GENOCIDE BOOK PULLED FROM HIGH SCHOOL READING LIST
Unnati Gandhi
The Globe and Mail
LAC.20080516.BOOK16/TPStory/National
May 16 2008
Canada
A book about genocide has been pulled from the recommended reading
list of a new Toronto public school course because of objections from
the Turkish-Canadian community, the author says.
Barbara Coloroso’s Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide was
originally part of a resource list for the Grade 11 history course,
Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, set to launch across the Toronto
District School Board this fall.
The book examines the Holocaust, which exterminated six million Jews
in the Second World War; the Rwandan slaughter of nearly one million
Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994, and the massacres of more than a
million Armenians in 1895, 1909 and 1915.
But a committee struck to review the course decided in late April
to remove the book because "a concern was raised regarding [its]
appropriateness. … The Committee determined this was far from a
scrupulous text and should not be on a History course although it
might be included in a course on the social psychology of genocide
because of her posited thesis that genocide is merely the extreme
extension of bullying," according to board documents.
Director of education Gerry Connelly did not return calls seeking
comment yesterday.
Ms. Coloroso, a best-selling author of parenting books, said she wasn’t
surprised her work was removed, given that "ever since the book came
out, the Turks have mounted a worldwide campaign objecting to it,
which is not surprising because of the denial of the genocide."
She said what upset her was not so much that her book had been pulled,
but that it was replaced by works by Bernard Lewis and Guenter Lewy,
whom she refers to as deniers of the Armenian genocide.
"I knew when I wrote Extraordinary Evil that I would anger some
genocide deniers," she wrote to Ms. Connelly. "I am disappointed that
a small group of people can bully an entire committee. …"
The Council of Turkish Canadians is opposed to the course for
classifying the Armenian killings as genocide and inciting anti-Turkish
sentiment. It has gathered nearly 11,000 signatures on an online
petition calling for changes to the course. Turkey has denied the
killings were genocide, saying they were First World War casualties.
Kevser Taymaz, president of the council’s board, said yesterday the
book’s removal was "one positive move" by the school board, but added
the Armenian massacres should not even be considered as part of course
that is entitled "Genocide."
"The course is one-sided. If they want to introduce the events of
1915, it should be giving the historical truth from both sides and
let the students decide."
Aris Babikian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee
of Canada, said Armenian-Canadians feel the course as it stands is
headed "in the right direction."
"But we have some concerns about … the inclusion of Bernard Lewis
and Guenter Lewy as reputable scholars. It will be unjust to the
hundreds of scholars who have researched the Armenian genocide."