TORONTO, Canada—The Zoryan Institute has just released a new edition of the Georgetown Boys, a moving story of Canada’s immigration history, which became known as “Canada’s Noble Experiment.”
Beginning in 1923, the Near East Relief and the Lord Mayor’s Fund of London, England selected 109 Armenian orphan boys from orphanages in Turkey and Greece and sent them to Cedarvale Farm in Georgetown, Ontario. These orphans were rescued from the carnage of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, committed by Ottoman Turkey, and given a chance for a new life in Canada, where they were to be brought up as good Canadian farmers. They became known as “The Georgetown Boys.”
Never had such a scheme been undertaken before. At that time, the Immigration Department had strict rules, some of which were based on false racial considerations, and immigrants had a very difficult time entering Canada. When Orders-in-Council gave permission for the entry of 100 orphaned Armenian lads “on an experimental basis,” it was an immigration first, and soon became known as “Canada’s Noble Experiment.”
This is the story of the Georgetown Boys told by one of the boys himself. Having lost everything, the most precious thing remaining to them was the memory of their families and their heritage. Based on original documentary research, interviews, and first-hand experience, Jack Apramian gives detailed insight into the daily lives of the boys, the challenges they faced adapting to their new country, and how they fared. Their story is told with a sense of humor, humanity, and history. An account of the dark and light moments that made up these rescued boys’ reality and the resilience of children, this book is essential to our understanding of multiculturalism’s best intentions.
“This is a remarkable story of survival and cultural preservation,” said Megan Swan, the program coordinator of Zoryan’s Genocide and Human Rights University Program. “The ability of these Armenian children to retain their cultural heritage in the face of tremendous pressure to assimilate, both direct and indirect, is especially inspiring.”
From a wider perspective, this book is the chronicle of all those who have sought refuge in the U.S. and Canada from persecution, hunger, and death.
Lorne Shirinian of the Royal Military College of Canada, and a former Zoryan Institute Board Member, has edited and revised the late Jack Apramian’s classic book and provided a new introduction, setting the story in its historical context, both Armenian and Canadian. He has included previously unpublished documents and photographs.
This is the second book by Shirinian published by the Zoryan Institute. The author of numerous books of short fiction, poetry, plays, as well as critical articles and books on literature, history, and diaspora, Shirinian is the son of one of the Georgetown Boys.
The Zoryan Institute is the parent organization of the International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies and the International Institute for Diaspora Studies, and co-publisher of “Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal and Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies.” It is the first non-profit, international center devoted to the research and documentation of contemporary issues with a focus on Armenian social, political, and cultural life, with a concern for the human rights of all.
For more information, contact the Zoryan Institute by emailing zoryan@zoryaninstitute.org or calling (416) 250-9807.
Guest Contributor
Be the first to comment