NATIONAL
ETHNIC PRESS AND MEDIA COUNCIL OF CANADA
Conseil
national de la press et des medias ethniques du Canada
Canadas
Other Voices
December
10, 2007 Meeting Minutes Queens
Park - committee room # 230 The
meeting called for 5:30 Present:
Thomas S Saras Dr.
Bikram Lamba Tanas
Jovanovski Iraj
Emad Dumitru
Popescu Danielle
Zhu Neel
Nanda Ahmad
Shah Hotaki Massood
Mashadi Josivaldo
Rodriques Irene
Keroglidis Teshome
Woldeamanuel Mohammad
Tajdolati Sima
Seher Zerehi Kathy
L.L.Lin Hai
Tien Lin Hassan
Zerehi Bahram
Bahrami Alamgir
Hussain Mila
Artega Garcia Hermie
Garcia Shabnam
Janani Ranjit
Wicks Davis
Ferdinands Maryam
Aghvami Luba
Cherny Ned
Blair Aaron
Behrane Absent: Clyde
McNeel AGENDA
1.
Welcome Remarks by the
Replacement Chair Mr. Saras and call to order
Mr.
Saras taken place of Chair as our regular Chair is ill
Meeting
called to order
Welcome
remarks by Chair ·
Mr.
Terrence Allen Resource Facilitator from Vocational Pathways Incorporated
and Employment Strategies: working Solutions - introduced by Mr. Saras 2.
Presentation by Mr. Terrence Allen - Vocational Pathways
Incorporated ·
Daniela
Cristini - Programme Coordinator from VPI (Vocational Pathways
Incorporated) introduced who is also present for presentation ·
Funded
by employment Ontario and Skills Development Unit of the Ministry of
Training Colleges and Universities ·
100%
funded by government ·
If
someone approaches organization who is legally entitled to work in Canada
that they are unemployed or working less than 20 hrs/week- underemployed ·
The
person sees a presentation info session 2-2.5 hrs ·
If
they want they will come back to meet with case-manager to set-out
achievable return to work action plan ·
They
have to do this before being sent for training or re-accreditation program ·
Case-manager
responsible to continue to work with them and follow up until client is no
longer interested or received offer of employment ·
Few
people are out there that know that such services exists ·
They
are trying to identify ethnic groups within catchment area and retain
services/ fee per service ·
Daniel
adds: because of geographic that we serve there are a lot of ethnic
communities Vietnamese, Russian, Polish etc. ·
Traditional
mainstream advertising such as employment news or Toronto Star and Sun
are not reaching their clients ·
Published
series of articles translated into Russian about stories ·
Serve
youth, women anybody who is underemployed or unemployed ·
Received
positive response from Russian community through Luba and has encouraged
them to approach other Ethnic community groups ·
Material
such as postcards, pamphlets distributed ·
Not
limited to newcomers, anyone with a SIN can take advantage of these
services ·
The
difference between this and HRDSC is that this can benefit those that have
not collected EI before as well ·
They
can also provide services for those suffering from mental health issues or
learning disabilities Questions
& Answers: Massood:
Do you have success finding them a job for foreign trained professionals Answer:
they can provide access to mentoring services with organizations like
COSTI job developers will also promote you, working with services that
assess credentials Massood:
Do you have access to real jobs that people who come to yu can be
connected to these real jobs? Answer:
Yes, we do we are not an employment agency we will identify what
is preventing you from getting a job we will serve as an intersection
point to accessing other services such as wage subsidy or skills upgrade Sima:
Are you in a position to advocate for these who are facing barriers to
accessing employment in their field Answer;
In North York Area if you want to be accredited you must walk to our
door however, we do not do advocacy as an assessment centre we are
like a gateway to refer to any appropriate government funded program Iraj:
ODSP, since 2005 they have stopped training Answer:
are you asking for continuation of training and support there is a
network of about 25 agencies that have been contracted to for training
there is some training through self-employment and EWI fund SES
network is the alliance that provides these services Irene
Keroglidis: What is the difference between you and an employment agency?
Do you only service North York? Did you approach the North York MP? Answer:
We usually service the North York, there are a number of other assessment
centres in other areas we did speak to politicians from all 3 areas of
government - Mike Feldman a municipal Councilor suggested a Link to Ethnic
community Mr.
Saras: Suggests that members of Council give special rate for 1/4th
of page however Mr. Saras suggests placing a larger ad for the price
of a 1/4th page Daniel:
suggests that the ad should run for a month to offer continuity they
had no expectations of getting a price at this time Irene
Keroglidis: suggests that we discuss this after the meeting and
communicate later Mr.
Saras: At least 4 runs weekly or bi-weekly suggested by Mr. Saras Mr.
Saras will also forward literature about the work of Employment Strategies
he suggests that articles be translated and published Mr.
Saras also asks that photographs be forwarded through emails for those
interested in running articles 3.
Minutes Approved from Previous Meeting ·
Mr.
Zerehi motion to approve, Dr. Tajdolati seconded, all in favour ·
Chair
accepted vote to approve minutes 4.
Reports by the President: ·
Took 3 days to sign
and mail holiday cards ·
Everyone received the
cards 4a.
Survey and Educational Update
·
Only 60 out of 500
people have completed the survey ·
Certificate of
retraining for journalist will be awarded by Sheridan College for those
participating in educational sessions ·
For the first time we
are receiving some benefits from government this is historic ·
The monetary value of
this program is very high and will benefit all members ·
80 people had
returned emails ·
3 people sent emails
to surveyor saying they this organization is defunct criticism is fine
but should not be sent to the surveyor ·
Please ask all other
members to complete questionnaire ·
Extending deadline to
end of December Questions
regarding survey and Re-Training of Ethnic Journalists:
·
Mr. Alemgir asked if
we can we work with other educational institutions like Ryerson or UofT ·
Mr. Saras responded
that Sheridan College has received funding from government to provide
retraining UofT is asking for 3 times more money ·
We need to wait for
response from survey to decide what educational programs to implement ·
People from across
country must be able to access training educational ·
This organization has
created history, we have been so strong ·
Maryam Asks: is
Sheridan using the same program that they already have, the journalism
program? ·
Mr. Saras responds
this certificate or diploma will be condensed in 4 weekends like the
Canadian Labour Congress ·
Maryam asks if this
could end like the journalist in exile classes which were cut short ·
Mr. Saras responds we
are paying Sheridan for rent and cleaners ·
Iraj asks if this
survey is for only publications or freelance as well ·
Mr. Saras responds
every member should be able to respond ·
Luba asks how can we
be sure that Balmoral received the survey ·
Mr. Saras says that
if they did not receive survey they will contact you ·
Sima commented that
we should be sure not to misidentify members as belonging to certain
publications if they are not from that publication ·
Mr. Saras responded
that disagreements so happen please make sure to keep discussions to a
civil and non-insulting level ·
If you try to
re-submit they survey it will bounce back ·
The survey can be
re-started from middle can be done in a few sessions ·
Mr. Alemgir did not
receive the survey ·
Mr. Saras says that
this is a problem and collected the email to investigate ·
Massood
asked that stats Canada report came from census Toronto more
than 50% of population has another first language other than English and
French as such Ethnic press is more of a focus to reach public at a
fraction of the cost ·
Shabnam asked how
soon will we start the educational classes ·
Mr. Saras says that
survey must be completed by end of year, phone calls will be made ·
Surveyor and
President will send report to government ·
After that time
Sheridan and other educational institutions will be asked to send info on
cost of providing educational ·
Likely by Spring
under April budget we will go ahead with classes ·
Mr. Adurauvkivi wants
to make sure we have space to ask for focus on how to generate funds for
Ethnic press ·
Mr. Saras suggested
to add this to survey 5.
Additional remarks about survey by President:
5b.
Chair asked if questions will be weighed response was no ·
Sima asked if report
will be circulated to members response was no but it will be discussed
and a top-line summary will be made to NEPMCC members ·
Dr. Tajdolatti asked
how electronic media will be categorized response was audienceship ·
Aaron Berhane asked
if members were consulted on the survey questions ·
Response was that
elected executive was consulted on the questions 5.
Annual Get Together on December
14
·
Mr. Saras said
Premier and wife will attend, Mr. Tory and his wife will attend, Mr. Rae
or Ignatief will attend. Mr. Layton as well as the Minister of Culture
will attend, Michael Chan Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and Mrs.
Margaret Best will attend, Minister Phillips from the Ontario government
will attend, and Jim Karyjianis will also attend ·
Free entertainment
will be provided by various community performers music, dance etc. ·
A committee was
struck to organize this event Irene and Luba will help organize
Irene will bring the centre-pieces to help set-up arrive early at 4:30 ·
There will be a great
deal of food two pigs will be prepared plenty of veggies will also
be provided Fish will also be provided Calamari will also be
served Shrimp will also be served Halal meat will also be
available ·
4 cases of wine
good wine will be provided half the wine was donated ·
Entertainment will
began from 8:30 9:00 ·
Daneille and Shabnam
will handle the entrance table ·
Niel will, Ahmad will
also come early to set-up ·
Each party will be
presented with a gift 6.
New Business/Motions:
6a.
Save our Voice press conference Wednesday 10 am Queens Park Media Gallery ·
Meeting was held last
Friday Mr. Saras was invited, Shahrvand participated and will be there at
press conference to speak ·
Mr. Saras mentioned
the work that NEPMCC has done on this issue including meeting with
government representatives and need to fairness ·
Previous Finance
Minister promised change but resigned ·
Mr. Saras called the
Premiere and was promised changes two weeks later a civil servant
working on logistics of the issue including the new Federal criteria ·
Mr. Saras will be
there and members are encouraged to attend 6b.
Multimedia Email Scam - Nova
·
This organization is
sending email saying that they have been hired by government and will
charge 30% commission ·
Cossette media said
they have nothing to do with this ·
They finally sent an
apology saying that their message was misread ·
Luba said she has
been sent order with 30% commission deducted she signed on many years
ago ·
Mr. Saras will update
further later 7.
ADJOURNMENT
·
Irene motion to
adjourn, Iraj seconded, all in favour
The
Next meeting is scheduled for Monday, January 14, 2007, Queens
Park, committee room N# 2, first floor, Please after 6:00 pm enter the
building from the front south door, (next to the Main entrance of the
building).
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