The Toronto Blue Jays’ impending appearance in the World Series has many people thinking back to 1993, when Joe Carter’s home run earned the Jays their second consecutive championship, which remains the last time they won it to this day.
In Saskatoon, another memory is tied to that victory. After Carter played them all, thousands of people flooded the city’s Eighth Street. What began as jubilation turned into a riot, with cars and businesses damaged, tear gas fired, and multiple arrests.
This week, city archivist Jeff O’Brien recounted the riot to host Stephanie Massicotte on the CBC show. saskatoon morning.
He said it started with joy, with about 4,000 people waving Canadian flags, leaning out of car windows and celebrating.
“I mean, it seems like a pretty good time,” O’Brien said. “Then things got complicated.”
Following the Blue Jays’ victory in the 1993 World Series, fans flocked to 8th Street in Saskatoon. It soon turned into a riot.
Police in the area were seriously outnumbered. At some point the crowd got out of control, although how exactly that happened is still up for debate.
“He [Saskatoon StarPhoenix] “The next day’s newspaper quoted people saying things like ‘everything was fine until the police showed up,'” he said. “So there were suggestions that the police overreacted.”
The police called in the riot squad and read to the crowd the riot law itself, which in Canada has the decidedly less catchy title of Section 67 of the Criminal Code.
“It goes back to 18th century England and it says that when 12 or more people gather unlawfully or riotously — that’s the official wording — then this proclamation is read aloud,” O’Brien said.
“It basically says, ‘Okay, go home now.’ And you have to do it within a certain time, 30 minutes. And if you don’t do it, you can be arrested.”
Former CBC Saskatoon radio host Garth Materie, then a reporter, happened to be in the area, having watched the game at an establishment on Eighth Street. He shared his memories of that night with saskatoon morning in 2015.
“People started returning to the place and everyone was starting [up]Their nose was runny and they were coughing,” Materie said.
“Then someone shouted, ‘the police are throwing tear gas.’”
He said he went outside to try to see what was going on and found an extremely angry crowd.
“Bottles, tire irons and all kinds of things are thrown at anyone in uniform,” he said.
Materie said CBC later discovered that police had been ordered to keep Eighth Street open to traffic no matter what. The officers’ inability to do so led them to call in the riot squad, he said, which in turn led to the firing of tear gas and further angering the crowd.
Things calmed down around 1:30 a.m. CST, according to O’Brien. At least 14 arrests were made; some people were charged and others released with warnings.
O’Brien said there have been other spontaneous mass gatherings in the city, but none so out of control. After the announcement of the end of World War II, an estimated 20,000 people (half the city’s population at the time) crowded into downtown Saskatoon.
“I once talked to a lady who told me that she and her friends danced until dawn that night in front of the Bessborough Hotel on 21st Street,” he said.
Asked if he thinks we could see a repeat of riots if the Blue Jays win again this year, O’Brien expressed cautious optimism.
“I hope not,” he said.
“I can’t imagine it. For one thing, you know, all those kids throwing beer bottles in 1993, they’re 50 now. So they go home early.”
saskatoon morning2:33CBC Saskatoon host Garth Materie describes the 1993 riots
Garth Materie was on 8th Street in Saskatoon when a riot broke out after the Blue Jays won the World Series.
