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Independent topical source of current affairs, opinion and issues, featuring stories making news in Canada from immigrants, newcomers, minorities & ethnic communities' point of view and interests.

Family Business

: The process is labour-intensive, with much of it still done by hand using methods that have remained largely unchanged since Ajamian grandfather launched the family business in Armenia in 1890. "A real furrier knows how to put the skins together so everything looks exact, because you're bringing in something from nature," says Ajamian, 59, according to CTV. But although many techniques remain the same, Montreal fur industry has changed profoundly since Ajamian entered the business 25 years ago. Ajamian is a third-generation furrier and one of the dwindling number of people left in Montreal who specialize in transforming animal pelts into fur coats. Today he is one of only a few dozen furriers left in a city once called the "fur capital of North America," where foreign buyers flocked to buy pelts at auction and small companies galore occupied the downtown fur district. By the boom period of the 1970s and '80s, there were about 200 fur manufacturing and supply companies in Montreal, according to Alan Herscovici, executive vice-president of the Fur Council of Canada. Montreal, the historic hub of Canada fur trade, benefited from waves of immigration that attracted skilled furriers to the city in the first half of the 20th century. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.