable space for groups to meet, along with the capacity to host events.
St. Paul’s Avenue United Church became a popular performance venue and hub for activities for the Latin American community, notably exiles from Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. Numerous plays and concerts took place at the church, often with political overtones. One notable event was in 1978, when a group of Chileans and Canadians staged a hunger strike at the church to protest the Canadian government’s continued investments in Chile after Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship took control of the country in 1973.
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St. Paul’s Avenue United Church
The Exiles From Argentina
Argentine immigrants also played an important part in the Coup Wave in Toronto beginning in the 1970s. In 1976, a right-wing military coup overthrew the Argentinian government, and a military junta took control of the county. In the ensuing years, it is estimated that the junta killed nearly 30,000 people, the majority of them university students, union members, and those suspected of leftist political ideology.
In 1975, the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Argentina (CDHRA) formed, made up predominantly of exiles from Argentina living in Toronto. The group operated out of St. Paul’s Avenue United Church to bring attention to the events in their home country. On March 23, 1978, on the second anniversary of the coup, a congregation organised by the CDHRA marched to Nathan Phillips Square and held a candlelight vigil while the names of all the victims of the military junta were read out.
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St. Paul’s Avenue United Church
The Exiles from Uruguay
St. Paul’s United Avenue Church also provided space for Toronto’s growing Uruguayan community in the 1970s and 1980s. Between 1973 and 1985, a civilian-military dictatorship led by President Juan María Bordaberry ruled Uruguay. Labour unions were banned and many civil liberties suspended. It is estimated that nearly 5,000 people were arrested during the dictatorship, many of whom were tortured. U.S. Senator Frank Church was quoted in 1980 as calling Uruguay “the biggest torture chamber in Latin America.” Injustices such as these sparked a wave of immigration from Uruguay to numerous countries, including Canada.
In Toronto, the Committee for Defense of Human Rights in Uruguay (CDHRU) held meetings in St. Paul’s but also participated in letter-writing campaigns and handing out pamphlets to educate Torontonians on the situation in Uruguay. In 1975, CDHRU member and York University professor Kenneth Golby wrote directly to President Bordaberry, condemning his regime’s abuse of political prisoners. Surprisingly, Bordaberry wrote back, vehemently denying any such abuse was taking place in the country and informing Golby that they had been “misinformed by the campaign of lies of international Communism.”
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St. Paul’s Avenue United Church
After the dictatorships
The dictatorships in Argentina and Uruguay ended in 1983 and 1985, respectively. In 1989, Chile elected a new leader in its first democratic election since 1973, ending Pinochet’s military dictatorship. As these dictatorships fell, some returned to their home countries. However, many chose to remain in Toronto. In the 1980s, Toronto’s Latin American community continued to grow, as newcomers, many from Central America, arrived in Canada.
Despite the growing Latin American population, St. Paul’s gradually fell out of use as the community increasingly moved south to the Bloor and Bathurst area. By the 1990s, St. Paul’s had been sold to a private developer before being destroyed by a fire in 1995. However, the activists who used the church’s space still remember it fondly as one of the first political hubs of the Latin American community in Toronto.
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