COPA: Prémios celebram êxito luso-canadiano

A moment in the spotlight

Portuguese-Canadian National Congress to host Celebrating Outstanding Portuguese-Canadian Achievement this spring. These awards recognize individuals who have made an impact in the Canadian Society.

PTvirtual: How is an individual nominated or selected to win an award?
Ana Almeida: The community is invited to submit nominations. We send out press releases, promote the event on the radio. People can also go on our website to print out a form and select nominees.
PTvirtual: What are the requirements to be considered a nominee?
Ana Almeida: Anyone Canadian of Portuguese descent can be a nominee excluding family members or someone who works for the Portuguese Congress and sponsors are also excluded from participating.
PTvirtual: What is involved in the nomination process?
Ana Almeida: There is a timeline in which people can nominate someone. This deadline was towards the end of March. Once the nominee forms are submitted, there is a selection committee that reviews the applications. Then a decision is made on who will win the award.
PTvirtual: What sort or prizes are the winners presented with?
Ana Almeida: There are no cash prizes. The prizes include awards for the following categories. There are various categories in which a nominee can win an award. Arts and culture, athletics, education, and vision and leadership.
PTvirtual: Can you disclose who the nominees are for this year?
Ana Almeida: This information is not available as of yet.
PTvirtual: Who are some past recipients and are any of them participating in this years event?
Ana Almeida: One past winner who is participating in our planning committee is the person who won the educational award last time. Irene Glayer. Past winners who will participate also include Elvino Sousa who is a professor at the University of Toronto. He is also the chair of the selection committee this year. Cidalia Faria who works for the ministry of the attorney general. She won the Luso-Canadians of Distinction award in 2004.
PTvirtual: Why is this event so important to the community?
Ana Almeida: It’s important because we have many a lot of great stories of people who were successful in areas that we don’t always see in the Portuguese community and to celebrate the successes of these people and to let others know about their stories. This is also a national initiative the Portuguese congress organizes as a fundraiser. This event is also important because its good to see someone in the community get media exposure. This event recognizes true talent which is very important to us. This event is also important to the congress since we are a non profit organization so this event helps us raise a lot of money through the dinner we host for the selected nominees. This is the biggest fundraising event we have.
PTvirtual: Why is there an effort to find Portuguese Canadians who in most cases are not involved in the Portuguese community?
Ana Almeida: There isn’t a specific effort to find people who are not involved in the Portuguese community. The goal of the awards is to award someone who has been in the mainstream Canadian society. This shows we have matured as a community and that we have been able to succeed since many recipients have been in position of power while their parents only had he opportunity to work jobs that involved manual labour or they were very limited to the jobs they could work in due to a lack of education. The award recipients have reached a certain level of success an we want to honour them for their achievements.
PTvirtual: For those who don’t know, why is the Força Award so important?
Ana Almeida: The Força award is particularly geared towards recognizing a youthful person who has been very visible in the last few years. This is not an award we receive nominations for. The award recipient is presented at the discretion of the planning committee and the congress. This person would have to “wow” us to win the award. The first Força award went to Nelly Furtado. She inspired the award. The last one went to Brian Melo from Canadian Idol. His face was seen all around the world when he won. And to have a Portuguese decent, this made it so much better for him self. People would ask what he’s done for the community, well he put him self out there. He’s a Portuguese Canadian who succeeded. This year we are happy to present this award to John Tavares who plays for the New York Islanders. In the last couple of years he has been very successful in hockey. He has beat records that other hockey players have held. He was an NHL draftsman in 2009 which is quite an accomplishment.
PTvirtual: When will the event to recognize the nominees be held?
Ana Almeida: The event will be held May 15 at the Le Meridian King Edward Hotel in Toronto.

By: Paula Barreiros Henriques