Armenian Canadians
The first recorded Armenian to settle in Canada was a man named Garabed Nergarian, who came to Port Hope, Ontario in 1887.
After the Hamidian massacres of mid-1890s Armenian families from the Ottoman Empire began settling in Canada.
They were overwhelmingly from the Armenian provinces of the Ottoman Empire and usually lived in industrial urban areas.
[3] The Georgetown Farmhouse (now the Cedarvale Community Centre) was designated historic and protected municipal site in 2010.
[18] Of 50,500 Armenians in Canada at the time, 19,910 were classified as non-immigrants, while 30,055 were immigrants, mostly from West Central Asia and the Middle East (22,300), Northern Africa (3,755) and Eastern Europe (1,460).
[20] Unofficial estimates put the number of Canadian Armenians significantly higher than census results.
[22][23][24][25] According to the 2016 census, almost 90% of Canadian Armenians reside in Canada's two largest provinces: Ontario and Quebec.
[36][35] In the 2006 census 21,480 Canadians had indicated Armenian as the "language spoken most often at home", of whom 4,915 had non-immigrant status, while 16,320 were immigrants.
Ontario contains half (10), followed by Quebec (4), British Columbia (2), Alberta (2), Manitoba (1) and Northwest Territories (1).
[4] The two churches operate under the Armenian Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Nareg in the United States of America and Canada.
[50] The Zoryan Institute of Canada, a center for contemporary Armenian research and documentation, was established in 1984.
The nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF, Dashnaktsutiun) is by far the largest and most influential with nine chapters.
The conservative Ramgavar and social democratic Hunchak parties have branches in Montreal and Toronto.
"[56] In 2002 the Senate of Canada passed a resolution (39–1) sponsored by Shirley Maheu that called upon the Government of Canada to "recognize the genocide of the Armenians and to condemn any attempt to deny or distort a historical truth as being anything less than genocide, a crime against humanity, and to designate April 24th of every year hereafter throughout Canada as a day of remembrance of the 1.5 million Armenians who fell victim to the first genocide of the twentieth century.
[60][61] The motion was opposed by the Liberal cabinet of Prime Minister Paul Martin, who was absent during the vote,[59] however, most Liberal backbenchers voted in favor of the Bloc Québécois motion, while cabinet members rejected it.
[59] Since 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper released annual statements explicitly referring to the Armenian genocide.
The parliament also reaffirmed its support for the Armenian genocide recognition resolution adopted on April 21, 2004.
Two Armenian Canadians have been Members of Parliament: Syria-born Sarkis Assadourian in 1993–2004[67] and André Arthur in 2006–2011.
[73] Ottoman-born Yousuf Karsh, who was based in Ottawa, is considered the leading portrait photographer of the 20th century.
[82] Egypt-born Raffi Armenian was the director of the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal between 2008 and 2011.
[83] Lebanese-born operatic soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian has earned acclaim for her Mozart roles.
[84][85] Syrian-born Hrag Vartanian is the co-founder and editor of Hyperallergic, an online arts magazine.
[86] Ottoman-born medical scientist John Basmajian was Head of the Department of Anatomy at Queen's University.
"[88] Istanbul-born Agop Jack Hacikyan and Beirut-born Razmik Panossian are known for their work in Armenian studies.
