​We look forward to seeing you at both events this week!

 ​The Corning Centre will be participating in Toronto’s Holocaust Education Week this year with an event dedicated the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

It is titled 100 Voices: Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and will be presented in partnership with the Winchevsky Centre—United Jewish People’s Order.

The event description on the official website, www.holocaustcentre.com/HEW, reads,

“To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Sara Corning Centre for Genocide Education has created the 100 Voices Project. An ongoing project to document voices of victims of the Armenian Genocide and their descendants, it explores themes of survival, memory and justice.
 
Raffi Sarkissian, Chair of the Corning Centre, will discuss the challenges and benefits of the project and explore the question of remembering in absence of survivors and in the face of state sponsored denial.”

Select video clips from the 100 Voices Project will be screened, and the presentation will be followed by a panel discussion comprised of a teacher and students who worked on the initiative.

The event will be held on Saturday, November 7 at 7:00 pm at the Winchevsky Centre—United Jewish People’s Order.

We are one month into the new academic year and we already have several events to announce, two of which are in the month of October. 

The Corning Centre will be presenting an audio-visual exhibit titled “Canada, We Thank You” at Toronto City Hall from October 22 to 28. ​An opening ceremony and public reception will take place on Thursday, October 22 at 6:00 pm.

The exhibit is dedicated to Canada’s humanitarian contributions before, during and after the Armenian Genocide. While at the exhibit, visitors will have an opportunity to learn about various individuals, families and institutions that played active roles in humanitarian efforts in the Ottoman Empire. The Corning Centre’s 100 Voices Project will also be featured at the exhibit, where visitors will get a chance to view several interviews.

We encourage educators to take advantage of this unique opportunity by organizing field trips with their students. The free resources on our website can be used to prepare students for their visit.

Click here for the Facebook event page

The Corning Centre will also be co-sponsoring an informative and thought-provoking panel presentation titled “The Armenian Genocide and Its Impact” on Friday, October 23 at 7:30 pm.

It will take place at Ryerson University and will feature world-renowned professors Richard G. Hovannisian, Ervin Staub, Khatchig Mouradian and Alan Whitehorn.

We look forward to seeing you at both events.

July 1, 2015, marks Canada’s 148th birthday and the 92nd anniversary of the arrival of the first 46 Armenian genocide orphans at Georgetown, Ontario. A group of 50 were collected from the London, UK-based Armenian Refugees (Lord Mayor’s) Fund Orphanage in Corfu, Greece, and traveled via Marseilles to Cherbourg, France. Four were held back for several weeks, with the rest continuing on to Quebec City. Taking a train through Quebec and Ontario, they finally arrived at Georgetown on what was then called Dominion Day. The project was a milestone in the history of a country that has prided itself for its humanitarian record.

As summer school classes begin, we encourage teachers to take some time to discuss this history with their students. Topics such as immigration, humanitarianism, human rights, and genocide are relevant to many courses and are curricular expectations in many Canadian, World Studies, and Humanities courses. Questions educators may wish to explore can include, How do we accept new immigrants in our classroom? What are our attitudes towards those in need? How might these boys have felt as they arrived in a country they knew nothing about? A perfect resource to use on this occasion is the one published by the Corning Centre on the Georgetown Boys and Historical Thinking Concepts.

The Corning Centre has been interested in the story of the orphaned survivors of the Armenian Genocide who were brought up at Georgetown, Ontario, since its inception. It is a tale of the admirable efforts of Canadians to resist prejudice, demonstrate compassion, and give hope to a people marked for extinction. For more on this history and related lessons and resources, check out our Online Lesson Portal, our resources page, and our 100 Voices project.

The Sara Corning Centre for Genocide Education has visited over 1200 students through its guest lecture services throughout the 2014-2015 academic year. By inviting the Corning Centre to their classrooms, teachers in various school boards have created a unique opportunity for their students to receive information on topics such as the legacy of genocide, genocide denial, eyewitness testimony and Canada and the Armenian Genocide. The visits have been highly interactive and allowed students the opportunity to ask questions as they navigate the complexities surrounding genocide, human rights and world politics. 

The Corning Centre is dedicated to promoting human rights, anti-racism and genocide education in Canada. Our presentations inspire students to become active voices in promoting diversity and respect for all. We encourage teachers to contact us and book a classroom visit for the 2015-2016 academic year, or even for their summer school classes, and to stay tuned for upcoming events and classroom resources as Armenian Genocide Centenary commemorative events and initiatives continue. Happy Canada Day!

The Corning Centre is pleased to announce that, thanks to the kindness of the United Church of Canada, the public can now access photographs of the Georgetown Girls, the Georgetown Boys, and their farm home online and free of charge.

Daniel Ohanian, Director of Research, explained on this occasion, “The Centre had inquired about ordering these 128 photographs—normally a paid service—some months ago. But given the increased attention the Georgetown story has been receiving over the past few years and given the large price-tag such an order would normally come with, in an act of kindness, the UCC Archives recently informed us that it has decided to absorb the cost of digitization and to place the fruits of its labours online for all to access. We owe them great thanks for this and also for being such great hosts of much archival material related to this important history.”

The historical images can be viewed through the United Church of Canada's online holdings page. 

The Corning Centre has been interested in the story of the orphaned survivors of the Armenian Genocide who were brought up at Georgetown, Ontario, since its inception. It is a tale of the admirable efforts of Canadians to resist prejudice, demonstrate compassion, and give hope to a people marked for extinction. For more on this history and related lessons and resources, check out our Online Lesson Portal, our resources page, and our 100 Voices project.