On January 6th, on the occasion of the Armenian Christmas, a highly attended, vibrant cocktail reception was organised by the newly formed Armenian Canadian Council (ACC) on behalf of the Armenian Community of Montreal, to welcome and celebrate the victory of a number of high profile MPs of the Greater Montreal area elected last October 19th to the Parliament of Canada.
The Honourable Minister of External Affairs of Canada, Stéphane Dion, the Honourable Minister of Canadian Heritage Mélanie Joly, the Honourable Eva Nassif MP for the riding of Vimy and the Honourable Anthony Housefather MP for the riding of Mount Royal had accepted and confirmed their presence. Due to the last minute urgencies developed by the North Korean and Saudi Arabia crises, Minister Stéphane Dion, a long-time friend of Armenians, sent his best wishes but also regrets for having been retained in Ottawa. All other invitees together with a large circle of their high level assistants and collaborators were present and addressed this widely attended gathering of over two hundred Armenian and nonArmenian personalities who gave a very warm welcome to the distinguished guests. In particular, the Mayor of St Laurent Mr. Allan De Sousa and the newly appointed Consul General of Armenia Mr. Sassoun Hovannessian were also present.
The evening started with a beautiful rendition of O Canada by Aida Karibian who started by giving an interesting historic overview of the origins of the Canadian National Anthem.
Mr. Viken Attarian, a well-known leader of the Montreal Armenian community who is intimately involved in the Canadian political life and holds key positions in the Liberal Party of Canada acted with unique taste and ability as the evening’s master of ceremonies.
Mr. Raffi Yeretzian was introduced as the young spokesperson for the ACC. Raffi gave a very well organized and insightful presentation for the ACC purposes and field of action. He specified in particular that ACC‘s aim is to organise and facilitate the participation of the Armenian community and especially of the youth to the political action in Canada and for Canada.
Mr. Attarian then introduced Dr. Arshavir Gundjian, the well-known leading personality of the Armenian community, founder and leader of many local and international Armenian organizations as well Emeritus Member of the AGBU Central Board,to address the guests and the audience on behalf of the community. Dr. Gundjian gave a well-rounded overview of Armenians in general and of Canadian Armenians in particular. He highlighted his presentation with some light hearted notes as well as the strong commitment of Armenians in Canada to participate in the political process of Canada as well as to back the progressive initiatives of the current government.
Mr. Attarian then invited the honourable guests to give their messages to the Armenian community. Mr. Attarian introduced each one of the guests with very pleasant and humanizing highly appreciated remarks, based on his firsthand experience and collaboration with each one of them. Thus, Honourable MP Eva Nassif followed by Honourable Anthony Housefather made very well received warm and quite spontaneous remarks underlining their close feelings towards the Armenian community and thanking them for their sincere welcome. Naturally the star of the evening was the newly elected Minister of Canadian Heritage, the Honourable Mélanie Joly who beyond thanking the ACC and the Armenian Community for this most enjoyable opportunity, explained the wide scope of the duties that she is undertaking through her ministerial responsibilities to reach the vast field of communication and participation with the various communities of Canada. She expressed her excellent experience with the Armenian community and invited the community to actively participate through its organizations and otherwise to the 150th anniversary celebrations of the founding of the Canadian Confederation in 2017.
All speeches were received by sincere, warm and thunderous applauses from the large audience, where after the speeches, several notable personalities of the Montreal community and many representatives of all organizations spent long hours until very late at night, to meet personally and exchange thoughts and ideas with the distinguished guests.
Overall the ACC is to be congratulated for having provided to the community this most appreciated opportunity of a high calibre, to get to know closely the newly elected members of the Federal Government of Canada.
