• April of every year is Genocide Awareness Month, and on this occasion the Corning Centre has planned to unveil a new section of its website: the Online Learning Modules. Through the portal, teachers will be able to access lesson plans developed by our Ontario Certified Teachers to use in their classrooms. 

    Our first lesson focuses on genocide denial. Coincidentally, on April 23, on the eve of the 99th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Human Rights Association of Turkey released a statement speaking out against continued official and public denial in that country.

    The statement’s title reads in part, “That’s enough, stop denialism!”  It goes on to mention how “denial is the most comprehensive, most effective and most widespread human rights violation due to the simple fact that it becomes the source of — furthermore, an encouragement for — a wide variety of many more current and future human rights violations.”

    Raffi Sarkissian, founder and chair of the Corning Centre, said in reference to these Turkish upstanders, “Groups and individuals in Turkey who stand up for justice do so at great costs and have become brave upstanders while the Turkish government unfortunately continues to deny genocide at home and abroad and silence these voices.”

    Today is the 99th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. We encourage teachers to discuss and teach about this page in human history. 

    It is our hope that the Online Lesson Portal will become a useful tool for all teachers. We look forward to hearing from you  as you navigate our first and future lessons. To receive updates regularly, make sure to sign up through our Facebook, Twitter or email accounts.
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    The Sara Corning Centre for Genocide Education, in partnership with the Toronto District School Board and Facing History and Ourselves, held a half-day conference for students registered in the Grade 11 Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity course. 

    120 students from 6 schools attended the half-day conference, titled “From Remembrance to Action Student Conference: Exploring Upstanders Facing Difficult History and their Importance in Today’s World.”

    During the first half of the event, students had the opportunity to view a screening of the documentary Orphans of the Genocide, which was followed by a presentation by director Bared Maronian. Orphans of the Genocide is a feature-length documentary about the plight of Armenian Genocide orphans. The 7 minute short version of this film is a regional Emmy Award nominee in the category of Historical Documentary and a Telly Award Winner. It was part of the NYC Filmmaker’s Festival, ARPA film festival and Unspoken Human Rights Film Festival. Bared Maronian is a documentary filmmaker born in Beirut, Lebanon. He is a four-time regional Emmy Award winner and has worked on local, regional and national documentaries for the PBS Network.

    During the second half of the event, presentations were given by Emery Rutagonya, Rwandan Genocide survivor and founder of the Rwandan Survivors’ Foundation, and by Christopher Tuckwood, executive director and co-founder of the Sentinel Project, a Toronto-based NGO dedicated to assisting communities at risk of mass atrocities worldwide. 

    The students then had the opportunity to ask questions to the three panelists.
  • ​Through a motion passed unanimously in 2013, the Toronto District School Board declared April as Genocide Awareness Month (full text below).

    The Sara Corning Centre for Genocide Education is supportive of the TDSB’s continued efforts and its commitment to genocide education. With an exemplary curriculum on genocide — the Grade 11 Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity course — the TDSB stands out as the first school board in Canada to develop and implement a full-credit course fashioned on the genocide education model. We look forward to seeing more boards and  provinces adopt such courses. 

    On the occasion of Genocide Awareness Month, the Corning Centre is organizing and participating in a variety of events aimed at students and at the public, in addition to several free classroom visits.

    The Corning Centre, in partnership with the TDSB and Facing History and Ourselves, will be holding a half-day conference on Thursday, April 3, for students registered in the Grade 11 Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity course. It is titled “From Remembrance to Action Student Conference: Exploring Upstanders Facing Difficult History and their Importance in Today’s World”

    At 7:00 PM on Thursday, April 10, the Corning Centre is co-sponsoring an event with Facing History, the Rwandan Survivor Foundation, Ryerson University’s Department of Politics and Public Relations, and the Zoryan Institute. The event is a free evening lecture with social psychologist Dr. James Waller, who will discuss themes from his critically acclaimed book Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing. Click here for more on this event.

    On Sunday, April 27, the Corning Centre will be unveiling a display titled “Denial: The Last Stage of Genocide” during the Commemoration of the 99th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, which is taking place at 2:30 PM at the Armenian Youth Centre of Toronto (50 Hallcrown Place).

    We look forward to seeing you at our events! If you are a teacher or administrator and  are interested in booking a free classroom visit during Genocide Awareness Month or after, please contact us by clicking here.

    Thank you for your continued support!
    The Toronto District School Board motion as it was presented in 2013:

    Whereas, the values of mutual respect, understanding, and peaceful coexistence are strengthened through learning about past atrocities; and

    Whereas, the month of April repeatedly marked the beginning of recent genocides such as those against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontian Greeks in 1915, European Jews and Ukrainians in 1933, Cambodians in 1975, Bosnians in 1992, Tutsi Rwandans in 1994, and Darfuris in 2003; and

    Whereas, April is observed as Genocide Awareness Month by a growing number of holocaust museums, academic institutions, advocacy groups, and legislatures; and

    Whereas, the Toronto District School Board is a leader in genocide education, having developed in 2008 a Grade 11 history course entitled Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, which is now also offered in many school boards across Ontario;

    Therefore, be it resolved that, every year, the month of April be proclaimed Genocide Awareness Month in the Board’s secondary schools. (Source)
  • An Evening with Dr. James Waller, Author of Becoming Evil

    Thursday, April 10, 2014 @ 7:00 p.m.

    Library Lecture Theatre (LIB72)
    Ryerson University
    350 Victoria Street
    Toronto, ON

    Please join us for an engaging lecture by social psychologist Dr. James Waller, who will discuss themes from his critically acclaimed book Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (Oxford University Press, 2007, 2nd ed.).

    Waller is Cohen Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire. He is a widely recognized scholar in the field of Holocaust and genocide studies and has held fellowships in Europe, the United States and Canada. Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing takes an in-depth look at the internal and external factors that can lead ordinary people to commit extraordinary acts of evil.

    This lecture will be held in commemoration of  Genocide Awareness Month and the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide.  April is the month in which we remember three genocides: the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, and the Rwandan Genocide.  

    This event is co-sponsored by Facing History and Ourselves, Rwanda Survivors Foundation, Ryerson University, the Sara Corning Centre for Genocide Education, and the Zoryan Institute.
  • ​The Corning Centre joins all genocide education programs and centres across the country in remembering the Jewish Holocaust. Working together to educate new generations about the importance of being upstanders in society is vital to ensuring that communities are grounded in the understanding, accepting and valuing of differences, diversity and multiculturalism. The history of the Jewish Holocaust and the memories of those who survived are full of lessons about the consequences of harbouring hatred against one another. Genocide education strives to inform and inspire generations in hopes of creating societies that state their commitment to Never Again with pride and confidence.