June 17, 2015

On Friday, June 12, 2015 the Conservative MP for Mississauga-Streetsville Brad Butt was at AGBU Center in Montreal to attend the graduation ceremony of the Alex Manoogian School.

On this occasion, Mr. Butt, who sponsored M-587 designating April 24 as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, addressed the graduates. He said “On April 24, 2015 the House of Commons unanimously adopted M-587 designating the month of April as Genocide Awareness, Prevention and Condemnation month in Canada. By doing so, we renewed our commitment to do everything we can to prevent such events from happening again”. He congratulated the students for their successful completion of the 2014-2015 school year.

This summer, the graduates of Alex Manoogian School will participate in the Discover Armenia project of AGBU. Saluting this initiative, MP Butt said “Last August, while in Armenia, I visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial and Museum and I laid a wreath at the site, shedding tears for the 1.5 million people killed in this horrific time in human history. I hope you too will have the opportunity to do the same because the only appropriate response is to strongly reaffirm our collective commitment as a society to remember and commemorate genocide, to educate future generations about the poisonous effects of hate and intolerance, and to uphold the importance of preventing such atrocities from ever re-occurring”.

Following his speech, he presented to Chahe Tanachian, Chairman of the Armenian General Benevolent Union and Hagop Arslanian, member of the Executive Committee, the original, signed copy of M-587, “as a token of respect and appreciation for the Canadian-Armenian community”.

In his turn, Mr. Tanachian presented Mr. Brad Butt, AGBU Canada’s “Armenia Award” in recognition of his hard work for the adoption of M-587. Hundreds of community members gave a standing ovation, expressing their gratitude and immense respect for the principled and courageous stance of MP Brad Butt in the House of Commons.