October 2014

The Charles Roy Award for Activism in HIV/AIDS will be an annual award honoring an individual who has made significant contributions in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The recipients will be chosen through nominations which will be promoted by the HIV/AIDS organizations in Toronto, Peel, York Region, and Durham Region, as well as open to the public, and voted on by the INSPIRE Awards Board of Directors, under the supervision of the Nominations & Procedures Committee. Nominations for this awards category open on October 16, 2014, and close on January 15, 2015.

Charles-Roy

INSPIRE Awards is pleased to honour and commemorate Charles Roy’s legacy in the fight against HIV/AIDS by naming an award in his honour,” says Antoine Elhashem, President of the INSPIRE Awards. “Our Board of Directors recognizes that HIV/AIDS is still an issue in the LGBTQ2S+ community and the world. It is part of our Mission Statement to celebrate those who make a difference in our community and work on changing attitudes. Charles is just one of the greatest examples of someone who did just that on the Canadian scene.”

Charles Roy was the Executive Director of the AIDS Committee of Toronto for eight years. He was a member of Toronto People With AIDS Foundation, AIDS ACTION NOW and many other provincial committees. Nationally, he was a board member of the Canadian AIDS Society, and, internationally, he contributed to the World Health Organization and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS. In 1985, he worked for the Montreal AIDS Resource Centre, where he organized the city’s first support group for People With AIDS. He is recognized by the Ontario HIV Treatment Network at their annual conference with a lecture in his honour. He is author of Living and Serving: Persons with HIV in the Canadian AIDS Movement.