2017 RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards open call for nominations

TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - January 05, 2017) - Canadian Immigrant magazine is pleased to invite nominations for the ninth annual RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards. The 2017 awards will be extra special this year as winners will be announced in time to celebrate Canada's 150^th birthday, a momentous occasion in the history of a nation built by immigrants.

The program is presented by Canadian Immigrant magazine and is proudly supported by founding and title sponsor RBC Royal Bank. This national award asks Canadians to nominate and then vote directly for individuals who have made a difference since their arrival in Canada, whether in business, academia, the arts or community service. Since 2009, 200 outstanding immigrants have been chosen for this coveted award for their inspiring contributions to Canada. Their achievements have been celebrated and their stories shared with Canadians across the country.

A nominee can be anyone who has immigrated to Canada and has since contributed to the success and uplifting of this country and/or its people. Achievements can be either professional or personal. Nominees must hold landed immigrant (Permanent Resident) or citizen status in Canada, and must reside in Canada.

"We say that Canada is a nation built by immigrants, and what better way to celebrate the country's 150^th birthday than to honour today's immigrants who are making their mark in moving Canada forward," says Margaret Jetelina, editor of Canadian Immigrant magazine. "This year we ask all our readers about who they believe deserves to join this amazing group of individuals in a very special year."

This will also be the third year that sponsor RBC selects one of the winners for its special RBC Entrepreneur Award. This year, we are also introducing the new Youth Award, which will recognize the achievements of immigrant youth (between ages 15 and 30) who are making a difference in their adopted country through achievement and/or service, and show great potential in further building this nation. Similar to our RBC Entrepreneur Award, the Youth Award will be an additional honour given to one of the RBC Top 25 winners. No special application process required.

"Immigrants bring new perspectives and ingenuity into our communities across the country. These awards celebrate our neighbours, our friends, our colleagues, and what they do to make this country shine on the local and global stage," said Ivy Chiu, Senior Director, Multicultural Markets, RBC. "I'm also thrilled to introduce the Youth Award, which will recognize our outstanding young newcomers."

Some of the past winners include two former Governor Generals of Canada Adrienne Clarkson and Michaëlle Jean, national broadcaster Ian Hanomansing, celebrity entrepreneur Robert Herjavec and star chef Vikram Vij, and the late architect Bing Thom, to name a few.

Nominations can be made by visiting canadianimmigrant.ca/rbctop25 until February 27, 2017, 11:59 pm EST. A distinguished panel of judges will review all nominees and present a list of 75 finalists who will be profiled online in March, after which all Canadians can vote for their favourite nominees.

The 25 winners will be announced in June 2017, and will be recognized in the July print edition of Canadian Immigrant magazine and online on canadianimmigrant.ca, in time to celebrate Canada's 150th Birthday. Winners will also receive a commemorative plaque and $500 towards a charity of their choice provided by RBC. Media partners include Toronto Star, Metro, Sing Tao, South Asian Focus and CBC Toronto.

About Canadian Immigrant
Attracting more than 400,000 readers each month and over 100,000 visitors a month online, Canadian Immigrant is a national magazine, distributed in Toronto, Vancouver and in key centres across the country, which helps new Canadians build a successful life and home in Canada. Its mandate to inform, educate and motivate provides easy-to-access content for newcomers looking for information from careers, education and settling in to culture and business. Our website, canadianimmigrant.ca, offers daily editorial, forums, tools and resources to further help newcomers across Canada. Canadian Immigrant is a division of Metroland Media Group, a dynamic media company with more than 100 community and daily newspapers in print and online, as well as innovative websites including wheels.ca, goldbook.ca, flyerland.ca and localwork.ca.

ABOUT RBC
Royal Bank of Canada is Canada's largest bank, and one of the largest banks in the world, based on market capitalization. We are one of North America's leading diversified financial services companies, and provide personal and commercial banking, wealth management, insurance, investor services and capital markets products and services on a global basis. We have over 80,000 full- and part-time employees who serve more than 16 million personal, business, public sector and institutional clients through offices in Canada, the U.S. and 36 other countries. For more information, please visit http://www.rbc.com.

RBC helps communities prosper, supporting a broad range of community initiatives through donations, community investments and employee volunteer activities. For more information please see: http://www.rbc.com/community-sustainability/.