Canada Risks Losing Another Key Voice on Genocide

Prof. Alan Whitehorn, Kingston ON, 18 November 2025

Canada is on the verge of losing another cornerstone of genocide studies, meanwhile mass atrocities are unfolding across the globe. Less than a year after the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) at Concordia University abruptly closed, the International Institute of Genocide and Human Rights Studies (a division of the Zoryan Institute), one of the few remaining Canadian institutions devoted to genocide research and education, now faces an existential crisis.

The closure of MIGS came as a shock. During four decades, the institute influenced Canadian policy and trained advocates on genocide prevention. Its sudden disappearance, driven by budget pressures and academic fragmentation, left a vacuum in the country’s educational and policy landscape. If such a well-established institution can vanish overnight, the risk to smaller, independent organizations is even greater.

As a professor emeritus of political science at the Royal Military College of Canada, I was disappointed when the significant archival genocide collection of distinguished retired Canadian general Romeo Dallaire was exported from Canada to West Point Military Academy in the United States. Dallaire was the commander of United Nations forces in Rwanda during the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s. His perspective and archival collection are unique, and the Canadian general’s Rwandan genocide collection is no longer in Canada.

Now the Toronto-based Zoryan Institute faces an existential crisis. Founded more than 40 years ago, the Zoryan Institute and its Genocide and Human Rights Studies program have made Canada a global hub for genocide scholarship. Working with the University of Toronto, Zoryan created a respected graduate program that trained generations of scholars from 73 countries. Over the years, a number of my RMC graduates benefitted enormously from attending the international course. The Zoryan has published peer-reviewed journals, maintained a key historical archive on the Armenian Genocide, and consistently fostered thoughtful public dialogue on mass atrocity crimes.

Few other institutions are positioned to do this work. The Zoryan’s research has illuminated warning signs of genocide. It has built bridges between ethnic communities, equipped future leaders with the tools to confront genocide denial and distortion, and strengthened Canada’s voice in global human rights conversations.

But like many educational and human rights organizations, the Zoryan Institute faces serious financial strain. Donors are overwhelmed by multiple humanitarian crises. Governments are preoccupied, and foundations have shifting priorities. Long-term educational initiatives, though crucial, often fall to the bottom of the list when compared to immediate humanitarian relief requests.

Meanwhile, the world continues to experience destructive wars in Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza and elsewhere. Authoritarian populism is eroding the democratic guardrails. Freedom of expression is increasingly under pressure, and in many places, historical research is being politicized or outright suppressed. Democracies themselves too often appear under threat.

The Zoryan Institute has often acted as an analytical seismograph, detecting and interpreting historical tremors. Without such institutions, our collective awareness of threats of violence, dehumanization and authoritarianism lessens.

The current president and cofounder of the Zoryan Institute Greg Sarkissian noted that “For over four decades, the institute has been there to defend the historical record, educate new generations and give a scholarly foundation for the voices of victims of genocide. It has done so with modest resources, remarkable efficiency and integrity.”

Sadly, when institutions like the Zoryan disappear, their archives are scattered, their journals cease publication, and their educational networks dissolve. Canada loses a voice of independent scholarly capacity. Inaccurate historical narratives go unchallenged. Young researchers turn elsewhere, and Canada’s ability to contribute meaningfully to global genocide prevention is weakened. The loss of MIGS should have been a national wake-up call. It showed how even respected institutions can disappear quickly if support falters. Canada cannot afford to let this happen again.

In an era when authoritarian regimes are distorting history and democratic institutions face pressure, preserving independent scholarship is critical. It is a strategic foresight. It is an investment in fostering historical accuracy, democratic resilience, and Canada’s role as a credible human rights voice. Canada has already lost one respected genocide research center. It should not lose another.

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Alan Whitehorn is an emeritus professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, a former JS Woodsworth Chair in Humanities at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. As an academic, he writes on the topics of genocide and human rights. As an award-winning poet, he explores the issue of genocide and its impact on Armenian-Canadian identity. Amongst his books: Poems from the Diaspora: An Armenian Odyssey/Poesie dalla Diaspora: un’odissea armena; Karabakh Diary: Poems from the Diaspora/Gharabaghyan Oragir: banasteghcutyunner Spyurqic; The Armenian Genocide: The Essential Reference Guide (editor); Return to Armenia/Veradardz depi Hayastan; Just Poems: Reflections on the Armenian Genocide; Ancestral Voices: Identity, Ethnic Roots and a Genocide Remembered; The Armenian Genocide: Resisting the Inertia of Indifference (co-author with Lorne Shirinian)