Canadian Multicultural Councils outstanding Asian Canadian award goes to Mr. Aloy Perera for his contribution to Srilankan community in Canada.                          

By Lenin Benedict-Toronto.                                                    

The Srilankan community turned with overwhelming joy to share their happiness and show their respect to a most prominent and respectable member of the Srilankan community Mr. Aloy Stephan Perera, for the outstanding Asian Canadian Community Award given to him at the Premiere Convention Centre at Richmond Hill in Toronto. Srilankans belong to all ethnic community turned to this event to honor him with great enthusiasm. 

The Canada Srilanka Association nominated Mr. Aloy Perera for the outstanding Asian Community Award for his great contribution to the Srilankan community. It was a great honor to all Asians living in Canada and Srilankan community in particular. All the Srilankans stood up together in a show of respect and clapped their hands when the award was announced by          Mr. Henry Lee, President of the Canadian Multicultural Council to Mr. Aloy Perera. It was a moment of joy to each and every Srilankan who witnessed the event. The credit should also go to Mrs. Aloma Yapa, President of Canada Srilanka Association, who took the initiative to honor Mr. Aloy Perera and worked tirelessly to make this event a success. A group of Srilankan girls performed wonderfully at the event and showed their talents applauded by other communities participated in the event.    

Mr. Aloy Perera is a freelance writer based in Toronto, was a teacher at St. Peter’s College prior to his immigration to Canada in 1971. He was also a senior sub editor and columnist for the Independent Newspapers and a creative writer for the J. Walter Thompson (JWT) Advertising Inc in Colombo. Mr. Aloy Perera worked for Montreal’s “Sunday express” as a reporter and taught at Montreal’s William Hingston Comprehensive High School and the Jewish orthodox School in Mount Royal. During his stay in Montreal, Mr. Aloy Perera played a leading role in organizing Social, Cultural, Buddhist and Community events of Srilankan community. Later he relocated to Toronto in 1977 and worked as a Quality Systems Analyst in Ford Canada for 29 years. He was the member of Canadian Srilanka Association and served as an Executive Committee Member for many years as well as General Secretary and Vice President. He also hold the Editor position and pioneered the journal ‘CSLA News” and conducted art and literary competitions in Sinhala, Tamil and English.

Mr. Aloy Perera was very much involved in promoting a harmonious multi-racial and multi-religious for the Srilankan community living in Canada. He was also associated with the Srilankan community’s annual Traditional Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations. Though he was born in a staunch Catholic family and was educated at St. Aloysius Diocesan Seminary in Colombo for his secondary school, he reads Sinhala Pali and Latin. Mr. Aloy Perera was trained as a social worker at the institute of social work in Colombo and have spent years in social outreach work among youths and in rural Srilanka under the aegis of the Ceylon Catholic Students Federation and Department of social services and rural development in Colombo.

Ever grateful to the Catholic Church for the gift of his unique education he had received,           Mr. Aloy Perera confesses, “My unending admiration and adulation of Jesus Christ, my personal research on the unique person of Jesus Christ and the development of the Catholic Religion led me to the feet of Buddha where as it has happened for me, the search of every true seeker must necessarily and logically end”.  Mr. Aloy Perera is associated with religious and spiritual services of the Toronto Maha Vihara Temple and the Mississauga West End Buddhist Temple. He is a board member and trustee of the Halton Peel Buddhist Cultural Society that operates the Mississauga Buddhist Temple and Monastery. He is also the personal secretary to the Abbot Superior of the monastery and teaches Buddhism in the West End Sunday Dhamma School.    The entire Canadian Srilankans are been honored by Outstanding Asian Award by Canadian Multicultural Council to Mr. Aloy Perera. The Canadian Srilankan community had very well used the opportunity to honor its son of the soil and a patriotic Srilankan who deserve it for the outstanding service to his community.