Trio nominated for RBC Immigrant Award

By Jason Winders, MES'10

Western French Studies professor Henri Boyi and Medicine/Microbiology & Immunology professor Lakshman Gunaratnam, along with alumnus Navjeet ‘Bob’ Dhillon, have been named finalist for the RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award for 2015. The annual event, given out by Canadian Immigrant Magazine, in partnership with RBC Royal Bank, since 2009, is the first Canadian national award program that recognizes immigrants’ achievements from all walks of life.

The trio was chosen as three of 75 finalists from more than 630 nominees by a panel of judges, consisting of Canadian Immigrant Magazine editorial staff as well as immigrant and ethnic community leaders.

Boyi arrived in Canada in 1994, after the genocide catastrophe that struck his home country of Burundi in October 1993. Today, he is passionate about teaching the French language and understanding the process of learning in multicultural and multilingual environments. His signature course, Rwanda: Culture, Society and Reconstruction, involves a five-week international service-learning experience in Rwanda. Started five years ago, the course extends Western’s ongoing partnership with the Kigali Health Institute and provides students with a unique opportunity to learn about Rwandan society and about themselves.