Meeting Minutes - Sepember
15, 2008
Minutes of the Monthly
Meeting held on September 15, 2008
Located at
committee room 230, second floor, Queen’s Park, Toronto
The minutes
is prepared by Shabnam Janet Janani
The
highlights of the meeting:
· The
roundtable with the Consul General of the USA
·
Presentation by John Cartwright from Labour Council
·
Presentation by Emily Mills, communication coordinator from Toronto Region
Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC)
·
Roundtables with Hon. Stephen Harper and Hon. Stephane Dion
· Word on
the Street exhibition
· Governor
awards ceremony
The meeting
was officially started by Clyde McNeil’s welcome remarks followed by his
approval of the last monthly minutes, and the approval of Iraj Emad as
secondary.
Guest
speakers:
The special
guest speaker was, the Consul General of the United States of America in
Toronto. He explained the principals of the policy of the US
Administration, including the new regulations. The discussion was ended
with questions from members, including their concerns about the
difficulties members of their communities faced in obtaining visas and
answers from the Consul General.
John
Cartwright from the Labour Council gave a short presentation on Good Jobs
Now for a Greater Toronto. He is a labour and community activist involved
in the fight for good jobs with equity and in providing a secure future
for all. On Saturday, November 22nd (9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) there will be
a summit at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in regards to improving
living and working conditions in Toronto. For more information, call
416-441-3663 or visit www.labourcouncil.ca
Emily Mills
was the last guest speaker before the members listened to the reports of
the President. Mills encouraged members to nominate employers or
individuals from different ethnic communities for the third annual
Immigrant Success Awards. There are four award categories. For more
information please visit www.triec.ca. The deadline for all entries is
November 14, 2008.
Report by
the president:
Due to the
fact that it is pre-election time, Thomas Saras started the report of the
president by mentioning that he is communicating with the all three major
federal parties in order to set a date for roundtable discussions of the
leaders with the members. (As you know by now, there was a press
conference with Hon. Stephen Harper, the leader of conservatives on the
day after the meeting-Sept 16 and the next press conference will be hold
on Wednesday Oct.08 with Hon. Stephane Dion, the leader of Liberal party
of Canada.)
Mr. Saras
continued with The Word on the Street Festival exhibitions and asked the
members to bring 20 copies of their publications and give them to Ahmad
Shah Hotaki.
For this
year’s awards (2008), Dr. Lamba submitted the names of all candidates to
the president and according to Mr.Saras the names will be send to the
office of the Governor general. The award ceremony will be held during the
last week of October. The president will make everyone aware of the exact
date of the ceremony and is going to ask the members to send their
invitations. As with every year, no more than 200 guests will be allowed
to attend the ceremony.
The annual
get-together event is going to be held on Friday December 12th at the same
place it was held last year. Tickets for the event will be available for
purchase at the October meeting. Each ticket is $20/ person including
dinner. If you are interested in attending, please purchase tickets during
the next meeting - Oct.20
At the end,
the president asked members for their approval of Shabnam Janet Janani as
the Recording Secretary and the V.P. of Public Relations. Dr. Lamba as the
primary and Iraj Emad as secondary approved the appointments of Shabnam
Janani.
New
Business:
Dr. Lamba
expressed his disapproval of some of the members of the constitution
committee due to their absence and lack of cooperation.
A constitutional committee will recommend the constitutional
changes that are necessary before the next internal election of the
organization are being held on March 2009. Dr. Lamba as the chair of the
committee said the remaining members of the committee are as follows:
Masood Mashadi, Stepahnie Williams and Neel Nanda. The details are going
to be discussed in the next meeting.
Adjournment:
Iranj Emad
moved a motion to adjourn the meeting and Masood Mashadi seconded it. The
motion was carried and the chair officially adjourned the meeting at 9:30
pm. More than 60 members were in attendance at this meeting. Our next
meeting will be held on Oct.20th.
Don’t
forget to mark your calendar for following:
· October
8th (9-10 a.m.): Roundtable with the leader of the Liberal party- Stephane
Dion
· October
20th (5:30-9:30 p.m.): the next monthly meeting of the organization
· October
30th: the award ceremony night-only by invitation
