Faith and Family: Pakistani Heritage in Toronto

Almost a century of British rule in India officially ended in 1947. The subcontinent was divided into the independent dominions of India and Pakistan, two countries that legally came into existence at midnight on August 14th.

Canadian immigration quotas in place at the time capped the number of Pakistanis who could migrate here. Just 100 were allowed to settle each year and many went to the United Kingdom or the United States.

Canada abandoned quotas in the 1960s and many highly-educated Pakistani professionals – doctors, lawyers, engineers – found jobs in Toronto. They were joined by young men who came to study at university and decided to stay.

Getting started was sometimes lonely. Many Pakistani newcomers left behind their families to come to an unfamiliar country half a world away.

Toronto’s first mosque opened in 1969 in the former High Park Presbyterian Church on Boustead Avenue.

The city’s rapidly growing Muslim community, then made up of about 5,000 people mostly from the Balkans, transformed the church into the city’s first dedicated Islamic place of worship.

Previously, worship was conducted out of the Muslim Society of Toronto on Dundas Street West in the Junction.

The old Presbyterian church pews were stripped out to create large interior space suitable for worship and the first service was held at 7 am on February 27.

Watch: The CBC program The Day It Is covers the opening of the mosque in 1969

In the 1970s, many new Pakistani migrants joined the Jami Mosque, which became an important place for the expression of their faith in a mostly Christian society.

Founded by the Islamic Foundation of Toronto in a former Orange Order lodge on Rhodes Avenue near Gerrard Street East and Greenwood Avenue, Toronto’s second mosque further addressed the cultural and social needs of the city’s diverse Muslim community.

The main floor of the building became the spiritual sanctuary and there was an assembly hall on the upper floor for weekend classes and community events.

The first board of directors included a mix of people from Eastern Europe and South Asia. Newcomers from Pakistan, Yugoslavia, India, Turkey, and Guyana all shared this space, praying together, eating together, and helping each other adjust to their new lives.

It wouldn’t be long before the Islamic Foundation was again looking for more space.

Listen: Yousef Khan describes the growth of religious services in Toronto

What is now the Gerrard India Bazaar developed around the old Eastwood Cinema. Built in 1929, the movie house originally catered to the English, Irish, and Scottish immigrants who settled the area before the First World War.

By the 1960s, however, the theatre had seen better days. It closed in 1966 and was rented in 1972 by Gian Naz (who sometimes spelled his name Naaz,) a recent immigrant from India who started to show Hindi, Urdu, and Bengali-language films.

The Naaz Theatre became a major draw for migrants from India and Pakistan and new businesses and restaurants opened nearby.

Listen: Alnoor Sayani, founder of the Lahore Tikka House, remembers the Naaz Theatre

His parents moved to the East African country at a time when many Urdu-speaking people from Pakistan and India chose to make new lives in former British colonies. In 1972, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin ordered 80,000 people of South Asian descent expelled from the country.

About 6,000 people who left Uganda migrated to Canada. Like the vast majority, Sayani’s family settled in England, where they turned their passion for food into a halal meat business. In 1982, Alnoor Sayani came to Toronto, where he dreamed of opening a restaurant.

Though he regularly encountered racism and discrimination, he also found the city to be full of opportunities.

Listen: Alnoor Sayani talks about arriving in Toronto

With local support, Lahore Tikka House expanded from its original site into a former Kentucky Fried Chicken location, which was transformed into a colourful two-storey restaurant decorated with Islamic architectural flourishes and intricate tile work.

The restaurant became an important centre for Pakistani culture in Toronto. It allowed Sayani and his staff to showcase their history, heritage, language, and identity to non-Pakistani customers.

Listen: Sayani talks about his vision for the Lahore Tikka House

The new $6 million mosque was a distinctive three story, white-stone structure with a copper dome. Half the money required to build it came from the local Toronto Muslim community.

Listen: Yousef Khan talks about the role of the Islamic Foundation mosque 

Urdu-speaking Muslims and other Muslim newcomers to Toronto began to settle in northeast Scarborough to be close to the mosque and friends and family in the area.

Today, the Islamic Foundation of Toronto’s mosque with its gleaming white minaret towers above the mostly low-rise, suburban landscape, a symbol of the growth of the city’s Pakistani and Muslim communities.

Since launching in 2012, this youth-led project has collected and told the stories of nine immigrant communities. This Diversity Story was originally written in 2012 by Tyson Brown and student Humaira Saeed. It was edited by Heritage Toronto in 2019.

Read the unabridged story of the establishment of the Pakistani community in Urdu here.