Genocide course sparks controversy in Toronto

Curriculum to cover Holocaust, Armenia and Rwanda

Natalie Alcoba, National Post
Published: Friday, June 13, 2008

TORONTO – The Toronto public school board approved last night a
controversial new highschool course about genocide, one of the first
of its kind in Canada to explore the topic of mass killing around the
world.

Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity will be an optional Grade 11
course in Toronto schools come September. It will focus on three case
studies from the 20th and 21st centuries: the Holocaust, Armenia and
Rwanda.

The government-approved course description says students will "examine
identity formation and how "in groups" and "out groups" are created,
including an analysis of how "bias, stereotypes, prejudice and
discrimination impact on various groups." They will also learn about
the roles of perpetrators, victims, bystanders, rescuers, opportunists
and resisters.

But it is the inclusion and exclusion of certain mass killings that
has generated considerable public debate among different ethnic
communities. The Ukrainians have agitated for a fourth module on the
famine of the 1930s, and members of the Turkish community have lobbied
for a change because they, like their national government, dispute
that the killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians between 1915
and 1923 amounts to a genocide.

School officials said yesterday there simply are not enough hours in
the year to branch beyond three core case studies, but assured that
the Ukrainian famine, and other atrocities such as Darfur, will be
studied in the genocide course. It will be offered at first in 12 of
110 high schools.

The committee of Toronto District School Board officials and
university academics that reviewed the complaints insists that
politics has no place in this debate. "Disagreeing about the
appropriateness of the label of genocide is not the same as denying
that the killings occurred," committee members said in a report that
was submitted to Toronto school trustees. "Genuine historical
controversies do belong in a highschool curriculum and can be
beneficial in giving students an in-depth understanding of complex
events and in teaching students critical thinking."

Academics contend that history, by its very nature, is controversial
terrain, but certainly among the most fraught aspects of any history
are those that involve conflicts between and within nations. It was on
display last night at the Toronto school board, as local Turks waived
their homeland’s red flag and decried "hate propaganda" — all part of
a campaign that Armenians claim was "orchestrated overseas." Twenty
years ago, a similar course proposal — which never received the
endorsement of the Education Ministry — was shelved in Ottawa after
the federal government intervened and asked the school board not to
proceed.

In the United States, the Armenian genocide is taught in a number of
states, including California, Massachusetts and New Jersey, but also
not without controversy. A lawsuit was filed against the Massachusetts
Department of Education

in 2005 after it removed from the lesson plan the dissenting views of
historians and Turkish groups. Education officials said at the time
that it would be wrong to dispute the genocide in the classroom when
the state law acknowledged it. The outcome of the lawsuit was not
known.

The Turkish government contends that the deaths were a result of
war-time fighting, and has reacted with frosty condemnation at any
acknowledgment of a genocide by any government, including Canada.

The Toronto school board review committee sided with "the vast
majority of scholars" who concur that what happened to the Armenians
was a genocide. But it said teachers should also include analysis of
the works of reputable scholars who disagree, such as U. S. historians
Guenter Lewy and Bernard Lewis — a move that was lamented by one
respected Canadian academic.

"In every single case of genocide, the perpetrators have denied they
intended to commit a genocide," said Frank Chalk, a Concordia
University history professor who is director of the Montreal Institute
for Genocide and Human Rights Studies. "Including the deniers on the
reading list is not something that I would have counseled."

But it was done, in part, to show concerned Turks that voices of
dissent will be seen and heard, said Nadine Segal, system
superintendent of programs at the TDSB.

Still, Lale Eskicioglu worried about how the "vilification and
slander" of her homeland will affect young Turkish students.

"They are trying to make the events of 1915 look as if it was the same
thing as the Holocaust, the worst thing that has ever happened on this
Earth," said Ms. Eskicioglu, an Ottawa engineer who is now the
executive director of the Council of Turkish Canadians. "We want
debate, we want this to be talked about it."

Aris Babikian, head of the Armenian National Committee of Canada, said
that opposition comes from a small group of "nationalists," while
support of a course on the Armenian genocide stretches from city
councillors to Stephen Lewis to respected historians.

"It’s not the intention of the course to villainize or create any
hatred of any community," said Mr. Babikian, who said his grandfather
survived the genocide thanks to the goodwill of a Turkish neighbour.

nalcoba@nationalpost.com

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