Filmmaker keeps Caribbean history alive one patty at a time

Impacting Jamaica

Last year, when Chris Strikes, a Jamaican Canadian Toronto-based filmmaker and award-winning music video creator, read about the “patty wars” that took place in Toronto in 1985, he thought the story was absurd. Then he decided to research the story and found that it did happen in February — 37 years ago — when federal food inspectors deemed Jamaican beef patties did not match the technical definition of "beef patty" under the Meat Inspection Act. They thought Canadians would confuse the beef patty with the hamburger patty. A “patty summit” was held involving local Toronto businesses selling Jamaican patties, Jamaica’s consul general and Canadian bureaucrats. It resulted in a victory for the businesses, some of which were selling Jamaican patties from the 1960s, and the lovers of Jamaican patties. A celebration was held on February 23, 1985. The issue made it onto the front page of The Sunday Gleaner and at the centre of it was Jamaican Michael Davidson, manager of Kensington Patty Palace that was established by his parents in the late 1970s. Chris Strikes was born on February 23, 1986 — exactly one year after the “patty wars” ended. As Jamaica gets ready to celebrate its 60th anniversary of independence, he thought it was important to produce a documentary, “Patty vs. Patty,” about the resilience of Jamaicans in this fight. Strikes talks about this with Impacting Jamaica host Neil Armstrong in this new episode of the podcast series.