Minutes of the monthly meeting held at Queen’s Park on April 11, 2005

Present:

Thomas Saras

Srmial Abeyawardene

Maxwell Wynter

Clyde McNeal

Hassan Zerehi

Neel Nanda

Massood Mansoorradeh

Hasan Yilmaz

Mohamed Tajdolati

Dannielle Zhu

Ned Blair

Rahim Motos

Jai O. Maharaj

Dominique Leval

Cindy Gu

Josivaldo Rodrigues

Hermie Garcia

Fidroy Gordon

Alicia Wright-Dacosta

Anne Dawson

Kendrick Bob

B. Ubale

Iraj Emad

Dominique Leval

Ahmed Mohamed

Ahmed Shah Hotaki

Elizabeth Wolski

William Doyle Marshall

Jai Maharaj

Emmanuel Ayiku

Cindy Gu

Aaron Behrane

Tanya Nutall

Guest:

David Rasine- International Mailing

Absent

Mona Feng

Agenda

  1. Opening Remarks by the Chair

  2. Presentation by David Rasine- International Mailing

  3. Minutes of the previous meeting

  4. President’s Report

  5. New Business

  6. End of meeting

 The Chair, Clyde McNeil welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Before proceeding with the regular business, he invited David Rasine to make his presentation to the council.

Presentation by David Rasine-International Mailing:

David Rasine gave a brief introduction about himself and the company he represents. He said his company provides mailing services to international destinations at attractively discounted rates. He said that his company could provide great value to the members by savings their expenses in international mailings and offering them quality service. He said the rates to international destinations vary depending on their country profile and the type of packages.

David Rasine answered various questions regarding rates, mailing time and the type of services provided by his company.

At the end of his presentation he thanked Thomas Saras and the NEPMCC for allowing him to make a presentation to the council and hoped his company could provide great value to the members in future

Following the presentation by David Rasine, the chair proceeded with the regular business and asked the council to approve the minutes of the previous monthly meeting held on March 14 at Queen’s Park.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting:

Kenrick Bobb moved a motion seconded by Srimal Abeyawardene to approve the minutes of the monthly meeting held on March 14, 2005. It was carried.

President’s Report/Discussions:

Thomas Saras began his report by mentioning about his meeting, with Professor John Miller of Ryerson University, Faculty of Journalism, which took place on March 23 at the Ryerson University. He said the meeting, which was attended by small delegation of NEPMCC members such as Clyde McNeil, Sybille Forster –Reintmeister, Cindy Gu, Tanya Nutall and few others, was highly productive. He said the project undertaken as joint venture between NEPMCC and Professor Miller is funded by “Metropolis” project. He said the project Metropolis would fund a survey on ethnic media in Canada. He said the application of this project has been already submitted He told the council that he is still waiting for a formal letter of acceptance for this project and is very positive that he will receive it very soon.

He informed the council that a somewhat similar project undertaken by the Canadian Heritage in partnership with Professor John Miller would do a survey on Canadian Media at large. The results of the survey on ethnic media will be incorporated to the study undertaken by Canadian Heritage in collaboration with Professor Miller. He mentioned that there was meeting with two officials from Heritage Canada regarding this around 2 in the afternoon on March 23 He said both this projects will further the interests of ethnic media in Canada.

Thomas Saras then briefed the council on his trip to Ottawa on March 24, 2005. He said in Ottawa there were around 77 government officials representing various government bodies that are responsible for government advertising in media. He made a presentation on advertising in ethnic print and electronic media. Due to the time restrictions Cosette Media could not make their presentation in Ottawa. Thomas Saras mentioned that he would send a detailed report of his trip to Ottawa to all the members of the council.

Thomas Saras informed the members that he received a legal notice from a lawyer in Montreal representing Media Marketing Canada and a copy of which was sent to the chief secretary of the leader of opposition and to the Ministry of Public Works (Jean Marie-Phillips). Interestingly although the legal notice was in the name of Thomas Saras, it was sent to the address of Dominique Leval. The President also said that there some evidence of close so operation between Jean Marie-Philipp of PWC and the private agencies. Mr. Massood referred to a telephone conversation with one of these agencies.  Thomas Saras told the council that he send an appropriate response to the legal notice to all the parties concerned. Thomas Saras then referred to the commission set up by the Justice ministry in Ontario to study the effectiveness of communication and press freedom in Canadian Media. The commission was initially suppose to consist of two panel judges one from the mainstream media and one from the ethnic media, but it was later changed to have three panel judges and did not include anyone from the ethnic media. To this Thomas Saras expressed his disappointment to the ministry of Justice and to the office of the Premiere, as there was no representation of ethnic media in the above-mentioned commission. He then received a call from the office of the Premier and the ministry of Justice regretting the incident and the ministry of justice asked Thomas Saras to meet with the Minister of Justice and discuss the issue.

Thomas Saras moved a motion on the floor “ Effective immediately the NEPMCC will create it’s own agency of record that will represent and look after the interest of the members, where any Government campaign or advertising is concerned. There were later numerous discussions on this motion. Masood Mansoorzadeh seconded this motion, which was carried by all.

In this regard it was decided to set up a committee that will work on the specifics of this passed motion.

The committee will have the following people

Ahmed Mohammed (chair)

Maxwell Wynter

Srimal Abeyawardane

Masood Mansoorzadeh

Discussions:

There were numerous discussions regarding the advertising agency delaying the payments on government advertising to the members. Maxwell Wynter suggested that members who have not received payment on government ads could send a legal notice to their respective agencies in small claims court.

There were also discussions on how the legal notice to Thomas Saras from Media Marketing reached the address of Dominique Leval

Srimal Abeyawardane suggested that issues regarding Government advertising, be addressed to the PMO rather then the department of Public Works

New Business:

Dominique Leval suggested of creating an internal directory of the NEPMCC. It was later decided that Dominique Leval would be responsible of creating that directory; members should send their pictures and profile to Dominique Leval.

Hermie Garcia handed out a draft statement to the members. The statement expressed serious concern over the recent spate of killings of Journalists in the Philippines. The “Statement” while expressing concern over the killings of these journalists seeks that the Philippines government takes bold steps to effectively put an end to these killings, and to ensure that the perpetrators of these crimes be prosecuted.

Hermie Garcia moved a motion to accept the draft statement handed out to the members. It was seconded by Thomas Saras and carried by all.

Jai Ojah Maharaj tabled a motion (regarding Masood Khan), which would be reactivated in the next monthly meeting if the members continue his unacceptable behavior towards the administration of the NEPMCC (in the presence of the respected member).

Jai Ojah Maharaj tabled another motion, which demanded an inquiry on the death of the Canadian Journalist; Zara Kazemi allegedly killed in Iran. Kenrick Bobb seconded the motion and was carried by all.

Masood Mansoorzadeh told the members that a renowned Iranian journalist has recently passed away in Washington and his last wish was that people who wanted to pay homage could donate to the foundation supporting Iranian journalism and Iranian journalists.

Danielle Zhu thanked the council for the support she received when her visa to China for the trip with Prime Minister Paul Martin was revoked.

She said that her visa to China was revoked, as the Chinese Government does not encourage press freedom. She said in spite of various obstacles, NDTV is carrying out its operations worldwide. She handed out a draft letter to the members, which asked to support NTDTV’ s application for inclusion to CRTC ‘s lists of eligible satellite service.

Thomas Saras said that although he supports the draft in principle he thinks changes need to be made and in this regard he suggested he would have a discussion with Cindy Gu VP –Public Relations and Max Wynter Senior VP- Public Policy, to recommend those changes.

Maxwell Wynter suggested that before bringing an issue of public policy on the floor, members should brief him, as he is responsible for public policy. He would bring it to the floor if the issue deserves attention.

Anne Dawson informed the members that she has gone through the updated financial statements of the NEPMCC and said everything is in order.

F. Gordon suggested of hosting a “ President’s Barbecue in summer as it will increase the bonds between members and help them to be closer together.

Cindy Gu informed the council that NTDTV received a threat and a suspicious envelope containing white powder was mailed to NTDTV ‘s office in Toronto. The Toronto Police are investigating this incident.

There were numerous discussions on this and many members showed interest in publishing the story in their respective publications.

End of meeting:

Maxwell Wynter moved a motion to adjourn the meeting, which was carried by all

 The chair, Clyde McNeil adjourned the meeting at 10:00 p.m. The next meeting would take place on May 9, 2005 at Main Legislative Building, Queen’s Park, Toronto.