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AWARDS
ACAS has created two special awards to honor the contributions of individuals who espouse the core values and visions of ACAS.
The Patrick Truong PHA Leadership Award honors a person living with HIV of East & Southeast Asian cultural heritage who has made significant contributions in the areas of HIV/AIDS, human rights and/or related social justice issues in Toronto, Canada or internationally. It was named after ACAS late support staff, AIDS and community activist.
The Awardee is Paul Fernandez (posthumous).
Paul Fernandez (1962- 2017)
We, the family of Paul Fernandez, are extremely proud of Paul’s work within ACAS and beyond and are very pleased to accept the Patrick Truong PHA Leadership Award granted posthumously. We thank ACAS for its recognition of his leadership and countless contributions to the community.
It’s never easy to distil a lifetime of contributions and achievements of a person; it’s made more challenging when trying to capture it for Paul. His gifts were many and multi-faceted and they make his attainments, when put together, a remarkable and inspiring legacy.
Born and raised in Singapore, Paul moved to study at the University of Calgary in his youth. He returned to Singapore after graduation before finally making Toronto home. While grateful to Canada for the freedom to be his authentic self and the space to grow and make his mark, his country of birth remained close to his heart, not least because of its association with family he cared deeply about.
From a very young age Paul showed traits of a remarkable leader - vision that was often far ahead of its times, a brightness that challenged assumptions and pushed boundaries, strong passion and purpose, searing insight, a unique eye for beauty - many of these in service of the vulnerable and premised on principles of fairness and social justice.
Even when very young, Paul did so well at school that he was asked to coach his cousins of a similar age and he did so with great willingness and a sense of fun and humour. He had a keen intellect that instinctively knew how to teach the much-feared subject of mathematics to others. His cousins remained close to him till the end, grateful for the many fun and loving memories. He brought this ability to support learning into many areas of his personal and community life. Paul was a great believer in life-long learning and believed everyone has the capacity to grow by learning. Learning was an act of self-love and self-empowerment to him. He was an ACAS facilitator and organizer and among other activities, he ran training workshops to support people living with HIV/AIDS. He knew this would greatly improve their quality of life and their self-esteem and in turn, impact positively on their wellbeing.
Paul actively and courageously made it his mission to address homophobia and racism across countries, as well as within the LGBTQI2S community, despite the discomforts, disappointments and real threats he faced. He achieved this in many ways: through digital activism on internet forums; support for the founding of the ‘Of Colour Collective’ in Calgary in the early ‘90s built on the intersectionality of race and sexual orientation, with the ambition of creating a cross-Canada movement for space for marginalized voices; gave a speech at a Pride rally in Calgary during the same period; promoted programs when he was on the Board and committees of ACAS (and ASAAP); identified and advocated for the evolving needs of community members, and stood up for people who were unable to access resources in their defence of their human rights, including for someone who faced the death penalty. Towards the end of his life, he championed self-organizing among friends and community members to meet their informal social belonging and mentorship needs, working towards drawing in family into the circle.
During one particular period, when life seemed precarious because of opposition to his views and person, he fought on without giving up. As difficult as it was on him, he tenaciously channeled all his passion into strengthening the lives of others in similar circumstances, always mindful of their dignity. All of his involvements came from a place of sensitivity and deep care for others; qualities often missed because most people were more struck by the eloquence and the keen intellect he brought to his work.
In his life, Paul always equipped himself with facts and knowledge. This was true as much in his personal life as in his life of community and political activism. Whether it was about cooking, music, gardening or politics, he often took in a breadth of information and judiciously evaluated their merit before finding creative and constructive uses for them. It was no surprise to us that one of his valued colleagues at ACAS described him as a thinker, a valuable asset for activist work and for committee meetings. A colleague at ASAAP shared with us how much he valued Paul’s principled stance at meetings, even in the face of opposition. Invariably this meant that they took strong, collective decisions in their fight against homophobia and racism, that almost always proved to have been the right decision to have taken.
Paul was a precious person on a pathbreaking mission. His legacy in opening up difficult conversations on racism and homophobia in new spaces, community building, especially for the HIV-positive/AIDS community will endure in all our lives and in the organizations he worked at.
The 25th Anniversary Community Builder Award honors an individual of East & Southeast Asian cultural heritage who is from a marginalized or underserved sector of the community, and who has demonstrated commitment and ability in community organizing or advocacy work related to LGBTQ+, HIV/AIDS, human rights or social justice.
This year’s award goes to Aries Cheung. Aries has been a valuable member of the ACAS community since ACAS’s inception, and his contributions for helping build the Asian LGBTQ+ community should not be under-appreciated.
Although his professional career is focused in the arts, Aries has devoted huge amount of quality hours to volunteer with ACAS and LGBTQ+ community throughout the years. In 2019-2020 alone, Aries was committed in the organizing of three projects and was essential in the smooth delivery of these events and programs: STARS 100, a trans performance / fashion / arts / crafts showcase; Midnight Lotus, a social group meetups and workshops for mature queer Asian men, as a steering m ember and the. liaison with ACAS; and Invisible, Footprints, an intergenerational arts and networking project, as an advisory team member and the supervisor of youth project staff.
In 1997, he coordinated and facilitated Asian Visual Artists Against AIDS for ACAS. In 1998, he helped organize Asian Performers Against AIDS showcase. In 2003, he was an active member of ACFEM - Asian Canadians for Equal Marriage. In 2006, he led the Voices of Asians in HIV/ AIDS, an ACAS performance event (Temple Street) featured at the East and Southeast Asian Zone in the Global Village of the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto. In 2008, Aries helped organize the Red Rib bon Human links, ACAS' first World AIDS Day event in Toronto Chinatown. In 2010, he helped create ACAS's first queer Asian snort film competition and screening, Bamboo Shoot. In 2014 and 2015, he was involved in Rice Roll Production's theatre and video projects utilizing his roster of creative skills in the arts, including illustration, acting, singing, and dancing. He has performed at ACAS's Pink Dot event and at the Miss ACAS Pageant. He has lent his expertise in facilitating va1rio us workshops for ACAS, including media/ public speaking and vocal/singing for QTAY. Besides his artistic, organizing, and mentoring work, Aries has also sat on advisory committees for ACAS service programs and has been a support buddy and translator for Asian living with HIV/AIDS.
Today, we are very delighted to honour his work, dedication, talents, and leadership in the Asian LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS communities.