The story of Toronto's bizarre 1985 'patty wars': when the government tried to rename the beef patty

In 1985, the Canadian government tried to stop Jamaican bakeries and restaurants from using the term "beef patty." 

Patty vs. Patty, a new documentary from CBC Short Docs, tells the story of Toronto's bizarre patty wars: when the city's patty vendors refused to change the name of their beloved snack, and made international headlines along the way.

At the time, Canada's Meat Inspection Act classified a beef patty as what goes in a hamburger. It could contain only meat and seasoning and it couldn't be encased in dough or a crust. Therefore, a Jamaican patty — widely known as a flaky pastry with a spiced beef filling — didn't meet the criteria. 

Bureaucrats thought calling hamburger patties and Jamaican patties the same thing would be confusing to Canadians (despite the fact that the latter were already popular in cities like Toronto, due to a wave of immigrants who arrived from the Caribbean in the '60s and '70s).

Patty vendors faced fines of more than $11,000 in today's dollars for not complying

Michael Davidson was the manager of his family's bakery, Kensington Patty Palace, in 1985. His parents had opened the bakery after moving to Toronto from Jamaica in the 1970s.

In February of 1985, Davidson's parents were on vacation in Jamaica when he received a visit from a food inspector from Consumer and Corporate Affairs. 

Inspectors visited at least eight patty vendors that month, demanding that they rename beef patties to, well, anything except "beef patty." The officials threatened fines of $5,000 (more than $11,000 in today's dollars) if the shops didn't comply by changing their menus, packaging and signs.

In the documentary, Davidson recalls that the associated costs of changing the bakery's name and sign, and registering a new business name would have cost the business $10,000 (roughly $22,500 in 2022 dollars). 

"The unnecessary burden that we were being placed under would have brought the business to a premature end," Davidson says in the documentary. 

Despite the threat of fines, the vendors resisted. They banded together and refused to sell the patty under any other name. Davidson became their representative. 

He found himself at the centre of the controversy when community outrage propelled the story into the media spotlight. Davidson made headlines in newspapers and on local TV news.

The Patty Summit

Politicians got involved; lawyers got involved; the Jamaican consulate got involved. "People would call them and say, 'Oh, this part of our heritage is being destroyed,'" recalls Davidson in the documentary. 

Eventually, bureaucrats from Consumer and Corporate Affairs and representatives for the patty vendors met at a so-called "patty summit" on Feb. 19, 1985. 

In the end, a compromise was made: while vendors couldn't use the term "beef patty," they could call their product a "Jamaican patty."

On Feb. 23, 1985, Davidson and Kensington Patty Palace held a celebration at the store. "It was a day in which we invited everyone to come down and celebrate with us," says Davidson.

Feb. 23 is now known as Patty Day in Toronto, in commemoration of the day it became OK to call them Jamaican patties. 

Told from Michael Davidson's perspective, Patty vs. Patty weaves together first-hand anecdotes, archival footage and satirical re-enactments to tell this story of bureaucracy gone amok, community resistance and a delicious pastry — officially known as the Jamaican patty ever since. Watch Patty vs. Patty on YouTube.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.