Who's who of Hispanic Canadians

Although there are three quarters of a million Hispanics in Canada (some authorities place the number closer to one million), their contribution to the Canadian psyche is more often than not ignored by the main stream media. This is a pity because the Hispanic community is the country’s third largest minority group, largely well educated and taking its place as an increasingly influential segment of the population. 

As one step toward remedying this oversight, Scotiabank, through iScotiabank, has put its corporate weight behind a Toronto ceremony that featured the selection by six hundred people of Canada’s Ten Most Influential Hispanic Canadians in 2008.

The Hispanic “Stars” were selected, using a Dancing with the Stars-style judging process, from the thirty-seven nominations submitted from across the country. The nominee group was narrowed down to twenty finalists by a prestigious contingent of journalists and executives from the Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, Canadian Business, CBC, Ottawa’s FOCAL, The Canadian Council for the Americas, Canadian Hispanic Congress, Hispanic Press Association of Canada and five of the previous year’s winners.  At the ceremony, the six hundred people who attended ranked the finalists.  Those results were combined with those of the judges to determine the winners – The Ten Most Influential Hispanic Canadians in 2008.

Of equal importance to the selecting of the ten personalities was a presentation to the audience by Rosemary Bender, Director General of the Social and Demographic Branch at Statistics Canada.  DG Bender revealed the highlights of the eagerly awaited “Profile of the Hispanic Community in Canada” based on the 2006 census. According to that study, which was generated at the request of the Canadian Hispanic Congress, there are 741,760 Hispanics in Canada. The study also found that Hispanics are about ten years younger and more likely to be university educated than the general population.  

The awards were presented by Scotiabank and coordinated by This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Other event sponsors included the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Canadian Council for the Americas, Base International, Rogers, Western Union, Andes Travel and real estate agent Gerardo Perez. Media sponsors included Canadian Business magazine, Nuevo Mundo TV, Telelatino, Cuba Plus, La Guía de Toronto, Correo Canadiense, El Popular, El Mundo Latino News, torontohispano.com, Mercado News, Opinion, Latin Life and Abanico. 

Another important feature of the Awards evening was the announcement by HispanicBusiness.ca of the development of its first “Manual for Hispanic Immigrants/Who’s Who in Hispanic Business”. To draw attention to its membership drive, over 25,000 copies of the manual will be printed and distributed, supported by its one hundred members. A discounted membership fee application will hopefully increase that membership many fold before the next Ten Most Influential Hispanic Canadians 2009 event on November 17, 2009 in Toronto. 

The 2008 winners were Dr. Bernardo Berdichewsky (Ph.D), Research; Eduardo Urueña, Media; Esmeralda Enrique, Dance; Hon. Guillermo Rishchynski, Diplomacy; Guillermo Silva-Marin, Opera; Johnny Campuzano, Law Enforcement; Margarita Feliciano, Literacy; Mario Guilombo, Human Rights; Mario Perez, Entrepreneurship; Oscar A. Jofre Jr., Entrepreneurship.