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WORKING TO MAKE CANADA A TRUE COMMUNITY OF COMMUNITIES

During the last 26 years, the Council's structure, its work and approach
to making Canada a true multicultural community have undergone a number of changes from in order to meet the emerging needs of the modern
Canadian society.

Partnering with Multicultural Press Federation and about eighty other media organizations, the Council under its formal name of "Ethnic Press Council of Canada" began exercising its influence in the late 1990s, as part of a collective voice of the ethnic media. It began shaping the national debate on the kind of multicultural and multiracial society Canada should have. To that end it organized various events to sensitize Canadian society about ethnic culture and their importance in a pluralistic society. At the same time, it started serious negotiations with the various levels of government to identify the role of the Ethnic Media in the Canadian Mosaic.

In the early 90s, the Multicultural Press Federation was dissolute mainly due to the death of its principal promoters. This left the Ethnic Press Council of Canada again as the only representative of the industry and the Council became the voice of the Ethnic Media of Canada. For over six years, the board of directors carried the torch of the Council by organizing annual cultural events to promote its profile and give visibility to the Ethnic Press. Thus, through its public relations work, the Council did help to promote and shape the Canadian Multiculturalism.

The emerging issues in the new millennium in the Canadian society, taking multiculturalism one step further and integrating ethnic communities into main stream of Canadian society, needed different policy orientation and strategies. Hence, a small group of knowledgeable people in this area decided to reshape and restructure the work of the ethnic press. Among them were Thomas S. Saras, Arnold Auguste, Dr. Bhausaheb Ubale, Bill Fatsis, Hassan Zerehi, Jack Jia, Nabbil Saad, Maria Garcia, Srimal Abeyewardene, Enzo Di Mauro, Herman Silochan, and Dat Nguyen. Among other things, they accepted the challenge to shape the organization and turn it to a forum where the various concerns of each community could be discussed. The group also decided to work towards bringing all the members of the Ethnic Media together by bridging traditional enmities and antagonisms among different nationalities rooted in their conflicts and thereby
bringing former opponents here as friends.

The group's strategy was two fold:

To build the capacity of its members by empowering them through
technical assistance, training, obtaining postal concessions and other financial and allied help;

To integrate the ethnic media into the mainstream media, thereby making the former a powerful tool to shape the tone and texture of the Canadian public policy.

To achieve these twin objectives, the Council decided to enlarge its role to encompass the electronic media. Since it is a national organization it is important that its scope and composition must be reflected in its name. As a result, its name was changed from Ethnic Press Council of Canada to National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada.

The past few years we have witnessed profound changes in conditions under which our press has operated. The post war European immigrant population has become adjusted to the new ways of life and the older generation is gradually being replaced by the young, first generation Canadians. New waves of Asian and African immigrants replaced the old European stream and the new realities have enhanced the importance of the Ethnic Press.

Eventually the Council's work and importance have been well recognized by the governments in Canada at all levels. In this connection, an organized attempt started in order to establish contacts with the Federal and Provincial Government. During the last three years politicians like Toronto Mayor Lastman, Premier Mike Harris and Premier Ernie Eve, Ontario Opposition leader Dalton McGuinty, NDP Leader Howard Hampton, the Chief of the Toronto Police Department, Canadian Heritage Minister the Hon. Sheila Copps, Immigration Minister the Hon. Dennis Coder, The Hon. Jean Augustine, Secretary of State for Multiculturalism, the Department of National Defense, the External Affairs Canada, and others, have had interactive sessions with the members of the Council.

As a follow up of all these sessions, the Government of Canada through the Hon. Sheila Copps, Minister for Heritage, encouraged the officials of Heritage Canada, to establish a staff working group to foster close working relations with the Council. Throughout the years, it has been found that these personal contacts and discussions with the ministers and government officials have emphasized the importance of the work our publications have done, and are doing, in serving their readership, a vast segment of Canada's citizens, whose sole source of information is a newspaper in their mother tongue. All these efforts have gained recognition of the value of our work and its place in the development of good Canadian citizenship.

The success of these collective efforts has been reflected in a number of initiatives jointly undertaken by the Council and the Department of Heritage Canada. Among them: the decision of inclusion of the members of the ethnic press in PAP (Heritage Canada Publications Assistance Program), in order to lessen the burden of postal expenditure, a privilege that has been enjoyed for so many years by the Canadian mainstream media. This is the first time in the history of the Ethnic Press of Canada that its members feel that they are treated as equal partners in the Canadian mainstream media (Anglophone or Francophone media).

By accepting this policy the Department of Heritage Canada, for the first time ever, demonstrated a real policy of inclusion of all the members of the media, giving them the opportunity to feel that they are finally included as equal members in the family of Canadian publishers and communicators.

In addition, the Department has encouraged the Council to organize an annual "ETHNOMEDIA WEEK", in the last week of August. Apart from cultural events during this week, members of the community are recognized for their services to the community. Similarly, the department has also provided support to organize consultative conferences and a proposed National Conference of the Ethnic Press and Electronic Media, scheduled for the spring of 2004.

Through such dialogue and co-operation, we – both individually and collectively - can make considerable contributions to our democracy and to the multicultural fabric of our society. Such a collective endeavor will help us prevent any form of oppression, injustice or hatred which is a wedge designed attack on our peace-loving Canadian multicultural society.

In this context, we share the vision of the late R.H. Pierre Elliot Trudeau, when he said in his Memoirs: "I feel that the Canadian people and I did dream together of such loves in challenging times - love for ourselves, love for our country, love for more peace and justice in the world. To some extent, we rebuilt, renewed, strengthened, and completed this country we all carry within ourselves."

To that end, the Council owes to Hon. Sheila Copps, the visionary and charismatic Minister of the Crown, the great debt of gratitude for her leadership in dealing effectively with issues affecting ethnic communities, for her advice, encouragement and support to us. We are also thankful to the special team of management of Heritage Canada, for translating the Minister's vision in more practical terms by way of their support and understanding of our difficulties and many problems, which we are facing on a daily basis.

We are equally thankful to Premier Mike Harris, Premier Ernie Eves, the Speaker of the Ontario Legislature and the Hon. Carl DeFaria, Minister of Citizenship for Ontario, for sponsoring our meetings by providing us space at the Main Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

Finally, we must express our sincere appreciation for the excellent team- work of our executive members as well as all the members of the organization for their enthusiastic participation in the various projects we have carried out all these years. Whatever has been accomplished could not have been possible without the understanding, participation and support of our members, and their publications' editors and publishers.

We earnestly hope that our Organization will forge ahead to greater accomplishments and achieve our goals by working together and using our collective influence.

Thomas S. Saras Arnold A. Auguste Dr.Bhausaheb Ubale,O.ONT
President Chairman Ombudsman