Well, well, WELLLLLLLLL… The cat is finally out of the bag! We now know the names of those respected individuals and their leaders, who have been hiding behind the anonymous emails that have tried to “enlighten” the community. They have finally decided to unmask their anonymity and reveal themselves. So who are these people? Let’s analyze them. Affiliations to Armenian organizations: Ramgavar 10 Bolsahay 5 Hentchag 3 Non affiliated 1 Affiliations to a Parish: St-Gregory Montreal 17 Holy Cross Laval 2 Leader of each group: Ramgavar Arshavir Gundjian Age 80 Bolsahay Arto Demirdjian Age 82 Hentchag Jack Seraidarian Age 78 These 19 individuals are mostly “gousagtsagans”; blind followers of our outdated political parties. Their average age is well over 70, many over 80! They mostly associate themselves with the St-Gregory Church of Montreal and all of them, under the influence of Der Vasken, are working diligently to destroy the project to build a new Church in Laval. Interestingly, none of these 19 has ever donated a penny to the Laval Church project. These unscrupulous “elected leaders” have forgotten the magnitude of the work our beloved and hugely popular Bishop achieved as Primate of the Canadian Diocese. They ignored: - the number of giant rallies he organized at the St-Joseph’s Oratory and Cathedrals all over Canada to commemorate the Armenian Genocide, - the beautiful renovation of the diocesan offices, - the creation of Hay Doun, - the Ararat Summer Camp, - the award winning Komitas Choir, - the children’s choir, - the unprecedented concerts, - the respect he earned in Canadian political circles, Federal, Provincial and municipal, - the love and respect he earned amongst the Canadian Armenian population across political lines! And most of all, they have forgotten the success of Habitation Ararat which received a $10 million government grant and is being built with zero cost to the community! Their focus remains on the alleged mishandling of the Church’s finances. This despite the fact that three elected executive bodies were charged with reviewing and approving the expenses: 1) Building Committee 2) Parish Council 3) Diocesan Council. They also, conveniently, ignore the fact that the land on Souvenir is now worth $2 million. One may ask the question, why would a bunch of old people work so hard to put together this list of numbers to discredit Bishop Bagrat, six months after his departure? Because it is a convenient way to avoid dealing with the present mess they have created. The theme of convenience is paramount in their tired approach. They started their letter claiming that there were some “misleading rumors being spread in the community” and felt that an “independent professional audit” was needed. So these retired individuals randomly got together and decided to do their own audit of the numbers and felt that they had the “duty to share it with the public” because they “… consider it to be the right of our community to be informed and, we dutifully present the facts as such”. Why deal with professional forensic accountants when it is more convenient to make up numbers? Without actually commenting on the validity of the numbers, most of which are exaggerated and outright wrong, one should ask the question as to who actually incurred these expenditures. It is, of course, convenient to blame one man who, for the good of the Church, has not even lifted a finger to defend himself. Most of these expenses were incurred over 3 years ago. At that time, the Building Committee was chaired by Vartan Karasseferian and included Jack Seraidarian and Vicken Darakjian as members. Both Jack and Vicken also acted, at various times, as Chairmen of the Parish Council of Laval. Arshavir Gundjian and Arto Demirdjian were each members of the board of trustees. All five have conveniently signed this letter. Why assume any responsibility when we can conveniently and expeditiously blame someone else? The Building Committee was mandated and trusted to take care of the construction project, so they: - Chose the contractors. - Gave out the contracts. - Took out a mortgage on the Saint-Martin property. - Signed all official documents. - Signed the checks to pay the bills. - Authorized the initial contractor to start work and then forced a settlement. - Authorized Exedra to do construction work worth $250,000 when there were no funds available to pay for it! - Made the deal to borrow $100,000 and agreed to pay a 36% annual interest! The Diocesan Council and the Board of Trustees were mandated to oversee the project. - Approval was given on three occasions by both the DC and the Board of Trustees to go ahead with the building project based on the costs affiliated with it! - Approval was given to accept the $500,000 interest bearing loan and a congratulatory email sent to the lender for his generous gesture. - Approval was given to acquire the $3 million dollar loan from the TD bank and the costs affiliated with it. - Approval was given to defend the rights of the church in court, against the contractor chosen by the Building Committee who increased the cost of the project, and the fees associated with it. Interestingly, the report conveniently forgets to mention that the sum of $60,000 annually was promised to one of the signatories to help raise funds! Let the community judge whether a member of the Parish Council should have accepted such compensation. Shouldn’t this expense have been included on their “list”? They conveniently twist facts regarding the $485,000 term deposit in the TD bank. For the record, a number of dedicated, concerned and caring individuals advanced those funds to allow the removal of the lien placed on the land by the contractor selected by the aforesaid Building Committee. The removal of the lien allowed the Habitation Ararat project to go ahead, now in its final stages of construction. The report claims that there are “Accumulated and Current debts” of $1,649,000. Once again, this number is wrong and grossly exaggerated. The exact numbers are as follows: City taxes and legal fees $43,400 Owing to an individual requesting repayment $75,000 Mortgage on existing property on Saint Martin $193,800 Owing to individuals not requesting immediate repayment $565,000 Advances from Sister Church Organizations $50,000 St-Gregory Endowment Fund $100,000 Total $937,200 Against these, there are assets with values of: Saint-Martin Property $650,000 Souvenir Property plus additional land $1,800,000 Cash in the bank $60,000 Total $2,510,000 These numbers clearly show that even-though there are outstanding amounts payable, the total amount of unpaid invoices is only $43,400 and there is an urgency to pay $75,000 to one individual. Even though the total outstanding is almost $1 million, the Laval parish has a net asset value of over $2,500,000, mostly due to the great value at which Bagrat Serpazan was able to acquire the land on Souvenir Blvd. Why are they still bent on attacking Bishop Bagrat six months after his departure? The only justification we can come up with is that they feel guilty for their miscalculated wrong-doings and bear a deep resentment against the persistent wide-spread popularity that Bagrat Serpazan still enjoys. So much so that months after his departure, they felt the need to drive yet another nail to his cross. As Arshavir Gundjian wrote in an email recently: “Bagrat should be hung by his hair.” So, while it was convenient to rid our community of a dynamic leader, the reigns of responsibility fell on the shoulders of those who orchestrated his ouster. The best they can muster is to shrug off ALL responsibility and to simply dig into past events, without rhyme or reason and to ignore their responsibilities of yesterday, today and tomorrow. While they discredit a man who tried his best, for 10 years, to improve the lives of Armenians in Canada, they conveniently omit to tell us that since his departure, the public has stopped attending Church. Funding is down by 90% in both St-Gregory and Holy Cross. The employees and staff of the Churches are not being paid in full and yet none of this distinguished group of 19 is willing to make any donation of their own to cover the losses they caused to the community. Do they mention anywhere in their manifesto that the community needs to heal? Needs to move on? Needs to find money to meet certain obligations? No, these individuals will expeditiously and conveniently sacrifice any do-gooders, benevolent contributors and workers without compensation on their way to the top of the temple of power. Let the public decide what to believe and who to blame. In the meantime, we suggest these same 19 signatories and their collaborators who are sitting in “elected” positions start making sizable donations to the Churches and start thinking of the urgent changes needed in Delegates, Council members and priests. Only then, can the public consider pardoning them and possibly begin the healing process. It is simply too convenient to blame EVERYONE ELSE for this mess. You consider yourselves as the elected ones, you caused this mess! ACT WISELY FOR THE SAKE OF THE COMMUNITY. IT’S YOUR MOVE!
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 20:05:08 +0000
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