From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Armenians/Isabel Kaprielian-Churchill
Armenian family and community life has been scarred by the Genocide; underlying grief characterized the immigrant world for decades, intensifying the usual stresses of adaptation. Armenian neighbourhoods provided a haven and a bridge to the odar (non-Armenian) world; they also gave the community geographical delineation, encompassing living spaces, workplaces, and major amenities.
Except for a few wealthy families, most Armenians before World War II were struggling to establish an economic foothold in Canada. They were of the same socio-economic class, bound together by their ethnicity. While class differences are far more pronounced in the later immigration, ethnicity still supersedes differences of class and education in the community.
The post-1950 wave of immigrants rejuvenated existing institutions and created new ones, adding to the Armenian-Canadian mosaic. Language is a case in point: settlers from Iran and Armenia introduced the Eastern form of spoken Armenian in Canada. Newcomers also brought characteristics and behavioural patterns identified with their countries of provenance. The flow of immigrants led to tensions between the pre– and post–World War II Armenians. Oldtimers who had established and nurtured community activities through enormous sacrifice did not always agree with immigrants with other ideas and modes of operation. The senior group was viewed as “not being Armenian enough”; the younger, “too Middle Eastern.” Such differences were less pronounced in Toronto and Montreal, where the later wave was larger.
Leadership, however, remained in the hands of the pre-1939 settlers until the 1970s. Early leaders – the school teacher, the priest, the interpreter – had talent, experience, and command of English. Gradually, as a merchant class evolved, businessmen took the helm, joined more recently by professionals. Fifty years ago, leaders were either Canadian-born or had lived in Canada for decades. Twenty years ago, most were newer immigrants. Today organizations want “Canadian experience,” facility in English or French, and a working knowledge of Armenian language, history, and culture. An Armenian high school in Montreal is producing graduates who are as comfortable in the Armenian milieu as in the Canadian. Also, family networks are becoming more evident in the power hierarchy during a period of community stabilization and maturation.
Most community activities in Toronto and Montreal are held in complexes that usually include a community centre, church, school, and gym – a new, more elaborate version of the halls or clubs in the old working-class neighbourhoods. Cambridge, Hamilton, and St Catharines have built new structures far from the old districts.
From the start, Armenians in Canada established regional associations. The Village Educational Associations helped village schools in the Ottoman Empire. After the villages were destroyed in 1915, the associations continued to help and educate refugees and their children, and they sustained their predominantly overseas perspective until their gradual demise in the 1960s. As societies derived from village of origin, they often neutralized political and religious animosities.
After the Genocide, most village associations gave way to the partisan, pan-Keghi movements. Pro-Tashnags joined the Keghi Patriotic Society; leftists, the Reconstruction Association of Keghi. In 1972 the two groups joined forces as the United Nor Keghi (New Keghi) Committee, raised $50,000, and built a school in New Keghi, Soviet Armenia, a town founded in 1962 through their efforts. Since the original immigrants were dying off and their children showed little interest, the pan-Keghi associations declined and finally ceased operations in the 1980s.
New regional associations are functioning in Canada today. The largest and most active are the Society of Armenians from Istanbul (formed in Montreal in 1967) and the Cultural Society of Armenians from Istanbul (Toronto, 1988). They promote Armenian language and culture, aid immigrants and the indigent, and help students. They operate community centres, publish periodicals, and support the local Holy Cross schools. Two major organizations have shaped Armenian charitable, educational, and cultural life in Canada and, more recently, in Armenia and Karabakh. In 1906 in Cairo, Egypt, a group of wealthy Armenians led by Boghos Nubar Pasha founded the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) to provide relief and to enhance community life. In 1924 affluent Toronto merchants started the first Canadian chapter, which finally got under way in the late 1930s. The post-1945 immigration gave an impetus to the AGBU in Canada. Currently three chapters (in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver) have a combined membership of over eight hundred.
Two large community centres are the hub of AGBU activities in Montreal (founded 1977) and Toronto (1981). The Union supports two full-day schools; sponsors dance, theatrical, and choral groups; organizes youth and sports activities; and offers scholarships to worthy students. The AGBU publishes a bi-monthly bulletin, Khosnag (Advocate; Toronto, 1979– ), and until recently it produced Nor Ayk (New Dawn; Montreal, 1978–93). The AGBU has always been a conservative force, balanced a global and a local focus, remained open to men and women, and organized auxiliary activities for all ages.
Founded in the United States in 1910, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Red Cross was the first pan– North American movement for Armenian women; in 1946 it changed its name to the Armenian Relief Society (ARS) but retained its affiliation. Brantford, Galt, Guelph, Hamilton, and St Catharines pioneered the movement in Canada, and refugee women started chapters in Windsor and Toronto during the 1920s. New arrivals from the Middle East rejuvenated the society in the 1960s. Currently the ten chapters in Canada have about twelve hundred members; in 1990 they formed the ARS Canadian Regional Board of Directors, with headquarters in Montreal. The ARS provides aid to Armenians in distress and nurtures Armenian educational, social, and cultural development. It gives moral, financial, and professional assistance to Armenian schools, offering scholarships, visiting the ill, setting up senior citizens’ homes, and establishing community social service offices. The ARS continues to develop external links by working with other Canadian women’s groups. Women’s organizations such as the ARS have broadened the scope of activities and nurtured the talents of Armenian women within the structures of Armenian community life.
Most Armenian organizations and institutions sponsor religious, educational, athletic, and social activities for youths. In 1926 young newcomers in Toronto founded the Canadian Armenian Young Peoples’ Association – a non-partisan organization of refugee settlers. They set up social and cultural activities and taught Armenian to the growing number of children in Toronto. The association did not survive the conflicts that split Armenian communities in the early 1930s. The oldest youth group in Canada is the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF), launched in Brantford, Galt, Hamilton, and St Catharines in 1934–35 to keep alive the Armenian heritage and to encourage fraternity. The AYF promoted educational, political, athletic, and social activities. In 1975 it created its own Canadian Region. Four years later it became the Armenian Revolutionary Federation—Canadian Youth Association and turned its focus to the Armenian cause. In 1995 the eight chapters in Canada had approximately eight hundred members.
Other organizations also serve young people, including scouts and guides, AGBU youth groups, and the Armenian Church Youth Organization of Canada (ACYOC), under the auspices of the Armenian Apostolic Church (Echmiadzin). In addition, Armenian students have established associations at several universities; recently those at Concordia, McGill, and the Université de Montreal set up the umbrella Armenian Student Congress for those and other universities.
Armenians also have seniors’ groups and lodges, such as the Knights and Daughters of Vartan. The Armenian General Sports Union (HMEM), founded in Constantinople in 1918, promotes physical fitness, athletic competition, and moral development. Five Canadian chapters, starting with one set up in Montreal in 1958, serve approximately sixteen hundred members. In 1974 they formed the Canadian Regional Association, which has regular winter games, and in 1993 Toronto and Montreal hosted the HMEM world championships. A competitive spirit has led to a proliferation of Armenian organizations and activities, producing in turn criticism of duplication, fragmentation, and waste.
