Democracy's Echo: Toronto Commemorates the Athens Polytechnic Uprising

The student uprising of November 17, 1973, was pivotal in recent Greek history. The protest against the dictatorship reverberated through Greek communities abroad, especially the Greek community in Toronto and York University, in particular. Andreas Papandreou, a York faculty member in the Department of Economics, founded the most organized resistance movement (Panhellenic Liberation Movement) during the dictatorship period 1967-1974. He settled in Toronto in 1969, returning to Athens after the dictatorship fell in 1974. During his stay in Toronto and at York University, Papandreou elevated the anti-dictatorship movement in Canada and beyond. In 1981, Papandreou became Prime Minister, and during a visit to Canada in March 1983, he received an honorary doctorate from York University. It was during this 1983 visit that he famously declared, “Toronto has been written in the history of modern Greece.”

On November 17, 2023, the HHF Chair in Modern Greek History, the HHF Greek Canadian Archives, York University Libraries, and the Hellenic Canadian Academic Association of Ontario will host "Democracy's Echo: Toronto Commemorates the Athens Polytechnic Uprising." The event will highlight this critical moment in York's, the Greek community's, and Toronto's history.

Program:
Friday, November 17, 2023. 10am-1:30pm.
Scott Library Collaboratory at York University, 4700 Keele St., Toronto, ON.

10-10:30am: HHF Greek Canadian Archives' Exhibit
* Curated by Maria Paraschos (HHF GCA Archivist, Clara Thomas & Special Collections)
A display of records from the George Papadatos and Toronto Telegram fonds documenting commemorations of the Athens Polytechnic Uprising throughout Canada in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as other ephemera related to the anti-dictatorship resistance in Toronto.

10:30am-12pm: Bridging Histories: 50 Years Since the Polytechneio

Video Reflection
Bob Rae, Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations

"The Polytechnic Explodes the Myth of Junta Democratization"
Spyros (Stan) Draenos, Historian Emeritus at the Andreas G. Papandreou Foundation

"Collective Memory and the Greek Anti-Dictatorship Movement in Canada"
Chris Grafos, BridgesEDU and York University, Greek Canadian History Project Founder

"Migrant Activists: Forms of Resistance in Greek Toronto during the Junta"
Sakis Gekas, York University

12-12:30pm: LUNCH
12:30-1:30pm: Stories from Toronto, 1960s-1970s
Alexandra Mourgou, York University
Q&A: Sakis Gekas and Sylvia Mittler, York University and University of Toronto

To reserve tickets, please visit:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/democracys-echo-toronto-commemorates-the-athens-polytechnic-uprising-tickets-754586437347

Friday, November 17, 2023. 7-10pm.
Papermill Theatre, 67 Pottery Road, Toronto, ON.
We end the day with a concert by the Chijazz band at the Papermill Theatre and Gallery (67 Pottery Road Toronto, ON M4K 2B9), organized by the HHF Greek Canadian Archives, the HHF Chair in Modern Greek History at York University, and the Hellenic Canadian Academic Association of Ontario. The concert will feature songs by Mikis Theodorakis, Stavros Xarhakos, Yannis Markopoulos and others who inspired and mobilized generations of Greeks against authoritarianism.
To buy tickets for the concert, please visit:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/a-concert-commemorating-the-november-1973-athens-polytechnic-uprising-tickets-738881493437