Fil-Canadian journo receives QE II Diamond Jubilee Medal

Ace Alvarez receives Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medal [via Interaksyon]

Print and broadcast journalist Ace Alvarez has joined 60,000 Canadian citizens and permanent residents who have received the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medal for their contribution to Canadian society the past 60 years, it was learned.

The Canadian government, through the Chancellery of Honours at Rideau Hall, bestowed the award on Alvarez “for his exceptional and meritorius contribution to Canadian print and broadcast journalism and in the further propagation of multiculturalism and diversity, a national policy of Canada.”

An active news and public affairs person, Alvarez has contributed to community development work for the last 16 years.

He was the multicltural media representative from September 2007 to September 2009 to the Canadian National Exhibition Association (CNEA) — the organization which runs the annual Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), an 18-day fair, which has grown to be the largest annual fair in Canada and the fifth largest in North America attracting approximately 1.25 million visitors each year during the CNE’s 129-year history.

Alvarez was also a member of the CNEA’s Marketing Committee during the two terms he served from 2007 to 2009. During his term, the committee adopted Alvarez’s recommendation aimed at making the advertising and promotion of the CNE cost effective to specific cultural communities in the GTA.

As an officer and board member of the Canadian Ethnic Media Association (CEMA), Alvarez worked closely with the board, community publications and some Members of the Provincial Parliament of Ontario to reverse the provincial government’s ruling to make advertisers’ pay the provincial sales tax.

In 1999, Ace was awarded by the Canadian Ethnic Journalists’ and Writers’ Club for his consistent trenchant editorials in the Manila Media Monitor during award ceremonies aired over Toronto’s CFMT Television.

Since 2000, he has been (and probably remains to be the only Filipino-Canadian in media) listed for his contribution to Canadian journalism in “Canadian Who’s Who”— the reference book containing names of distinguished Canadians (listing in which is by invitation only and based on merit), compiled and published annually by the University of Toronto.

Ace serves as resource on ethnocultural media to two Toronto-based advertising agencies and has, in the past, been a resource to a high profile multicultural PR company based in Toronto. Likewise, he served as resource to journalism students at one of Toronto’s leading communication and media colleges, as well as the Ontario Chapter of the Federal Communications Council — an organization composed of Information/Media Relations Officers of the various Ministries of the Canadian federal government.