MEDIA
RELEASE
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| Marie Clarke Walker - Excellence in Business Award Photo contributed |
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| Delores Lawrence - Lifetime Achievement Award Photo contributed |
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| The Heritage Singers - Excellence in Arts/Entertainment Photo contributed |
The 15 distinguished, accomplished
individuals -- from a wide variety of vocations -- will be recognised and
honoured as "contemporary Black history-makers", on Saturday,
February 25, at the ACAA's 33rd. annual gala, one of the African Canadian
community's most prestigious Black History Month events.
The 2017 ACAA recipients are:
Excellence
in Arts/Entertainment
The
Heritage Singers-Canada, a popular
40-year-old folk and spiritual choir -- renowned for spreading and promoting Caribbean
and African culture and folklore, globally -- has performed
in festivals in Canada, Holland, Taiwan, Germany, Mexico and Venezuela. The
group, which has also presented many sold-out pantomimes for the Caribbean
community, has received great acclaim for its artistic merit, family-themed
entertainment, and exposition of the Caribbean and African culture to young
people.
Excellence
in Business Award:
Marie
Clarke Walker, a
passionate fighter for the rights of workers, a significant resource in any
business, is the youngest and first Black to hold the position of Executive
Vice-President at the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). A former Canadian
Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario equity vice-president and its
first-ever national diversity vice-president, she is also, currently, an executive member of the
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists.
Excellence
in Community Service:
John
O'Dell, a national
representative of Unifor, one of Canada's largest unions is, since 2005, the co-chair
of the Toronto Police Service's(TPS) Black Community-Police Liaison Committee. He
is also a former President, Alliance of Guyanese Organisations; President of
the Guyana Ex-police Association of Canada; a member of the Association of Black Law Enforcers; and a former member of the Board and choir of
the Church of the Nativity.
Excellence
in Education:
Dr. Rinaldo Walcott, an interdisciplinary black studies
scholar, whose work is widely published in journals, books, newspapers and
magazines, is Associate
Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology and Equity Studies, Ontario
Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at The University of Toronto, and
the director of the Women and Gender Studies Institute. The author of Black Like
Who: Writing Black Canada -- published in 1997 with a second revised
edition in 2003 -- Dr. Walcott is also the editor of Rude: Contemporary
Black Canadian Cultural Criticism.
Excellence
in Law:
Ingrid Berkeley-Brown, the highest ranking
female Black police officer in Canada, is Superintendent of 21 Division, at the Peel District Police Service. A past president and current secretary of the Caribbean Canadian
Association of Waterloo Region, Supt. Berkeley-Brown also sits on the board of
directors of Peel Family Mediation Services. She has an honours diploma in
social services and is a graduate of the University of Guelph School of
Business and Economics with a Masters in leadership.
Excellence
in Management and Leadership:
Mark Beckles, Head of RBC Insurance Advice Centre, has
national responsibility for managing and leading over 600 licensed insurance
advisors, who provide insurance advice and solutions to 750,000 RBC insurance
clients across Canada. Previously, he was regional vice president of
retail banking at RBC, with responsibility for north Mississauga, where he had
P&L responsibility for a portfolio in excess of $5.4Billion. A former President and CEO of the
Nelson Mandela Children's Fund (Canada), Beckles was also vice-chair of World Relief Canada and a director of the United Way
of Peel Region.
Excellence
in Media:
Anthony
Joseph, a
successful investor, entrepreneur and marketer, is President and Publisher of The
Caribbean Camera newspaper, Canada's third oldest Caribbean/Black newspaper. In
1993, a difficult year for the paper, Joseph says there were real fears that it
would fold, but he "came to the rescue as an investor" and, using his
marketing skills, "saved the paper from going under". A
self-proclaimed master baker, Joseph is also the owner of Papa Joe's Bakery,
and was a successful carnival masquerade costume designer.
Excellence
in Medicine:
After working in the
management and senior leadership levels of hospitals for more than 20 years, Sheryl
Bernard recently launched her own consulting firm, Bernard Consultancy. A
Registered Nurse and a certified health executive of the Canadian
College of Health Service Leaders (CCHL) -- with clinical and administrative
experience across various healthcare sectors -- Bernard, the former Director for the geriatric and
neuropsychiatry program at Ontario Shores
Centre for Mental Health Sciences, is the founding
president of the Jamaican-Canadian Nursing Association.
Excellence
in Parenting:
Rev. Mr.
Royston and Mrs. Claire Jones, who have been married
for 47 years and who their children describe as "exemplars of
parenting", have, despite the physical challenge of blindness, raised four
successful, university-graduated adult children. The loss of his
sight changed the family dynamics, but Royston
continued to work in ministry and social services for as long as he could.
Claire became the breadwinner and has been working in the childcare sector for
over 35 years. Their children say their father is a
strong patriarch and a very prominent spiritual leader for them, and
describe their mother as
being “quiet and reflective”, noting that, “her strength
is powerful.”
Excellence
in Politics:
Eric Williams, former President
of the Malton Black Development Association, is a veteran Trustee for Mississauga Ward 5 at the Peel
District School Board, for over 20 years. Williams was the chair of the Instructional Program/Curriculum
Committee for the past eight years and represented the board on the Mississauga
Traffic Safety Council also for eight years. He sat on the Ontario Public
School Board Regional Council for 19 years, was a director for 13 and is
currently the enrolment vice-president – the first racialized person to serve
that organization in these capacities. Williams was one of the four Black Peel school
trustees who successfully proposed the idea of naming a school in Peel after
former Ontario Fairness Commissioner and Federal Cabinet Minister, Jean
Augustine.
Excellence
in Religion:
Pastor
Kay Morris, an ordained
minister and internationally
acclaimed multi-award winning Reggae Gospel Hall-Of-Famer, is President of the Kay Morris Foundation,
which provides humanitarian services to African countries. Her humanitarian work through her
Foundation, based in Canada and Ghana, has resulted in her being enstooled as
Her Royal Highness Queen Nana Oye Sika I of The Royal House of Berekuso
Aquapem, Ghana, West Africa. This happened after she brokered $1.5 million in
anti-retroviral medicine for people living with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Excellence
in Science:
Dr.
Tabo Sikaneta is
a researcher, general internist and nephrologist at The Scarborough Hospital
whose professional interests include clinical research and teaching at the
hospital and at the University of Toronto. He supervises resident and graduate student research projects,
and has published 18 peer-reviewed, science research articles.
A founding member of the African
Caribbean Kidney Association, a chapter of the National Kidney Foundation, Dr.
Sikaneta has served as a member of the Ethics Review Board of The Scarborough
Hospital since 2005, and as its vice-chair since 2016.
Excellence
in Sports:
Jeffrey L. Orridge is the 13th. and first African Canadian
Commissioner of the Canadian Football League (CFL), where he is repositioning the CFL for the future. After
taking the helm two years ago, the first black commissioner in North American
professional sport has introduced a progressive and inclusive approach,
designed to further engage avid CFL fans while attracting a new generation of
fans. Prior to the CFL, Orridge was the executive director of sports and
general manager, Olympics at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), where
he successfully secured the media rights to the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games,
the 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games, and the 2018 and 2020 Olympic Games.
Youth
Achievement Award:
Remi Ojo Jr. is an all-round achiever who has
excelled in academics, sports, entrepreneurship, and giving back to the
community. His passion for robotics initially led him to pursue studies in
engineering and, while he specialized in biochemical engineering, he has
continued to fuel his interest in robotics through involvement with the For
Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics
Competition as a mentor to high school teams. Ojo currently plays with two of
North America's top Ultimate Frisbee teams in both professional and club level
leagues, and has represented Canada on the world stage in Italy in 2014, Dubai
in 2015, as well as Colombia, China, and England in 2016.
Lifetime
Achievement Award:
Delores Lawrence, O. Ont., MBA, RN, is the
Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nursing and Homemakers
Inc. (NHI), a multi-million dollar company that offers
healthcare staffing and homecare services to clients in hospitals, long term
care facilities, insurance companies, dentists and other healthcare companies.
The award-winning company employs over 500 temporary, permanent, casual and
contract workers across Ontario, who speak over 70 different languages. Her
strong civic engagement is demonstrated in her appointed roles: Honours and
Awards Secretariat - Order of Ontario selection committee (2013 to present);
the Ontario Judicial Council (2010-2014); board member and chair of Seneca
College board of governors (2000-2006); member of the board and chair of
Academic & Patient Care Committee of Sunnybrook & Women’s Hospital;
board member of the Toronto International Film Festival Group capital campaign;
chair of United Way of Greater Toronto (Caribbean Committee) and the Bishop
Strachan School board of governors (1995).
The ACAA gala will also celebrate Canada's 150th. birthday and the
significant contributions, made by thousands of African Canadians -- from
Matheui De Costa, in the early 17th. century, to Viola Desmond, to Rosemary
Brown, to the Hon. Lincoln Alexander, to hundreds of contemporary,
hard-working, industrious persons of African ancestry -- to the development and
success of their beloved country.
The venerable organisation will acknowledge and recognise the 50th
anniversary of the launch of Caribana, the Caribbean's exposition of its
culture, in 1967, by paying tribute to the founders of the venerable organisation
-- in person.
The 33rd. annual African Canadian Achievement Awards of Excellence
gala will be held at the Jane Mallett Theatre, inside the St. Lawrence Centre
for the Arts, 27 Front Street, East, in downtown Toronto.
-30-
Media contact:
Michael Van Cooten,
ACAA Chief Executive Officer
Tel: (905) 668-8869
Email: acaa@bellnet.ca
Website: www.
africancanadianachievementawards.com
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