Minutes of the Monthly Meeting held on
July 14, 2008 at
Queen’s
Park
Present:
Thomas
S. Saras
Dr.Bikram
Lamba
Gerald
Paul
Hai-Tien
Lin
Juri
Laansoo
Suleyman
Guven
Emrah
Cikinci
Aaaron
Berhane
Imelda
O' Souzara
Rosemarie
Mayer
Helge
Heemdok
Stephanie
Williams
Halini
Mohammad Amin
Shabnam
Janani
Ahmed
Hotaki
Clyde
McNeil
Nassim
Daneshvar
Neli
Daneshvar
Iraj
Emad
Syleyman
Guven
Neel
Nanda
Mohammad
Tajdolati
Saeed
Soltanpour
Maryam
Aghvami
Irene
Keroglidis
Niaz
Salimi
Bahram
Bahrami
Ranjit
Wics
Srimal
Abeyawardene
Emmanuel
Ayiku
David
Ferdinands
Sabnam
Janani
Maryam
Aghvami
Tanas
Jovanovski
K.
David Lim
Kevin
Wang
John
Saraidaris
Hossein
Pourhaider
Luba
Cherny
Massod
Mashedi
Teshome
Woldemnsnuel
Taha
Hassaniani
Rambir
Chauhan
Raina
Sen
Amir
Mahimi
Mondy
Cherry
Ned
Blair
Emmanuel
Ayiku
Kevin
Wang
Mila
Astroga Garcia
Hermie
Garcia
Luba
Cherny
Alang
Hims
Agenda
1.
Welcome Remarks by the chair.
2.
Minutes of the previous meeting.
3.
Roundtable discussions with Scott Shortliffe, Director PAP
-Heritage Canada.
4.
Presentation by Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, Programme Chair –
International Society for Iranian Studies (ISIS)
5.
New Business (Motions)
6.
Adjournment
Welcome
Remarks by the Chair:
The
chair of the meeting, Clyde McNeil welcomed everybody to the meeting and
declared the meeting open.
Iraj
Emad moved a motion to approve the agenda of the meeting. Irene Keroglidis
seconded the motion, which was carried by all.
Minutes
of the previous meeting:
Nasim
Daneshwar moved a motion to approve the minutes of the previous monthly
meeting held on June 9, 2008. Iraj Emad seconded it. The motion was
carried.
Presentation
by Scott Shortliffe, Director PAP- Heritage Canada:
Scott
Shortliffe made a brief presentation on the PAP, which was followed by
roundtable discussions. Dr. Lamba, Mila Garcia, Nasim Daneshwar, Srimal
Abeyawardene, and many others participated in the discussions.
The
following are the highlights of the presentation and roundtable
discussions
·
The PAP helps to connect Canadians from coast-to-coast-to-coast, by
helping all Canadians have access to the rich literature, fine reporting
and fierce opinions contained in Canadian magazines and community
newspapers.
·
The Department of Canadian Heritage, through the Publications
Assistance Program (PAP), works in partnership with the Canada Post
Corporation (CPC) to offset the mailing costs of Canadian content
magazines and non-daily newspapers mailed within Canada.
·
The Department of Canadian Heritage
is seeking input to help with a proposed redesign of the Publications
Assistance Program, which subsidizes mailing costs of magazines and
non-daily newspapers, and the Canada Magazine Fund, which supports the
creation of editorial content and business development for the magazine
industry.
·
Recent evaluations of the Canada Magazine Fund and the Publications
Assistance Program found that public financial support for the periodical
industry is still justified, but that there are also opportunities to
improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the two programs.
·
The Department intends to redesign the Publications Assistance
Program and the Canada Magazine Fund. The information received during
these consultations will provide input for the redesign process. The
Department will produce a public report summarizing what was heard during
the consultations and will announce any program changes once they have
been finalized. The program is expected to be finalized by April 2009.
Currently,
the Publications Assistance Program provides support to:
·
Over 215 million copies of Canadian publications;
·
Magazines and non-daily newspapers, as well as publications serving
Ethnocultural, aboriginal and minority official language communities; and
·
1,200 publications overall
·
Ethnic Publications are the hearts of the community and assumptions
should be made, that all the ethnic publications need financial support
while designing the new program.
·
Ethnic Publication is now emerging as the main media.
·
All ethnic publications provide information to the newcomers about
the services provided to the new papers.
·
Ethnic publications are also growing online and the new program
should take into consideration their presence and popularity among the
readership.
·
The PAP should look towards augmenting the circulation and support
to ethnic newspapers, simply acknowledging that ethnic publications are
victims of their own success is not enough and the new program should have
a concrete policy to address the various challenges faced by the ethnic
publications.
·
The PAP should also provide
funding to the ethnic publications for training its staff in journalism
and publishing at various community colleges or universities.
Thomas
Saras thanked Scott Shortliffe for attending the meeting and hoped to work
together for the benefit of the ethnic media industry.
Scott
Shortliffe thanked all the members for providing their views and opinions
on the PAP. He made note of all their viewpoints and would give them all a
serious consideration while designing the new program.
Clyde
McNeil, the chair concluded the roundtable discussion with his footnotes.
Presentation
by Professor Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, Programme Chair – International
Society for Iranian Studies (ISIS:
Mohamad
Tavakoli-Targhi made a presentation on the Shahnamah Millenium Concert,
taking place on August 2, 2008 @7:30 pm followed by discussions.
The
following are the highlights of his presentation and discussions.
·
The advertising in the ethnic press is helping the economy,
creating businesses.
·
To commemorate the millennium of the Shahnamah, a masterpiece of
classical Persian poetry and cosmopolitanism completed in 1010 A.D., the
Toronto Initiative for Iranian Studies and the International Society for
Iranian Studies are staging a unique multimedia and musical performance.
·
The Shahnamah Millennium Concert will celebrate 1000 years since
this epic poem—often credited with keeping the Farsi language alive
during many centuries—was written.
·
This concert will be a multimedia presentation and will include:
the Persian Trilogy played in its entirety by members of the Toronto
Symphony Orchestra; projection of famous Persian miniature art on a giant
screen; and narration by Tehran-based master story teller Morshed
Valiollah Torabi.
The
chair Clyde McNeil, thanked Professor Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi for his
vibrant presentation and wished the concert a resounding success.
Adjournment:
Irene Keroglidis moved a motion to adjourn the meeting Iraj Emad. The
motion was carried. The chair adjourned the meeting at 9 pm. The next
meeting would take place on August 11, 2008 at Queen’s Park[n1]
