1999: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Seeking a museum of all genocides (12/26/99)

1999: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Seeking a museum of all genocides

While Jean Chrétien became the first Canadian prime minister to visit the Auschwitz and Birkenau Nazi death camps in Poland on January 24, a multi-ethnic group back home, called Canadians for a Genocide Museum, issued a statement the day before urging the federal government to consider establishing a Canadian museum that would recall "not only the horrors" of the Holocaust, but "the other genocides" experienced throughout the world during the 20th century.

A month later, on February 15, Member of Parliament Sarkis Assadourian, who represents an Ontario riding for the governing Liberals, introduced Bill C-479 before the House of Commons on February 15, which would establish a genocide exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec. Such an exhibit would recognize "crimes against humanity" and the victims of such, including the 1.5 million Armenians who perished in a genocide driven by the Ottoman Turks in 1915. Syrian-born Mr. Assadourian claims Armenian ancestral roots.

The all-inclusive idea behind establishing a "Museum of Reconciliation" won support from Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) President Evhen Czolij and Canadian Jewish Congress President Moshe Ronen, provided, Mr. Ronen said, it would not substitute a memorial museum commemorating the Holocaust.

In a March 23 interview with The Weekly, Adrian Boyko, chair of the UCC's Government Relations Committee, characterized Mr. Assadourian's private members' bill "uniquely Canadian in its inclusiveness."

Stephen Inglis, director general of the Canadian Museum of Civilization's Collection and Research Branch, seemed to agree, suggesting that Bill C-479 reflected "a general feeling that any national presentation should be inclusive and reflect the experience of many groups in Canada."

By the summer, Mr. Assadourian's effort to convince his fellow parliamentarians to set up a genocide museum had obtained over 85,000 postcards sent to Ottawa in support of the proposed legislation. Nevertheless, in the August 17 edition of the Toronto Star daily newspaper, B'nai B'rith Canada National President Lawrence Hart continued to press Ottawa for a separate museum dealing specifically with the Nazi-led Holocaust.

A "generic museum of genocide," he said, was overly ambitious and an attempt at "detailed presentation of each unique experience is completely impractical and will be unable to do justice to any of them."

In the meantime, community representatives, such as the UCC's Mr. Boyko, argued against parallel bids to establish two separate museums - a point agreed to by Mr. Assadourian who told the National Post daily that two state-sponsored institutions amounts to "discrimination among victims, who were killed because of discrimination in the first place."

In the fall, the MP reintroduced his private member's bill during the new session of Parliament. Now known as Bill C-224, the proposed legislation and its proponent earned the praise of Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association Chairman John Gregorovich who said that, "as Canadians of Ukrainian heritage or origin, we are very acutely aware of the horrors that befell Ukraine's people under Soviet and Nazi occupation. Millions of Ukrainians were murdered in Europe in this century.

"Hallowing their memory is, for us, as important as recalling that many millions of other people of different ethnic, religious or racial backgrounds also perished around the world in this century and before," Mr. Gregorovich underscored.

In late November, Mr. Assadourian's bill moved to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, which is scheduled to report back to the Commons by mid-June 2000 with its recommendations.

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