Edmonton residents honoured for human rights efforts

Edmontonians who promote and protect human rights were recognized over the weekend for their efforts.

The 11th annual John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights Awards was held Sunday.

“It’s honouring and recognizing those local heroes in our midst that we maybe don’t hear about, that we maybe don’t know about, that are every day working on the ground to make people’s lives better and to build our community to realize human rights,” John Humphrey Centre executive director Renee Vaugeois said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It's honouring and recognizing those local heroes in our midst that we maybe don't hear about, that we maybe don't know about, that are every day working on the ground to make people's lives better and to build our community to realize human rights," John Humphrey Centre executive director Renee Vaugeois said.

READ MORE: Edmontonians who promote and protect human rights honoured

Kyle Fairall was a recipient of the Human Rights Champion award. Fairall started Canada’s first LGBTQ gym in Edmonton, QueerFlex Canada.

“It’s very exciting. It’s very humbling to know that the work I’ve been doing with Queerflex over the last year has had such an impact on folks in the community that they felt important enough or worthy enough to nominate me for an award like this,” Fairall said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It's very exciting. It's very humbling to know that the work I've been doing with Queerflex over the last year has had such an impact on folks in the community that they felt important enough or worthy enough to nominate me for an award like this," Fairall said.

Fairall says there’s been a huge flood of people showing interest in the gym. They’re now looking for donated space so Queerflex can expand to meet the need.

“The biggest pieces of feedback that folks have been giving is finally there is somewhere that they can go that they can safely explore different parts of themselves when it comes to fitness and wellness,” Fairall said.

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For the past 11 years, the awards ceremony has honoured Edmontonians who go above and beyond to help their fellow citizens.

The ceremony was held to commemorate with International Human Rights Day. The declaration of human rights was passed at the United Nations in 1948.

“That was pretty legendary because that was post the Second World War when people were like, ‘We can’t like this happen ever again,'” Vaugeois said.

“Now we’re coming to 70 years next year for the universal declaration of human rights. I think it’s a chance for us to really reflect on have we come very far? How much farther do we have to go?”