Synopsis

Greeks in Toronto formed grass-root resistance against the dictatorship immediately after April 21, 1967 and called it "Committee for the Restoration of Democracy in Greece". This form of resistance, much more North-American and indeed Canadian-focused, contrasted in structure and political organization with the "Panhellenic Liberation Movement" (PAK) that Andreas Papandreou brought to Toronto in 1969. The talk will feature some of the key moments of the anti-dictatorship struggle and its manifestations in the public sphere, in the media and in contrast to Greek institutions (the Community, the Church) that directly or indirectly supported the dictatorship regime. The legacy of the anti-dictatorship struggle in the metapolitefsican be seen in the "homecoming" of Andreas Papandreou to Toronto as Prime Minister in 1983. The paper is based on historical material from the York University HHF Greek Canadian Archives.

Bio

Sakis Gekas is Associate Professor and the HHF (Hellenic Heritage Foundation) Chair in Modern Greek History at York University. He has published on economic and social history, British colonialism, migration and diaspora, modern Greek and Mediterranean history. His publications include: Xenocracy: State, Class and Colonialism in the Ionian Islands, 1815-1864 (Berghan, 2016);  Ξενοκρατία (Εκδόσεις Ανοικτού Πανεπιστημίου, 2021); Απόμαχοι. Οι αγωνιστές της Επανάστασης του 1821 στο Οθωνικό Κράτος (“Veterans. The fighters of the 1821 Revolution”), Athens 2021; “Hellenes of Toronto: Proud of Canadianism”. Commemorating the 1821 Revolution in Canada, 1920s-2021". in Maria Kaliambou (ed.). H Επανάσταση του 1821 και οι Έλληνες της Αμερικής. Ασίνη, Αθήνα 2023.

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