Minutes
of the Monthly Meeting held on May 11, 2009 at Queen’s Park
Present:
Thomas
S. Saras
Asha
Rajak
Jan
George Frajkoc
Neel
Nanda
Sunil
rao
Clyde
McNeil
Alexander
PolishExpress
Mark
Wang
Rob
Andregevich
City of Toronto
Ivy
Lee
Bahram
Bahrami
Hassan
Zerehi
Aref
Mohammadi
Allen
Zhen
Epoch Times
Irene
Keroglidis
Dr.
Khan Khoda
Daisy TV
Muhammad
Ali Bukhari
Danielle
Zhu
NDTV
Dumitru
Popescu
Raina
Sen
Ranbir
Chauhan
South Asian News
Srimal
Abeyerwardene
Sri lanka Reporter
Luba
Cherny
Canadian Courier
Andrei
Mazuruc
John
Saraidaris
Saeed
Soltanpour
ITC TV
Marek
Goldyn
Polonez News
Andrzej
D’ Bursiak
Ranjir
Wicks
Priyanac
Wicks
Janara
Wicks
Taha
Hassiani
Taha Publishing
Aaron
Berhane
Ned
Blair
Tanas
Yovanovski
Makedonija
Ara
Tir Arootunian
Toronto Hye
Logan
Logandrian
Uthayan
Zavan
Abdulalah
Feweysoon
Rahmani
Moorthy
Sellathurai
Meghan
Abeysinger
Dasatha Publication
Gommini
Abeysinger
Velupillai
Ashogan
Kathiroli Publications
Zana
AbdullahAbeysinghe
Gamini
Dosatha Managine
Hai
Tien Lin
Chinese Canadian Times
Susana
Donan
El Centro Americano
Suleyman
Guven
Mila
Astroga Garcia
Hermie
Garcia
Philippine Reporter
Ahmed
Shah Hotaki
Wiiliam
Doyle Marshall
Indo Caribbean World / Alo Radio
Rajasekar
Anthiappan
Thaiveedu
Thirunathan
Kathitou
Rev.
Rajapandian Paulkraj
Kathironi News
Yanus
Estonian Life
Nassim
Daneshvar
Syleyman
Guven
Mohamed
Tajdolati
Niaz
Salimi
Bahram
Bahrami
Ranjit
Wics
Emmanuel
Ayiku
K.
David Lim
Kevin
Wang
Hossein
Pourhaider
Luba
Cherny
Dumitru
Popescu
Agenda
Welcome
Remarks by the Chair.
Minutes
of the Previous Meeting
Introduction
of Hon: Michael Ignatieff
Questions
and Answers
Introduction
of Rob Andrusevich (City of Toronto)
President’s
Report
Reports
from the Various Committees
New
Business (Motions)
Adjournment
Welcome
Remarks by the Chair:
President
Thomas Saras chaired the first half of the meeting and welcomed the main
speaker of the meeting Hon: Michael Ignatieff, Leader of the Liberal Party
of Canada and Leader of Opposition in the House of Commons.
Introduction
of Hon: Michael Ignatieff:
President
Thomas Saras welcomed Hon Michael Iganitieff to the monthly meeting as the
key note speaker. President Thomas read out the introductory of Hon
Michael Ignatieff leader of the opposition in the House of Commons.
Michael
Igantieff began his address by thanking the President of NEPMCC to give
him the opportunity to open a constructive dialogue between him and the
council He stressed on the important role members of NEPMCC play in
informing and enlightening the Canadian audience. He mentioned that he
does not like the word ethnic as much as we are all Canadians. He said he
wants to say things that unite us rather than divide us. He does not want
to play the politics of divide and rule. He then invited questions from
the floor. Many members participated in the question and answer session.
Suleyman
Guven, Ahmad Shah Hotaki, Srimal Abeyawardene, Clyde McNeil, Aaron Mefith,
Logan L, Sunil Rao, Muhammad Bukhari, Dr. Khan Khoda, Nasim Daneshwar,
Danielle Zhu,Bahram Bahrami, Bhaskar Sharma, William Doyle Marshall,
Danielle Zhu, Gerald V Paul, Moorthy Sellathurai, Fereydoon Rahmani, Mila
Garcia and other members extensively participated in the question and
answer session.
The
following are the highlights of the session.
We’re
facing a transformation of the Canadian economy unlike anything in recent
memory, and that means unfamiliar challenges. We have to meet them in a
way that sets a positive course for Canada’s next decade, without
letting any Canadian slip through the cracks.
We can’t have any illusions about the enormity of the task at hand. But
we can be certain of our collective capacity to succeed and to recover.
There are three principles that I believe must guide our recovery—
Fairness, responsibility, and independence.
Fairness
means keeping people working in every part of the country. It means
protecting the most vulnerable in the depths of the crisis and along the
path back to prosperity. Fairness means a national strategy to create
affordable housing so that young families can start life in their own
place; so that young professionals can find affordable rentals; so that
low-income families don’t face the nightmare of homelessness. We can do
this. But it will take a national housing strategy.
Responsibility
means that our generation has to pay its own freight—we will not burden
our children and grandchildren with a legacy of debt and deficit.
Responsibility is also about seizing the advantages that we already have
at hand. Our people speak every language in the world. Their family and
business networks give Canada a unique business advantage in the emerging
markets of Asia, Africa and Latin America. We must mobilize these
communities, as our bridge to these markets, as our ambassadors, as our
trade representatives so that we can increase the percentage of Canadian
trade that goes to these growing markets.
The 21st century may share its pre-eminence with China and India, Europe
and Russia. Canada must diversify its inward and outward investment. It
must diversify its markets, just as it has diversified its identity.
Diversity is our strength as a people. Let’s make market diversity our
strength as an economy.
We need to build on our diversity and improve our export performance, by
unleashing the linguistic and cultural know-how of our multi-cultural
communities. .
Here
at home, independence means not waiting for the Americans but coming up
with Canadian solutions for a greener, more competitive auto sector.
Developing an energy strategy that unites the country, in every region, to
make us the most efficient, most sustainable users of energy in the world.
Recession must not divide Canadians. We must not pit winners against
losers, those with jobs against those without; regions with hope against
those that are struggling.
We need unity—now, more than ever.
We need a government that can unite the country around a compelling vision
of nation-building.
When
asked about LTTE and the conflict in Sri Lanka, he firmly said that LTTE
is a terrorist organization. Liberal Party is very clear that there should
be an immediate ceasefire and the killing of innocent civilians should
stop. We are the only party that wants to expedite the refugee
applications. The
demonstrations by Tamil groups at the Gardiner were dangerous both to the
demonstrators and to the public. We are trying to hold the Government
accountable so that they are engaged in rehabilitation of civilians that
have been affected by the conflict.
When
asked on the Liberal policy on Afghanistan, the Liberal leader said that
we will maintain Canadian presence in Afghanistan by maintaining
developmental, peaceful presence to stabilize Afghanistan, far beyond
2011.
Foreign
policy – Recession has taught us over dependence on Americans. We need
to engage more with China, India, Russia and Brazil and the EU. It is very
important to have an independent foreign policy; we have very deep
economic ties with Caribbean countries .Canada can be a part of a solution
where problems in Cuba are resolved in Cuba and not Florida. We have not
nearly done enough to develop our relations with India. Our foreign policy
should reflect the diversity of the country.
Public
Service Commission should be implemented to actively recruit diverse
people in the Government workforce.
When
asked about the rekindling within the Liberal Party, the Liberal Leader
mentioned that he does not think any party should have a monopoly unless
they work hard We have to work to get any
trust and support. This Government underfunded our diplomacy. We
need to invest in our foreign policy. We want a foreign policy that has
the best and brightest from our diverse communities.
When
asked on improving the working conditions of live in caregivers, he is
open to explore the idea of giving them equal footing as immigrants in
order to help prevent any abuse by employers.
When
asked about the foreign policy towards the Kurdish region, Igantieff
mentioned that substantial oil exploration in Kurdish region is done by
some Canadian Companies. We want the Kurdish region to flourish respecting
the sovereignty of Iraq.
On
human rights in China he mentioned that there is good progress of human
rights issue in China, some issues still remain to be addressed... We have
to talk with Chinese diplomats. We do not want to do anything compromising
the territorial integrity of China. We can have a good and productive
dialogue on these issues with China, none of these implies that we have
the trade hostage while we work towards making human rights progress in
China.
When
asked about talking or having a dialogue with conflicting groups, he
maintained that the message is same for all groups regarding a particular
issue. He will speak the same language in the church as I will speak in
the Gurdwara or the Synagogue
He firmly said that he cannot compromise this country’s
support to the democracy of Israel and the same time we are committed to
the creation of a Palestinian State.
When
asked to comment on the changes in the citizenship act prohibiting
children of naturalized citizens living abroad to apply for citizenship,
the Liberal leader firmly said that we should not accept a two tier
citizenship for Canada.
President
Thomas Saras thanked the Liberal leader for sharing his thoughts with the
council.
There
was a photo session with the members after the question and answer period.
President
thanked Ian and Kathy Lin for their generous contributions to the council
Introduction
of Rob Andrusevich:
The
regular chair of the meeting Clyde McNeil took over the proceedings and
welcomed guest speaker Rob Andrusevich from City Hall. Many members
participated in the discussions. There was a wide range of topics from
advertising to events organized by City Hall. The guest speaker encouraged
members to communicate any relevant information to his office and he would
inform the members of any upcoming events at City Hall.
The chair
Clyde McNeil thanked the guest for his time and answers
The
chair welcomed the next guest speaker Llyane Stanfield to address the
Council.
The
speaker made a presentation on MOTIVIS and EEIFA on the “Night Out”
ARTS FESTIVAL, starting with the Russian Night Out. The speaker candidly
answered all questions and encouraged the members to attend the festival.
Minutes
of the previous meeting:
Irene
Keroglidis moved a motion to approve the minutes of the previous monthly
meeting held on April, 2009. Srimal Abeyawardene seconded it. The motion
was carried.
Matters
Arising out of the Minutes
Muhammad
Ali Bukhari pointed out that his name was misspelled in the minutes.
President’s
Report:
Speaking on the agenda Mr. Thomas S. Saras, brought
a motion to the floor that due to heavy agenda of the day and the number
of presentations made for almost three hours, the attending members are
tired and therefore he asked the members to accept the postponement of the
remaining items of the day for the next month’s meeting to be held on
Monday June the 8th, 2009. The chair placed the motion to the
floor and the members accepted it.
Presidents Report was postponed therefore till next
monthly meeting.
New
Business:
Ned
Blair discussed the possibility of inviting leadership hopeful of the
Progressive Conservative Party in the next meeting. He also suggested that
members of his committee exchange contact details after the end of the
meeting.
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 June 8, 2009.
