By a decision of the Roncesvalles Business Improvement Association (BIA), a local association of commercial property owners and tenants, the word “Polish” has disappeared from the name of the largest Polish festival in North America, the “Roncesvalles Polish Festival” in Toronto. This has sparked opposition from the Polish community in Canada.

The Roncesvalles BIA has co-organised the event for 15 years. This year’s festival will be held on 17-18 September. In past feasts, it has attracted up to 350,000 people to watch parades and performances by top Polish bands and dance groups from Canada and the United States over the two days.

Events along Roncesvalles Avenue in Toronto include not only Polish music, folklore and live dancing but also Polish dishes and culinary demonstrations, handicrafts and special attractions prepared for families and children.

Magdalena Pszczółkowska, Consul General of the Republic of Poland in Toronto, in an interview with Canada’s largest radio station ICI Radio Canada, said that “Toronto’s Polish community will not accept the erasure of its legacy”. She recalled that the festival takes place in a neighbourhood that is the heart of the Polish diaspora in the city.

She found the renaming of the festival incomprehensible and announced that together with Polish diaspora organisations, she would press for the event to be restored to its original name and character. She pointed out that the issue is no longer local and has attracted the interest of members of the Ontario legislature, among others.

Poles in Toronto have launched a petition demanding that the name “Roncesvalles Polish Festival” be restored. In it, they write that with their decision, “the Roncesvalles BIA is erasing a symbol of Polish-Canadian culture and undermining Polish identity in Canada”.

They point out that “Canada is a multicultural mosaic of nations, where everyone is encouraged to celebrate their ethnic identity and be proud of their cultural heritage”.

Adrian Andrzejewski