Minutes of the Monthly Meeting held on February 9, 2009 at Queen’s Park.      Committee-Room # 2, Main Leg. Building

Present:

Thomas S. Saras

Dr.Bikram Lamba

Ahmed Shah Hotaki

C. Senthi

Clyde McNeil

Nassim Daneshvar

Hassan Zerehi

Amir Mahim

Syleyman Guven

Neel Nanda

Muluken Muchie

William Doyle-Marshal

Bahram Bahrami

Srimal Abeyawardene

Emmanuel Ayiku

David Ferdinands

Dumitru Popescu

Massood Mashadi

Michael Shiravand

Tanas Jovanovski

K. David Lim

Kevin Wang

John Saraidaris

Hossein Pourhaider

Brian Whitmore

Arasuratnam

Sukumar Balasubramaniam

Moorthy Sellaturai

Asha Rajak

Hermie Garcia

Mila Garcia

Luba Cherny

Danielle Zhu

Ned Blair

Ranjit Wicks

Sunil Rao

Nasim Daneshvar

Speaker of the Day:                    

  The Hon. Margarett Best, MPP, Minister of Health Promotion for Ontario

Agenda

1.            Welcome Remarks by the chair.

2.         Minutes of the previous meeting.

3.            Presentations by Hon Margaret Best, Provincial Minister of Health Promotions

4.         A moment of silence in memory of Iraj Emad

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 January, 2009. Srimal Abeyawardene seconded it. The motion was carried.

Matters Arising out of the Minutes

Ned Blair initiated a discussion on the general elections scheduled to take place in March 2009.

Presentation by Hon: Margaret Best, Provincial Minister for Health Promotions

Margaret Best made a brief presentation which was followed by roundtable discussions. Dr. Lamba, Mila Garcia, Nasim Daneshwar, Srimal Abeyawardene, William Doyle Marshall and many others participated in the discussions.

The following are the highlights of the presentation and roundtable discussions.

·           The Ministry of Health Promotion’s goal is to develop a culture of health and wellbeing in Ontario and help contribute to the sustainability of our publicly funded health care system.

·           The vision of this ministry is to enable Ontarians to lead healthy, active lives and make the province a healthy, prosperous place to live, work, play, learn and visit.

·           The ministry’s programs and policies integrate chronic disease prevention, health promotion, and sport and recreation programs, to promote improved long-term health outcomes for Ontarians.

·           The Ontario government is committed to continue making Ontario an inclusive and accessible province where people of all abilities have a chance to fully achieve their potential. Ontario is making progress toward building an accessible province by 2025. The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA) has laid the foundation to meet this goal. Under the act, Ontario is developing standards that will remove the barriers faced by people with disabilities

·           The Ministry of Health Promotion and Public Health Units help prevent the onset of many chronic diseases and their devastating effects, by supporting the development of healthy environments and policies, and providing information and tools that help individuals develop healthy habits such as eating healthy, nutritious foods, being active every day, and being smoke-free.

·            Through cooperative efforts of the Ministry of Health Promotion and various groups, including health and education agencies, voluntary and not-for-profit associations, community groups, and other provincial agencies, the ministry is creating and sustaining a healthy population through a variety of strategies including  A)Diabetes Strategy, B) Ontario Health Program, C)Osteoporosis Strategy, D)Stroke Strategy.

·           The government launched the Injury Prevention Strategy in 2007 to reduce preventable injuries in Ontario, taking a government-wide approach to injury prevention. Most injuries are not "accidents". They are predictable and therefore preventable. Ontario’s Injury Prevention Strategy was informed by a dialogue with government ministries and agencies, public health professionals, and leading injury prevention experts from various organizations and represents the  first steps to strengthen everyday efforts across sectors that are helping make Ontario a safer place.

·           The Communities In Action Fund (CIAF) aims to help bring about a physical activity and community sport culture in Ontario by helping local, regional and provincial not-for-profit organizations provide and enhance opportunities for physical activity through community sport and recreation. CIAF, launched in 2004, is a key component of the ACTIVE2010 Strategy. The multi-year fund aims to increase the level of physical activity and sport participation rates in Ontario by assisting local and provincial not-for-profit organizations to create and enhance opportunities for physical activity and community sport and recreation.

·           The significant rise in Ontario’s obesity and chronic disease rates among adults, youth and children is of great concern. That is why the Ministry of Health Promotion is committed to creating and promoting programs and policies that encourage Ontarians to make healthy choices at all ages and stages of life to improve their own personal health to live longer, healthy lives.

·           The minister was urged by the members of the council to update them regularly on various programs undertaken by her ministry so that the readership is better informed.

·           There were various discussions on SARS, however during that time of the epidemic the minster was not in cabinet and so was unable to offer any comment and encouraged the members to direct those questions towards the ministry of health, which was primarily responsible during the SARS epidemic.

                                      Thomas Saras, President of NEPMCC thanked the minister for her presentation.

Clyde McNeil, the chair concluded the roundtable discussion with his footnotes.

President’s Report:

·           “Killing of innocent civilians and journalists in Sri Lanka”. The President urged the members to pass a resolution condemning those killings. Srimal Abeyawardene shared his thoughts on the situation in Sri Lanka.

·           The President sent out a letter to the Premier and the Prime Minister urging for government advertising and aid to Ethnic Media at the time of recession. The recession is going to hit the media industry at large very hard and is also going to affect the ethnic media. Any stimulus package for the Media should also have a fair share for the ethnic media.

·           Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff might attend the April 20, monthly meeting.

·           The venue of the April monthly meeting might shift to City Hall, Committee Room # 2, after confirmation with the Federal Liberal Leader.

·            Proposed changes to the constitution were submitted to the members and are open to discussions before changes are implemented. Members should give their feedback on the amendments before the monthly meeting of March the 9th, so that it is discussed before changes are implemented.

·           Mr. Saras Suggested that the new rules of constitution start from the next elections of March 2011.

·           Elections for the new Board of NEPMCC would be held on the next monthly meeting on March 9, 2009.

·            Members interested in running for office should be committed to the cause of the organization, also they have to report their intentions to the chair of the elections committee, Dr. Bikram Lamba at  torconsult@rogers.com

·            Financial Statements of the organization were distributed by the President and discussed. The biggest amount of the treasury has been paid for the implementation of the project for the professional development of the members and the industry.

·           Face one of the project is over. The President stated that Balmoral Marketing (Implementing the project), is working on the second face of the project which can start as soon as coming June 2009.

·            Members were encouraged to bring funds to the organization by approaching their respective community businesses.

·           A directory containing names and addresses of members would be published with the possibility of distribution in National Library.

·           Srimal Abeyewardene praised the efforts of the President and his brother John for their untiring dedication and commitment to strengthen the cause of NEPMCC.

·           The hard work and selfless dedication by the President has taken this organization to new heights. The entire membership present applauded the President for his untiring efforts.

                                  A moment of silence in memory of Iraj Emad:

Tributes were paid to Late Iraj Emad a very hard-working member of NEPMCC, a great friend, and a former diplomat.

He was remembered for his contributions, hard work and devotion to the council.

He was remembered as a person of integrity and great compassion.

Nasim Daneshwar, Masood Mashedi, Srimal Abeyawardene and many other members shared their experiences with Iraj and showered heaps of praises for his selfless work for the community and the council.

The President, Thomas Saras recalled his untiring commitment even during the last days before his sad demise.

 He will be missed gravely by the organization.

The chair of the meeting, Clyde McNeil led the members to observe a minute of Silence in memory of the departed soul.

New Business:

·           Mila Garcia of the Philippines Reporter invited members of NEPMCC in celebrating 20 years of the newspaper.

·           Motion was introduced enabling the administration to incur all expenses towards the artwork for the media pass. Srimal Abeyawardene moved a motion and Masood Mashedi seconded it. The motion was carried.

·           The Chair, Clyde McNeil welcomed new members to the council. They were:

Asha Rajak - producer of Namaste Radio broadcast on FM 101.3

Sunil Rao – Publisher, South Asian Focus.

Muluken Muchie  -  Hawarya, an Ethiopian Publication.

Moorthy Sellathurai – Tamil Journalist.

The chair encouraged them to be active participants for the cause of the organization.

Adjournment:

Ned Blair moved a motion to adjourn the meeting Srimal Abeyawardene seconded it. The motion was carried. The chair adjourned the meeting at 9 pm. The next meeting would take place on March 9, 2009