Toronto During Prohibition

The Ontario Temperance Act took effect in 1916, banning the sale of alcohol across the province, including Toronto, over a decade before American prohibition began and continuing for years after it ended. The law permitted alcohol production for export and allowed doctors to prescribe alcohol medicinally, loopholes that were exploited widely and helped ensure the law never came close to eliminating drinking in the city, only pushing much of it underground or out of the province entirely.

Blind pigs and a limited crackdown

Toronto developed a network of illegal drinking establishments known as "blind pigs," unlicensed bars operating quietly out of private homes and back rooms, alongside bootlegging operations that supplied alcohol through informal channels the law struggled to police effectively. Public support for the ban eroded steadily through the 1920s, and Ontario ended prohibition in 1927, replacing it with a government-controlled retail alcohol system through the newly created LCBO, a regulatory model that still shapes how alcohol is sold in the province today.

Sources

• The Canadian Encyclopedia — Prohibition in Canada
• Wikipedia — Ontario Temperance Act

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