Armenian orphans' legacy Canada's aid to victims remembered

Mon, April 23, 2007
Toronto Sun
By IAN ROBERTSON, SUN MEDIA

Lorne Shirinian always knew something dreadful lay in the past of the "Georgetown Boys" who visited his East York family home as adults.

The author of several books about the 1915-23 killings of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman-Turks heard whispers and saw visitors' tears.

It wasn't until years later that Shirinian realized his dad, Mapre, a realtor who died in 1988 at about 82, was one of 109 orphans brought to a farm in Georgetown for a new life, Shirinian told more than 600 members of the Armenian community at their Scarborough centre yesterday.

Many became farmers, others had trades, and all became "good Canadian citizens," Shirinian said. "It was a hard life ... many of them could never forget the murders of their entire families."

Each year, and until the last died about two years ago, many "Georgetown Boys" he met through his parents attended a Sunday service ahead of April 24, the date recognized by Canada as the anniversary of the genocide.

This year's 92nd memorial event focused on the children rescued by Ottawa. Numerous speakers and politicians urged young Armenians to keep alive the memory of the genocide and lobby for Turkey to stop denying that their Ottoman ancestors tried to destroy their culture, language and Christian faith.

Shirinian, 62, an English professor at the Royal Military College, learned from his parents and their visitors that "all of us were victims of some great wrong. It was a history I could have lost."

Keynote speaker Isabel Kaprielian-Churchill, an historian specializing in Armenian history, said the aid given to orphans by Canada "played a key role" shaping this country's attitude towards humanitarian aid and peacekeeping.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.