Armenians in Canada

The earliest Armenian settlements in Canada go back to the 1880's. The first person to have settled in Ontario is believed to have been one named Garabed Nergararian in 1887, in Port Hope. A few Armenian students were sponsored by Canadian missionaries to study in Canadian University. One such student by the name of Mesrob Baghdasarian studied at McMaster University. In a letter to the Governor General dated January 21, 1896, the Chancellor of the University requested that Baghdasarian's family be assisted to escape from their native town of Kharpert in the Ottoman Empire. Most of the Armenian immigrants during this period who settled on the American continent, mainly in the United States, came from the various regions of the Ottoman Empire. Soon some were recruited to Canada to work in the factories of Brantford, Hamilton and St. Catharines. Others are believed to have been hired in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, according to the Canadian Family Tree. These were few in numbers, and it is not known whether they stayed on in Canada when work on the Pacific Railway was completed. Actually, these sojourner immigrants, like many others of different nationalities at the time, had not planned to live permanently in the west, but to make enough money to help their kin back home, and, after getting financially secure, join their families. However, the increasing repressions in the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians in the late 1890's up to the end of World War 1, constituted a major reason for these sojourners to abandon their original plans, seek permanent settlement and find means to have their families join them. According to Serge Pelletier, some 1,850 Armenians came to Canada between 1900 and 1914. Therefore the period between 1896 and 1914, besides being considered the 'sojourner phase' of Armenian migration to Canada, is also the period when the foundations of the Armenian community in Canada were laid. The handful of Armenians at the time formed village associations to maintain their ties with their families *in the homeland. They organized chapters of the political parties they were affiliated to back home and established ties with the American Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church in New York to cater for their spiritual needs.
The massacres that were organized in 1894, 1896 and 1909 by the Ottoman authorities throughout the empire added to the already existing insecurity for all Armenians across the Ottoman Empire. The conditions in the country and the fear of more hardships made many Armenians leave the Ottoman Empire.
Before 1908, leaving the Ottoman Empire was not an easy task. In order to get a travel permit, one had not only to pay expensive bribes, but 'renounce one's citizenship and give up all property rights.' These restrictions were loosened after the Constitution of 1908. This change encouraged European transportation companies to open branches in important Black Sea ports, thus lowering the cost of travel significantly.
American and Canadian missionaries also had a great role to play in the spread of American culture in Armenian villages. They built missions, schools, colleges, orphanages and hospitals in major towns and cities densely populated by Armenians. Many years later, J.N. Chambers of Woodstock, Ontario, whose brother Rev. Robert Chambers was among the missionaries in the Middle East, interceded with a cabinet minister, Dr. Montague, and in a letter dated January 30, 1896, he quoted a letter from his brother saying, "The Armenians as you know are tremendously cut up. Very many of them are anxious to emigrate. They make good settlers. If the Canadian government would offer assistance to them very many would take advantage and go." In a reply from the assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior dated February 13, 1896, Mr. Chambers was informed that the government did not have funds to guarantee the Atlantic trip of new settlers, yet any Armenian who would arrive might qualify for settlement 'under the Dominion Lands Act. 26 Thus, 234 Armenians came to Canada between 1903 and 1905.
Except for such humanitarian acts, the admission of Armenians into Canada was restricted, according to immigration laws. The two basic regulations that did not encourage larger numbers of Armenians from getting into Canada before 1914 were the medical examinations and the money qualifications (immigrants were required to carry $200 each) However. those who were lucky and got into Canada took the jobs that were offered. Most of them settled in Brantford, Hamilton and St. Catharines and worked either in iron foundries, factories, farms, railway construction, the twine mills or seasonal public works. Many of these workers were Armenians who were recruited from American industries to come to Canada as unskilled laborers *in the expanding foundries of southern Ontario. A number of Armenians ran boardinghouses, coffee houses, barber shops, grocery stores and confectionaries. Still others were cobblers, carpenters, carpet weavers and repairers. They were industrious and quiet, not getting involved in workers' struggles or disputes, since their main objective was to supply assistance to their families, either in the homeland or in the New World. However, Armenians had a great role to play in the formation of industrial labor unions in St. Catharines, Brantford and Galt.
Wherever they settled, the Armenians tended to live in the same neighborhood, while the transient laborers lived in boardinghouses run by Armenians. This had an invaluable significance, because they not only had the chance to be with their own people, eat their own food and share news from back home, but could save money to send to their families in the homeland. These men also established ties with fellow-villagers across the American continent.
The little communities of Armenians did not only concern themselves with their daily survival or the financial assistance to their immediate families back home. In order to improve the education of the children in their villages, they established independent village educational associations, raised money through functions, sent it to the village in order to build a school, pay teachers' salaries and school fees. Gradually, these Canadian based associations exercised a great influence on the policies and the quality of education in the schools they supported, to the extent that they withheld funds whenever their expectations were not properly met. These associations stopped functioning with the outbreak of World War I, when the villages were destroyed.
Between 1902 and 1914 these Armenians had also established chapters of the two main Armenian political parties in the towns or cities they had settled in. These parties already had working branches 'in the United States. However, the lack of a basic knowledge of English was another barrier in the face of these Armenians. Soon books like The Armeno-American Letter Writer became available to the men from the village and helped them not only to learn how to write letters in both languages, but also to learn about 'the customs, laws, ideals, manners and government' of North America.
In order to cater to the cultural needs of these Armenians, reading-rooms were established. These served many purposes: coffee house, political meeting rooms, community activity center and much later, as schools for the children. The spiritual needs, on the other hand, were met by itinerant priests that were sent from the American Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church in New York. Armenian Mass and sacraments were held in an Anglican Church which was the closest Christian establishment to the Armenian Apostolic Church as far as theological similarities are concerned.

Source: A History of the Armenian People by George A. Bournoutian
Images: AGBU magazine