NEIGHBOURHOOD

Agincourt

“In Agincourt, when you are shopping or walking on the street you hear many languages spoken. It feels like home.”– Yan Chen

Located in north Scarborough, the Agincourt neighbourhood is situated on the traditional lands of the Anishinabek Nation, Huron-Wendat First Nation, and Haudenosaunee Confederacy, covered by Treaty 13 signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Williams Treaties signed with multiple Mississaugas and Chippewa bands. The neighbourhood was established as a farming village in the late 19th century by primarily English and Scottish settlers. The area remained rural until the early 1950s, when Agincourt began to undergo suburbanization to meet the demands of the post-war baby boom. In the 1970s, after changes to Canada’s previously exclusionary immigration laws, more ethnically diverse populations started to settle in the neighbourhood. Agincourt saw a significant influx of migrants from Hong Kong leading up to the region’s return from Britain to China in 1997. The opening of Dragon Centre mall on Glen Watford Dr in 1984 solidified Agincourt as the home of one of Toronto’s first suburban Chinatowns. North America’s first Chinese-themed mall, Dragon Centre, was met with complaints from residents over traffic congestion. Racist anti-Chinese immigration flyers were shared across the neighbourhood, forcing the mayor to respond with a Task Force on Multicultural and Race Relations in Scarborough. Today, over half of the Agincourt’s residents identify as first-generation Canadians, culturally significant neighbourhood institutions like Dragon Centre are being slated for redevelopment.

WATCH AND LISTEN TO COMMUNITY MEMBERS TALK ABOUT AGINCOURT:

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Community & Belonging:

Change:

Agincourt Stories

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