Fonds F0626 - Trifon Haitas fonds

Trifon Haitas was born in 1966 in the village of Foufas, Kozani, Greece. He joined his parents in Canada together with his sister in 1972. The family lived in Leslieville before settling in Willowdale.

Haitas attended the School of Communication Arts at Seneca. During his first two semesters, he was hired part-time as an AV technician for Stronco, a company that provided and set up A/V equipment for hotels. After working a short time with them, he was offered a full-time position and left the program.

In the late 1990s, Haitas worked in the film industry as a cameraman, becoming acquainted with Nicholas Stiliadis and Nick Mirkopoulos. Mirkopoulos would introduce him to Peter Maniatakos of Odyssey TV Network, and he began working as a principle cameraman there. Haitas also worked as a cameraman on the television program Εδώ Που Τα Λέμε (Edo Pou Ta Leme) with George Thetonis on Rogers/OMNI. Haitas also did camera work for the Shoah Foundation, which inspired him to interview veterans of the Axis Occupation of Greece, and to collect oral history testimonies from the Greek Cypriot community.

In the early 2000s Haitas began freelance videography and founded his own company, AVCMedia. Through AVCMedia, Haitas was contracted by the Greek Community of Toronto to produce a weekly television show called Κοινοτική Ψυχή (Koinotiki Psyche), which aired on Odyssey TV. Haitas was also commissioned by ΕΡΤ (ERT) to film footage of the Olympic Flame Ceremony for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

Haitas was a founder of the Canadian Multicultural Network, where he produced episodes of Hispanic Life, which aired on OMNI Television, and a web show called Hellenic Life, which he uploaded to YouTube and Dailymotion.

Haitas also worked in print media from around 2007 to 2011, writing a column for Ελληνικός Τύπος (the Greek Press) titled “Saints and Icons”, where he would write about the major feast days of the month and the history of the saints celebrated on those days.

Haitas is a member of the Canadian Ethnic Media Association (CEMA) and the National Ethnic Press Council of Canada (NEPCC). On January 26, 2007, he was awarded the NEPCC’s medal of distinction, and earned honourary membership on the board of directors for his work in ethnic and diaspora media.

Following the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, Haitas changed careers and became involved with the automotive industry. Haitas also ran in the 2014 City of Richmond Hill municipal elections for Ward 1 Councillor.

Haitas has always had a passion for the history of the Greek diaspora in Toronto, and was an early supporter of the Greek Canadian History Project, an initiative that would go on to become the HHF Greek Canadian Archives at York University.

Haitas continues to reside in Toronto. He has two children, Stavros and Eleuftherea, who he named after his parents in the traditional Greek custom.