Human rights activist ready to run in Renaud

(The Suburban) Molecular biologist Aram Elagoz will make his first foray into politics in this year’s upcoming municipal election, Nov. 5.

He will campaign to succeed the affable Raynald Adams, running in Renaud district on the Mouvement lavallois municipal party ticket of Mayor Marc Demers.

After earning a doctorate at Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg, France, in 1997, Dr. Elagoz has spent most of his career in the quest to find new medications to treat devastating illnesses such as Parkinson’s and acute kidney disease, in academia, health care and private industry settings.

However, it was his work during the past dozen years to promote human rights that spurred him to seek elected office.

“My work through the Armenian National Committee interested me more and more in entering active politics,” Dr. Elagoz told The Suburban. “Our work put us in contact with different levels of government at the provincial, municipal and other levels. The 95th anniversary of the Armenian genocide interested us in fostering relations with the Holocaust Memorial Centre, an interaction that arose at the time that I presided the Montreal chapter, from 2015-2016.”

He said in an interview that he chose municipal politics “because it’s much closer to people” and that he decided to join Mouvement lavallois based on what it had accomplished in transforming a city from its previous, now-infamous municipal administration.

“What attracted me was what they did in the transition from the time after they came to power in Laval,” explained Dr. Elagoz, who has resided in Laval for almost 14 years. “In terms of the issues that they encountered, I thought that they had done a good job during the last three years. They managed that transition pretty well and improved the situation in Laval.”

Photo: Medical researcher and anti-genocide campaigner Aram Elagoz has joined Mayor Marc Demers’ Mouvement lavallois ticket.