The history of Toronto's infamous 'patty wars'

A beef patty — or, as you will learn, legally a "Jamaican patty” — is a staple of Toronto cuisine. On the menus of upscale and Michelin-recommended restaurants like Patois and Chubby’s to bakeries right in the TTC, simply the word "patty" evokes the smells of scotch bonnets.

But there was a time in the mid-'80s where, due to the bureaucracy of the Canadian government, the iconic snack we know and love was under attack — leading to a community-driven pushback over it.

Here's a bit of the spicy history of what is known as the "patty wars."

A brief introduction to Jamaican Canadians

From 1955 to 1967, Canada made a targeted effort to recruit women from the Caribbean to be domestic workers to meet demand, known as the West Indian Domestic Scheme. Now a national historic event, this resulted in an influx of Jamaican immigrants into cities like Toronto.

During the 1960s, Canada loosened its Immigration Act, making it more favourable for Jamaicans to immigrate to the country based on their level of education and skills.

Many landed on Toronto's Eglinton Ave. W. between Allen Rd. W. and Keele St. — what is now known as Little Jamaica.

It was during this period that the Davidsons moved to Toronto, and opened up a bakery named "Kensington Patty Palace."

Patty party pooper

As one of the prominent patty shops on the block, more people began to take note of this turmeric-tinged beef snack — including the Federal Government of Canada.

In 1985, Ottawa started to enforce the Meat Inspection Act to regulate the industry. Under that act, it classified a "beef patty" as "shaped lean beef, ground or boneless, and may contain seasonings, but no other ingredients."

This is when Michael Davidson, manager and son of the owners of Kensington Patty Palace, along with staff from other patty bakeries in Toronto, received an "official notice of violation" from a Consumer and Corporate Affairs food inspector.

Because what they were selling was not legally defined as a patty, the inspector told these bakeries that they would have three months to change their branding, packaging and menus, or face a $5,000 fine — a sum these bakeries, Kensington Patty Palace included, couldn't face without going under.

Heating up the beef

The patty providers would not be put off, and all decided to band together to fight against the government's attempt to change the name of the patty — with Davidson leading the charge.

Thanks to his good standing in the community and customer contacts, he was able to drum up media support. From newspaper articles to TV reports, "the patty wars" were in full swing, and they had gone international.

On Feb. 17, 1985, a local Jamaican newspaper reported on Canada's patty problem. The timing of the incident also coincided with a scheduled trip to the island by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, with many wondering if this would be a point of contention with Mulroney and his Jamaican counterpart Edward Seaga.

Even local politicians decided to capitalize on this, with Ontario opposition leader David Peterson holding a press conference at Kensington Patty Palace on February 18, where he stated the matter was "bureaucracy gone wild."

A well-seasoned ceasefire

With tensions rising and the aroma of a lawsuit melding in with the curry spices, an official "patty summit" was called on Feb. 19, including federal officials and Davidson, along with Jamaican Consul General Oswald Murray and lawyer Lloyd Perry.

A compromise was made, and bakeries were allowed to keep the name "beef patty" as long as it was prefixed with "Jamaican." Davidson held a party at Kensington Patty Palace to celebrate the win on Feb. 23 — which is now officially designated as "Patty Day" in Toronto.

What started out as an attack on the patty actually helped the pastry grow in popularity, and soon Kensington Patty Palace expanded its operations to Scarborough to scale their business, eventually exporting their own patties back to the Caribbean.

To commemorate the "patty wars," filmmaker Chris Strikes interviewed Davidson for the short documentary Patty vs. Patty, which won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Short Documentary at the 11th Canadian Screen Awards in 2023.