On Tuesday March 8, the Corning Centre co-organized a TDSB student conference at the Central Technical School, in cooperation with Alpha Education, Facing History and Ourselves, Holodomor Research and Education Consortium and the TDSB Aboriginal Education Centre. 

The conference, which was attended by over 100 students, was titled “From Remembrance to Action: Exploring Upstanders Facing Difficult History and their Importance in Today’s World”.

The Corning Centre participated with two workshops: “Canadian Upstanders During the Armenian Genocide” and “100 Voice: Survival, Memory an Justice”. 

During the “Canadian Upstanders During the Armenian Genocide” workshop, students had the opportunity to view the Canadian Upstanders in the Ottoman Empire exhibit. Students examined and discussed the role played by Canadian individuals and institutions in providing humanitarian assistance during the Armenian Genocide. Primary sources and artifacts were available for students to view and examine. 

During the “100 Voice: Survival, Memory an Justice” workshop, students had the opportunity to view videos from the Corning Centre’s 100 Voices Project dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The 100 Voices Project is a series of interviews with descendants of survivors or victims of the Armenian Genocide which was developed to encourage the sharing of youth voices and encourages student activism. The workshop focused on the themes of memory, survival and justice as they relate to the Armenian Genocide seen through the lens of Armenian youth.

The students were introduced to the idea that justice requires a voice and as individuals living in a free society, we have a responsibility to assume that role.

​The Corning Centre, in partnership with the Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee of Ontario, hosted two book launch event for “The Call From Armenian: Canada’s Response to the Armenian Genocide” by Aram Adjemian. Both events, one held in Cambridge on Friday, February 19 and the second in Toronto on Sunday, February 21, had successful turn outs. Aram has gathered interesting and never before published information about Canada’s positive role before, during and after the Armenian Genocide. Canada’s and Canadians’ important role in relief efforts, advocacy and awareness during the period of the Armenian Genocide is a history that has only recently been brought to light.

Levon Sarmazian, member of the educational resources committee at the Corning Centre, and Raffi Sarkissian, Chair of the Centre, made welcoming remarks and presented the author, Aram Adjemian in Cambridge and Toronto respectively. Both spoke about the educational value of the book for the Canadian public, how the book ties into the Ontario curriculum and about how valuable Adjemian’s research has been for the Centre’s work.  

On this occasion, the Corning Centre distributed a Teacher’s Guide and Resource which will soon be available online as well. Copies of the book and the resource will soon be distributed to teachers through the Corning Centre.

As we embark on a new year full of many exciting projects ahead, we would like to take this time to look back at some of our accomplishments of 2015.

As part of our work towards the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Centre launched the 100 Voices Project. The initiative aims to document the voices of descendants of survivors of the Armenian Genocide and the continued effects genocide and human rights violations have on them. The project was featured in an article on CTV titled “100 Years Later, Armenian Genocide Stories Survive on Social Media”

The Corning Centre took part in this year’s Holocaust Education week with an event dedication to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The event, titled 100 Voices: Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, showcased clips from our “100 Voices” project and a presentation which was followed by a panel discussion.

The Corning Centre also co-sponsored two university events. The first was a conference at the University of Toronto titled “Genocide: From Prevention to Justice”. Second, was  “The Armenian Genocide and its Impact”, a panel presentation at Ryerson University. If you missed the event at Ryerson University, you can watch the archived webcast here, you can also watch the University of Toronto conference at this link. 

Our chair’s article in the Globe and Mail titled “Why We Commit to Commemorate” highlighted the importance of collective commemoration of past atrocities and Canada’s historic involvement in providing humanitarian assistance to the victims of the Armenian Genocide and their descendants. 

The Corning Centre also held an exhibit dedicated to Canada’s humanitarian response to the Armenian Genocide at Toronto City Hall titled “Canada We Thank You”.  Our “Canadian Upstanders” exhibit was also displayed at University of Toronto’s Robarts Library during an exhibit titled “1915-2015: 100 Years of Life”.

We are excited to announce that the deadline for Speak Out! Our Essay, Creative Writing and Visual Arts Contest has been extended! The new deadline is August 1st 2016.

If you have not already, we encourage you to take a moment and visit our resources page and benefit from the materials developed by our team. The most recent publication was “Canada and the Armenian Genocide”, a perfect set of readings for secondary school students accompanied by discussion questions and “Historical Thinking Concepts: The Georgetown Armenian Boys”.

We are also happy to report that we have been extremely busy with our classroom visits in the first term of this school year. We look forward to continue visiting Ontario classrooms and making a positive impact on students and supporting our teachers through these visits. Visit our Book a Visit page if you would like to schedule a class visit.