Mr. Bromley Armstrong, pioneer in Canadian labour and race relations (top) and Dr. Mavis Burke, a leader on race relations and women’s issues (center) receive the Friends of L. Ron Hubbard Humanitarian Award for Lifetime Achievement at a gala celebration at which other Canadian leaders were recognized for their outstanding achievements (bottom).

The awards were the highlight of the third annual gala dinner of the Church of Scientology and the Friends of L. Ron Hubbard in Toronto. The dinner, which commemorates the birthday, life and accomplishments of Mr. Hubbard (1911-1986), is held to honor individuals who have exemplified an unwavering commitment to their fellow human beings. Those honored are presented with the L. Ron Hubbard Humanitarian Award.

Among the individuals recognized for their outstanding achievements were:

• Ms. Khadija Kathy Ali, TV producer and co-founder of Vision TV
• Mrs. Pamela Appelt, Canada’s first female Afro-Canadian Judge, Court of Canadian Citizenship and a patron of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development
• Ms. Julie Wang Morris, founder of the Markham Communicator, Canada’s first Chinese-English bilingual newspaper
• Ms. Marlene Thomas Osbourne, co-Chairperson of the Mayor of Hamilton’s Committee Against Racism and Discrimination
• Mrs. Pearl Lipton Silver, President of the Nagillah Chapter of Jewish Women International
• Mr. Qamar Sadiq, the Chair and a founding member of the Multicultural Society of Pakistani Canadians
• Mr. David Smith, philanthropist and founder of the David Smith Centre, an Ottawa youth drug and alcohol treatment centre
• Reverend Wesley Wakefield of the Bible Holiness Movement and Chairman of Christians Concerned for Racial Equality
• Mr. Mike and Mrs. Liz Zahari, founders of Education Alive, a remedial education program utilizing the study technology of Mr. Hubbard.

Two of the 2001 winners received the evening’s foremost award, the Friends of L. Ron Hubbard Humanitarian Award for Lifetime Achievement.

• Dr. Mavis Burke has maintained an exemplary career in race relations and women’s issues. She has been a special advisor on race relations for the Minister of Education and on minority women’s issues for the Ontario Women’s Directorate, and has served as chairperson of the Ontario Advisory Council on Multiculturalism and Citizenship. She is a recipient of the Order of Ontario.
• Mr. Bromley Armstrong is a pioneer in Canadian labour and race relations. He is a founder of many important organizations including the Jamaican Canadian Association, Urban Alliance on Race Relations, Black Business and Professional Association and National Council of Jamaicans. He is a member of the Order of Canada and recipient of the Stanley Knowles Humanitarian Award, the Bahai National Race Unity Award and the 1998 Harmony Award. He has a 53 year history of achievement in race relations in Canada.

Their acceptance speeches provide insight into the thoughts of our leaders in race and community relations and the challenges that we face in our greater Canadian community, more than ever in our post-September 11 world.

Dr. Mavis Burke:

“I took the two tests that L. Ron Hubbard gave for a life well lived, which are 1) Have you achieved the things you set out to do; and 2) Have people been glad that you lived and you did the work that you did?

“And let me say first of all that coming here as an immigrant... one has to begin all over again. You are a newcomer without Canadian experience and you begin again. This means that when you come to the point of assessing whether you have achieved your goals you find that, as one person said, there is still a great deal that you want to do and that you recognize has got to be done. So this achievement does not mean cutting off the work that any of us does. It’s a spirit to continue.

“Now the second part of the test has to do with the impact that one’s work has made. I find this more difficult. And I find it particularly difficult at the present time. If I wished to summarize my work, I would say that it has been in equity, equality, respect for other people [and in] educational organizations that recognize the rights of people and the way people learn. And, I have got to say, that at the present time the very organizations and the legislation, the protections that over the past 30 years we thought had been achieved in Ontario and elsewhere, no longer exist. They have been systematically removed.

“And my concern is, that unless we all work together and make our voices heard, then I think whatever has been achieved in the past 30 years will no longer exist—the values of our society; caring for the disadvantaged, the homeless, seniors, the sick. Where are we today? I leave you with thanks for the Lifetime Achievement award but with the challenge of saying that unless we all stand together, there can be no achievement.”

Mr. Bromley Armstrong

“I’d just like to say to you we have come a long, long way. If I look back over the years and at the audience we would have had in the past, I would be looking over an audience of ‘snow’. Tonight I look at this audience and say this is our Canada. Our Canada with people of every complexion in the world—sitting, eating, talking and enjoying each other’s company. This is what we need in this country. The Friends of L. Ron Hubbard, you have done a marvelous job this evening and you have done a great service to man.

“I accept this award for all the people that I have met from every race, every creed and every colour, the people I call people of goodwill, the people who are mentally challenged, the people who are physically challenged, those people who are able-bodied people, people from every sexual orientation and from every religious group.

“I would like to leave this with you—L. Ron Hubbard said ‘I have lived no cloistered life and hold in contempt the wise man who has not lived and the scholar who will not share.’ This is L. Ron Hubbard’s view. So those of us who can help, we should do what we can to help others.

“I want to leave this message with you—’There have been many men wiser than I but few have travelled as much road. I have seen life from the top down and from the bottom up. But I know that there is wisdom and there is hope.’ And ladies and gentlemen, I too know there is hope.”