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Armenian youth in Toronto, Canada, held a silent protest at a lecture, entitled “WWI 100th Anniversary: Human Suffering in Eastern Anatolia,” that featured Armenian Genocide deniers Justin McCarthy and Bruce Fein.

The event was organized by the Federation of Canadian Turkish Associations, Armenian Weekly reported. 

The Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) of Canada, in collaboration with the Armenian Students Association (ASA) of the University of Toronto and the Armen Karo Student Association, spearheaded this protest action.

More than seventy human rights activists from the university community, who made up the majority of those in attendance, held the silent protest by standing in unison and turning their backs to the lecturers.

Protesters allowed the speakers to deliver their opening remarks. However, when it became apparent that the speakers would deny and misconstrue the facts of the Armenian Genocide, the group stood up and turned their backs to the podium as a silent protest against genocide denial.

The demonstrators then marched to the university’s Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Office to voice their concern regarding the event, and to deliver a petition of over 2,000 signatures denouncing the talk and demanding that the university distance itself from the organizers and speakers.

The group had previously sent to the university a letter signed by academics, human rights groups, and student associations, including the Hillel of Greater Toronto, the Greek Students Association of the university, and the Hellenic Students Association of Ryerson University, demanding that the event be canceled.

McCarthy, who was turned away from the University of Melbourne and Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2013, has long been regarded as a mouthpiece of the Turkish state in spreading denial of the Armenian Genocide. Fein is employed by the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA) as a resident scholar, to similarly support and propagate the Turkish denial policy of the Armenian Genocide.

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