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Meet our 2025 Racial Justice Award winners:
- Councillor Neethan Shan - Agent of Change
- Dr. Jill Andrew - Government Category
- Andrea Vásquez Jiménez - Justice Category
- Vera Cheng - Health Category
- Adebola Adefioye - Education Category
- Jay Douglas- Arts Category
- Jojo Geronimo - Labour Category
- David Suzuki - Environment Category
- Sharom Rho - Migrant Rights Category
Councillor Neethan Shan - Agent of Change
Neethan Shan served as UARR's Executive Director before recently being re-elected to Toronto City Council. Previously, he was a TDSB Trustee and Chair, and a YRDSB Trustee.
Neethan Shan began his career as a Youth Outreach Worker in Malvern. Neethan went on to become a manager for youth programs in Malvern, where he developed and implemented over twenty programs in many different schools. He has served as a Math and Science teacher, a college professor, and is the former Executive Director of CanTYD and of the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians.
During his ten years as Executive Director of CASSA, Neethan advanced the health equity agenda for South Asian communities, undertook a campaign to make municipalities outside the GTA become more inclusive, spearheaded the campaign to establish anti-racism directorate at the provincial level, and brought over 100 organizations from across Ontario under a solidarity umbrella to advance social and economic justice for all South Asians and all other equity deserving communities.
Neethan’s extensive involvement in the social services sector also includes work with Parent Action on Drugs, Malvern Community Coalition, Community Use of Schools Council, and Scarborough Youth Task Force, just to name a few organizations.
Currently, Neethan is advocating for racial justice at all levels of government. He pushes for policy change at the systemic levels in education, employment, health and justice. He has led campaigns within diverse communities that fought back against severe cuts to education, healthcare and legal aid. He is currently leading an awareness and advocacy campaign to have all post COVID recovery and rebuilding initiatives to be centred on racial equity.
Dr. Jill Andrew - Government Category
Dr. Jill Andrew, PhD (she/her) is an award-winning community leader, educator, speaker, and former journalist. Her career spans work as a child and youth worker, student equity and human rights advisor, and longtime body justice advocate. She is the co-founder of Body Confidence Canada, home to the Body Confidence Canada Awards (BCCAs) and Body Confidence Awareness Week, recognized officially by two of Canada’s largest school boards.
Dr. Andrew has co-edited the anthologies Body Stories: In and Out and With and Through Fat and Black Sisterhoods: Paradigms and Praxis. She also penned the foreword for Fat Studies in Canada: (Re)Mapping the Field and the afterword for Fat Girls in Black Bodies: Creating Communities of Our Own. Her PhD in education from York University titled "Put Together": Black Women's Body Stories in Toronto: (Ad)dressing Identity and the Threads that Bind, explores the 'trifecta' of anti-Black racism, sexism, and fat hatred experienced by Black women and their accommodation and resistance of dominant beauty ideals through fashion and dress, activism, self-valuation and social interactions at home, in education, health care, and the workplace among other institutions.
Jill is also a member of the Toronto Metropolitan University's School of Fashion Advisory Council. Her advocacy and scholarship were also featured in the Hot Docs Citizen Minutes documentary Body Politics, among other noted works. In 2010, Jill was one of only 120 community leaders across Canada appointed to participate in then Canada’s Governor General Michaëlle Jean’s Together for Women’s Security conference at Rideau Hall where Jill was also appointed to lead as one of the Conference Declaration writers.
She has received numerous accolades, including being named on of University of Toronto Scarborough's Canada 150 Neighbours, Michele Landsberg Media Activism Award, multiple Canadian Ethnic Media Awards, Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) Women’s Leadership and Social Activism, INSPIRE Awards Person of the Year, Canada’s 100 Black Women to Watch (CIBWE), the Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention’s Lifelong Advocacy Award, the Nancy Ruth Award for gender equality and leadership, and Toronto Metropolitan University’s Viola Desmond Alumna Award in 2022 named after Dr. Andrew.
Jill was also recognized for her commitment to social justice and addressing anti-Black racism, community advocacy, equity, and leadership by Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), and Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) during 2023 Black History Month – the first time a living activist had received the special honour. Recently, Jill was also recognized as one of Museum Toronto’s 52 Women Who Changed Toronto.
In June 2018, Dr. Andrew made history as the first queer Black person elected to any provincial legislature in Canada, serving as a Member of Provincial Parliament in Ontario’s Legislative Assembly. In 2022, Jill also made history as the first Black woman put forth to be a Deputy Speaker of the House in the Ontario Legislature. However, the Ontario government of the day changed the rules in place for over 155+ years, and therefore Jill was no longer able to assume the seat.
As an Official Opposition Critic ‘Shadow Minister,' Jill advocated for women’s social and economic opportunities, arts, culture, and heritage. As a member of the Ontario NDP Black Caucus, she was also a founding member of Ontario's first Black Caucus at Queen's Park where she put forth legislation and advocated for equitable treatment of Black community members in education, health care, the arts, and in business where she routinely spoke out on the disproportionate impact of environmental racism and inadequate infrastructure especially on Black community members in Little Jamaica. Jill and her team were also well known for their tenants and housing, education, access to inclusive healthcare, human rights, equity, and workers’ rights advocacy, producing dozens of summits on community concerns and also publishing annual Tenants Right guides.
She is also one of few Opposition Members who successfully passed any legislation. Her unanimously supported Bill 61 declared the first week yearly in February as Eating Disorders Awareness Week shedding light on the under researched and under supported challenges of BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA+, fat and 'othered' community members who often struggle with eating problems due to the overarching eurocentricity of eating disorders research, practice, and advocacy.
Jill lives in Toronto with her partner Aisha, their cat kids Josephine Baker and Dorothy Dandridge, and her beloved mother Josephine.
Educational background includes:
- Child & Youth Worker Diploma with President's Distinction, Humber College
- BA (Hons.) LIberal Studies, Sociology, Women's Studies, Theatre & Equity, York University
- Teachers College BEd, York University
- Women & Gender Studies MA, University of Toronto
- PhD Education, York University
Andrea Vásquez Jiménez - Justice Category
Andrea Vásquez Jiménez (she/her/ella) is a Black/Afro-Latina born to Colombian immigrant parents in Tkaronto currently known as Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
She is the Founder, Director and Principal Consultant of Policing-Free Schools (Canada), a grassroots, volunteer-led and community-based organization where she is dedicated to working with communities to advocate, strategize, mobilize and organize for the uprooting of policing and carceral infrastructures, practices, policies, culture and logics in educational spaces and recognizes that the the removal of police from education is solely a first and necessary step part of a larger transformative process. Andrea convenes the National Campaign for a Policing-Free Schools Canada, as well as the Provincial Campaign for a Policing-Free Schools Ontario. She is part of a national, international and growing global movement working on the systemic issues of policing-in-schools and the school–prison nexus with, and alongside individuals and organizational partners based across Canada, the United States, United Kingdom and South Africa.
For years Andrea has been deeply involved in struggles to remove police from schools in Toronto, across Turtle Island and internationally. Her entrypoint into the organizing for removal of police from the education system started in the fall of 2013 after hearing students voice their concerns at a community education forum about the School Resource Officer program in Toronto schools. In a previous organization where Andrea was a Co-Founder and subsequently a Co-Director, she was a lead organizer in the concerted effort that led to the successful removal of the School Resource Officer program in 2017 from the largest school board in Canada, the Toronto District School Board through a first of its kind community-led and collaborative process–a first in North America.
Since then, she has supported others in this process, including having served as an External Consultant to the United States-based Black Organizing Project, which successfully removed the Oakland Unified School District's School Police Department in 2021. Through Andrea’s leadership, she also secured multiple wins including at the electoral political level that led to the Ontario New Democratic Party naming getting police out of schools as part of their policy paper on ‘Ending Police Violence: Invest in Black, Indigenous and Racialized Lives”; and the Ontario Green Party having the removal of police from schools as part of their electoral platform in 2022.
Most recently, Andrea has been at the forefront organizing provincially alongside partners and supporters against Ontario Bill 33 demanding properly funded schools not the mandating and expansion of policing-in-schools and just this week, through an intensive rapid response local campaign in the Region of Peel, she secured a community-led win alongside local Peel-based partners, Peel Black Collective and BEF Empowers and backed by union power through co-organizing partner the Peel Elementary Teachers’ local in the defeat of Trustee Cole’s motion which would have led to expediting Bill 33’s policing-in-schools locally at the Peel District School Board.
Additonally, through Across the Diaspora Andrea supports individuals and organizations in their (un)learning and relearning journey as it pertains to the multiplicities of identities within Latin-America/Abya Yala and the diaspora, the nuances and complexities, while simultaneously taking an intersectional approach to dismantling anti-Blackness and anti-Indigeneity within and outside of our communities. Through her organizing, in 2024, Andrea led the renaming of Hispanic Heritage Month to Latin-America History Month at the City of Toronto and in 2015 she successfully stopped federal Bill S-228, ensuring that Hispanic Heritage Month would not be legislated nationally. She is a published author whose publications include Dismantling the White Supremacist Term and Discourse of & “Hispanic“; and We Exist Black/Afro-Latinxs! | Anti-Blackness in Latinx Communities.
Andrea earned her College Diploma in Community and Justice Services from Centennial College, her Bachelor of Arts with Honours from York University and Master of Education in the Social Justice Education program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.
Vera Cheng - Health Category
Vera Cheng, MSW, RSW, is an award-nominated registered social worker, psychotherapist, mental health advocate, keynote speaker, and founder of Talk Therapy with Vera, a leading practice dedicated to supporting Asian and immigrant communities across Canada. With over 15 years of experience in community health and psychotherapy, Vera is a pioneer in providing culturally responsive, identity-affirming care. Her simple and unwavering mission is to support Asian and immigrant communities by addressing racial trauma, reducing stigma, and empowering clients to rebuild confidence and trust in themselves.
In response to the 2021 Atlanta spa shooting, Vera launched the Stop Asian Hate Mask Initiative, a community-driven project rooted in healing and solidarity. Collaborating with a BIPOC artist, she designed a mask that honors Asian resilience and donated a percentage of sales to a local sex worker organization, reflecting her commitment to supporting the most marginalized members of the community. The initiative amplified Asian voices across Canada, becoming a symbol of visibility, empowerment, and collective care.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Vera emerged as a trusted media voice on Asian mental health. She spoke across major Canadian media networks about the emotional and psychological impacts of anti-Asian racism, bringing overdue national attention to the mental health realities faced by Asian communities, immigrant families, and frontline workers.
As the founder of Talk Therapy with Vera, she leads with compassion, cultural insight, and a deep commitment to systemic change. Vera conducts workshops on anti-Asian racism and mental health and regularly appears as a keynote speaker for organizations nationwide, equipping leaders with the tools to create trauma-informed, culturally safe environments. Her work bridges clinical expertise with advocacy and community healing, redefining what equitable mental health care can look like in Canada.
Jay Douglas- Arts Category
Jay Douglas is a treasured Jamaican Canadian vocalist, bandleader, and cultural icon whose influence on Canadian music spans more than five decades. A two-time JUNO Award nominee, Jay is celebrated for a sound that blends reggae, ska, soul, funk, American blues, West Indian rhythms, and jazz standards with warmth, elegance, and unmistakable charisma. His remarkable journey is featured in the TVO documentary Play It Loud! – How Toronto Got Soul, which chronicles his rise from Jamaica to becoming one of the architects of Toronto’s Caribbean and Black music renaissance. Jay first appeared onstage in Montego Bay, Jamaica before immigrating to Canada in 1964 with humble beginnings—like many members of the Caribbean diaspora who arrived seeking opportunity. Despite navigating an industry not always welcoming to Black artists, he forged ahead with resilience, carving out space for Caribbean and Black music in a developing Canadian cultural landscape. His story mirrors the broader path of immigrant musicians whose contributions helped shape modern Canada.
In the late 1960s, Jay became the frontman of the dynamic R&B and soul group The Cougars, who electrified audiences across Montreal and Toronto’s legendary Yonge Street nightclub strip. Their performances at the first-ever Caribana Festival helped introduce reggae, funk, and soul to Canadian mainstream audiences. Jay would later become internationally recognized through the acclaimed “From Jamaica to Toronto” concert series and reissue project by Light in the Attic Records, which celebrated his pioneering role in establishing Caribbean music in Canada.
Legendary producer Sly Dunbar famously referred to Jay as “the Lou Rawls of Jamaican Music,” praising his velvety tone and timeless musicality. His acclaimed album Confessions revealed his deep mastery of blues, earning critical recognition and expanding his influence across multiple genres. Jay’s contributions have been honoured at the highest civic and national levels. On February 5—one day before the City of Toronto–declared Bob Marley Day—Jay received the Bob Marley Day Humanitarian Award at Toronto City Hall, recognizing his lifetime of musical excellence, community leadership, and cultural advocacy. This honour holds special significance given Jay’s long history of performing Marley’s works at civic ceremonies, including his memorable rendition of One Love at City Hall when Rob Ford was mayor in 2013.
In 2025, Jay’s legacy reached another extraordinary milestone with his induction into a major permanent exhibition at the Canadian Museum of History, where a dedicated installation commemorating his career was unveiled alongside exhibits featuring iconic Canadian artists such as The Guess Who. This national honour a_irms Jay’s legacy as a pivotal figure in Canadian cultural history.
Beyond the stage, Jay is deeply committed to mentorship, education, and community uplift. He actively supports and guides emerging artists—including Tasha T and Kairo McLean—and contributes his time and wisdom to youth development through the Archie Alleyne Scholarship Fund, where he serves as a mentor and cultural elder. His advocacy for Little Jamaica continues to champion the preservation and recognition of its historic contribution to Black Canadian identity and music.
Today, Jay Douglas continues to perform, record, uplift others, and inspire the next generation. His voice, his spirit, and his legacy stand as a testament to the enduring power of culture, resilience, and the immigrant artists who helped build the foundation of Canada’s musical identity.
Adebola Adefioye - Education Category
Adebola Adefioye is an award-winning educator, social impact innovator, and community leader with over 15 years of experience advancing education, equity, and community well-being across Canada and internationally. Her work is anchored in a lifelong commitment to building safe, inclusive, and culturally responsive environments where children, youth, women, and newcomer families can thrive.
Adebola holds an Honours Bachelor’s degree in Child Development, a Master’s degree in Child and Youth Care, a Graduate Certificate in Mental Health Intervention, and a professional certificate in Advancing Women’s Leadership in Conflict Transformation, Peacebuilding, and Community Development. She is also a John Maxwell Certified Speaker, Trainer, and Coach.
A passionate educator and mentor, Adebola has taught as a Child and Youth Care Instructor at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and as a part-time Early Childhood Education Professor at George Brown College, Cambrian College, and Seneca College. She integrates trauma-informed, anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and equity-centered approaches into her teaching and leadership. Over the past five years, she has supervised and mentored Child Development, Early Childhood Education, Child and Youth Care, and Social Work students through placements and internships, preparing the next generation of equity-driven professionals for transformative work in their communities.
Her educational influence extends to high schools, where she delivers dynamic workshops on youth leadership, anti-racism, mental health, gender-based violence prevention, and community well-being. Grounded in storytelling and culturally responsive pedagogy, her sessions create safe spaces for reflection, healing, and empowerment.
Adebola is currently pursuing a PhD in Policy Studies at TMU, specializing in migration, settlement, belonging, and children's rights in Northern Ontario. She is the Founder and Executive Director of the Afro Women and Youth Foundation (AWYF), a registered charity that has served over 7,000 people through programs that promote wellness, leadership, education, and community resilience. She is also the Founder and Team Lead at Adebola Adefioye Consulting, where she provides training and strategic advisory services on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) and anti-racism.
Awards & Recognition
✔️ King Charles III Coronation Medal, 2025
✔️ Excellence in Equity & Inclusive Practice Award, Ontario Association of Child & Youth Care, 2025
✔️ TMU Rising Star Alumni Award – Social Change, Toronto Metropolitan University
✔️ 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women, 2024
✔️ Canada’s Top 100 Black Women to Watch, CIBWE Canada, 2023
✔️ Rising Star Award, PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise, 2023
✔️ Seneca HELIX Female Entrepreneur Award, Seneca College
✔️ Stephen Quinlan Award for Student Leadership, Seneca College, 2020
✔️ YWCA Woman of Distinction – Social Justice, 2022
✔️ Black Faculty & Staff Community Award for Student Leadership, TMU, 2022
✔️ Black Community Leadership Award, United Way Greater Toronto, 2020
✔️ Ontario Premier’s Award Winner, Colleges Ontario, 2021
Jojo Geronimo - Labour Category
Jojo Geronimo is a longtime social justice educator and activist whose advocacy spans over five decades, beginning in 1970 when he joined the fight against martial law in his homeland, the Philippines. Since settling in Canada over 30 years ago, Jojo has dedicated his life to challenging systemic oppression, advancing immigrant and refugee rights, and combating racism, drawing on his own experiences as a racialized immigrant.
Jojo’s career includes leadership and policy roles with numerous organizations, including Cross Cultural Communication Centre, the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI), and as Special Assistant for Policy with a Cabinet Minister in the Ontario Government. He has worked on international development projects in the Asia Pacific region and contributed to democratic reforms in the Philippines. For the last fifteen years, he has focused on promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion within labour unions, serving as Education Officer with OPSEU, Education Director with SEIU (New York), and Executive Director of the Labour Education Centre in Toronto.
Jojo continues to advance racial justice and equity through education, participatory research, and organizing with unions, grassroots groups, and immigrant rights organizations including Asian Canadian Labour Alliance (ACLA), Justicia for Migrant Workers, and OCASI. He is also co-author of Education for Changing Unions, a resource promoting racial equity in Canada’s labour movement, and remains a guiding voice for social justice, immigrant rights, and labour equity across Canada and beyond.
David Suzuki - Environment Category
David Suzuki is a renowned environmental activist, scientist, and broadcaster whose lifelong work has highlighted the intersection of environmental issues and social justice. Throughout his career, Suzuki has drawn attention to environmental racism, advocating for communities disproportionately impacted by pollution, toxic waste, and industrial development, often in low-income and racialized neighborhoods.
As co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation, he has championed initiatives that link ecological sustainability with equity, calling for policies that ensure all communities have access to clean air, water, and safe environments. His research, advocacy, and public education efforts have amplified the voices of marginalized communities affected by environmental hazards and have promoted systemic solutions to address these inequalities.
Through his writing, public speaking, and campaigns, David Suzuki has inspired generations to recognize that environmental health and social justice are inseparable, and he continues to work toward a Canada where sustainability, equity, and environmental justice go hand in hand.
Sharom Rho - Migrant Rights Category
Sarom Rho (she/her) is an organizer with the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC), a migrant-led organization advocating for the rights of workers in farm work, care work, and other low-waged jobs, including current and former international students, refugees, and undocumented people. MWAC also serves as the Secretariat of the Migrant Rights Network, supporting migrant-led advocacy across Canada.
Within MWAC, Sarom works with Migrant Students United, supporting the self-organization and empowerment of current and former international students in Canada. She also organizes with Gig Workers United, advocating for the rights of couriers and food workers in the gig economy.
Through her work, Sarom champions migrant justice, workers’ rights, and equitable policies, helping build stronger communities and advancing systemic change for marginalized workers across Canada.