Global Citizen Award
The Global Citizen Award is given to an individual who is making a contribution through their professional and personal lives to building a better world. Join us for the 2021 Global Citizen Award Ceremony!
UNA-Canada's Global Citizen Award
With a mandate to ‘grow global citizens’, the United Nations Association in Canada recognizes role models who have shown generosity, creativity, leadership and solution-seeking, and applied their talents to the challenges they have identified in their local communities, in the country and in the world.
A Global Citizen need not be a world traveller or professional diplomat. Each of our Global Citizen laureates has, however, contributed to their community, country and world, understood, and shown through their lives that their actions and decisions can be taken for short-term benefit – or long-term elevation of all. As a whole, UNA-Canada’s laureates have shown the courage and determination to lift others.
UNA-Canada is pleased to announce its 2022 Global Citizen Award Recipient
UNA-Canada is proud to pay tribute to the Honourable Anita Anand, Canada’s Minister of National Defence. Minister Anand is also a professor and a mother who contributes to building a better world through her professional and personal life.
Minister Anand demonstrates a continuing commitment to reform and good governance that spans local and national agencies. In addition, as the first woman of colour to serve as Minister of National Defence, she has prioritized creating a safe workplace for all Canadians, especially women.
Under Minister Anand’s leadership, Canada’s Department of National Defence supports the Canadian Armed Forces’ contributions to United Nations Peacekeeping. Canada’s commitments to United Nations peace operations also include multi-year support to specialized training and a $70 million contribution to the UN Peacebuilding Fund over three years.
Minister Anand has also helped to ensure that Canada plays a leadership role in the United Nations system through its strong advocacy for the Vancouver Principles on Peacekeeping and the Prevention of the Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers; and the Elsie Initiative on Women in Peace Operations.
Previously, as Minister of Public Services and Procurement, Minister Anand secured COVID vaccines and PPE quickly and effectively, allowing at-risk Canadians to receive the urgent and immediate care required to protect our vulnerable populations.
Before her election, Minister Anand had an outstanding academic career working as a Professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto, where she held the J.R. Kimber Chair in Investor Protection and Corporate Governance. She also served as Associate Dean, was a member of the Governing Board of Massey College at the University of Toronto and was cross-appointed to the Rotman School of Management as the Director of Policy and Research at the Capital Markets Research Institute.
In all her roles, Minister Anand commits herself to ensuring that no one is left behind.
UNA-Canada will present its 2022 Global Citizen Award to the Hon. Anita Anand later in the fall.
Criteria for the Global Citizens Laureate
UNA-Canada is proud to honour and pay special tribute to unique and ambitious models of leadership. We recognize our Laureates for their positive vision for a better world, starting in Canadian communities, and for their outstanding and generous commitment to children and youth, education, health and wellness and social growth and stability not only for individuals, but for whole communities. The recipient is recognized for their outstanding global citizenship in their community, for Canada and for the world by exemplifying how social responsibility and sterling leadership can be enormously successful in fostering inclusive societies and prosperity.
2021 Global Citizens Award
Honouring Wes Hall
UNA-Canada is proud to honour and pay special tribute to Mr. Wes Hall as an outstanding global citizen. He is a role model on how social and financial innovation can foster a more inclusive, fair, equitable and sustainable world. Mr. Hall reflects UNA-Canada’s core values and the principles we embody in our extensive youth engagement and empowerment programming.
Wes Hall, named to Maclean’s Power List, is highly respected as one of Canada’s preeminent power brokers. He’s an innovator, entrepreneur, family man and positive influence for emerging entrepreneurs.
As a child in rural Jamaica, Mr. Hall was raised by his grandmother before moving to Canada at 16, and setting himself on track to become one of the most influential business people in our country. He knows how much drive and dedication it takes to build a business, especially as a racialized Canadian.
As the Founder and Executive Chairman of Kingsdale Advisors, Mr. Hall is known for his generosity with a number of impactful charitable initiatives. He is the founder of the BlackNorth Initiative and serves as a Board Member with the SickKids Foundation, Pathways to Education, and Toronto International Film Festival.
On behalf of UNA-Canada, please join us virtually, at our Global Citizens live-streamed award presentation to celebrate Wes Hall, in company with other global citizens, business, political and community leaders, global civil society, friends, partners and colleagues.
Mark Carney
UNA-Canada congratulates Mark Carney as our 2020 Global Citizen Laureate.
Mark Carney has achieved prominence as an economist and banker who served as the Governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to early in 2020. Before that he served as Governor of the Bank of Canada (from 2008 to 2013). He holds Canadian, British and Irish citizenship and was Chairman of the Financial Stability Board from 2011 to 2018.
Mr. Carney has recently accepted appointments as UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and as UK Prime Minister Johnson’s Finance Adviser for COP 26.
As UN Special Envoy, he will focus on ambitious implementation of climate action, with particular attention to significantly shifting public and private finance markets and mobilizing private finance to the levels needed to achieve the 1.5°C goal of limited emission growth of the Paris Agreement. This will include building the frameworks for financial reporting, risk management and returns in order to bring the impacts of climate change to the mainstream of private financial decision making and to support the transition to a net zero carbon economy.
The impact of the global pandemic forced us to change plans from our usual format To address the safety and social distancing requirements, UNA-Canada reimagined its 2020 Global Citizens Awardto include a dynamic Arm-Chair discussion on Climate Finance & COVID-19 Recovery among a group of experts, presented as a virtual webcast event.
The Arm-Chair discussion engaged Doug Guzman, Group Head, RBC Wealth Management, RBC Insurance, and RBC Investor & Treasury Services; Louis Vachon, CEO of the National Bank / Banque Nationale, and 2016 Global Citizen Laureate; and our 2020 Global Citizen honoree Mark Carney.
Walied Soliman, Global Chair, Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, Chair of the recently reporting Ontario Capital Markets Modernization Taskforce, and 2019 Global Citizen Laureate, moderated the discussion.
The 2018 Global Citizen Award,
Honoring: Louis Audet
Global Citizens Award Honourees
Louis Audet
2018
Walied Soliman
2019 Global Citizen
Louis Audet
2018
Bill Graham
2017
Louis Audet
2018 Global Citizen
Bill Graham
2017 Global Citizen
Louis Vachon
2016
Louis Vachon
2016 Global Citizen
Murad Al-Katib
2016
Murad Al-Katib
2016 Global Citizen
Terry Hui
2015
Terry Hui
2015 Global Citizen
The 2017 Global Citizen Award,
Honoring: Bill Graham