Minutes of the Monthly Meeting held on June 2, 2014, at Committee Room No 2, City Hall Toronto

Present:
Thomas S. Saras
Neel Nanda
Maria Saras-Voutsinas
Tatyana Fursenko
Ricky Castellvi
Jacques Varibediom
Adu Raudkavi
Khan Khoda, Dr.
Arif Ahmed
Mujibor Rahman
Teshome Wordeamanluel
Fsh Ghazorian
Jap Patex for Tony Rouprecht
Henry Chiu
Muhammad Ali Bukhari
Shahidul Mintu
Mohammad- Bagher Samimi
Mohammad Tajdolati
Marek Goldyn
Donna Alexander
Eric Wen
Rosmary Sadlier
Ahmad Rostamijam
C. Senthi
Luba Cherny
Igor Malakhov
Stas Milashchenko
William Doyly-Marshall
Ned Blair
Sevag Haroutmian
Raffi Der-Bogossian
Mulugeta Zergabar
David Nguyen
Rakhee Prabhakar
Sandeep Prabakhar
Muhammed Enad
Dr. Chris Morgan
John Saraidaris
Jeneva Wakani
V. Sharma
Jonathan Annobil
Paulraj Kathiroli Media
S. Sivanomohan
Emmanuel Ayiku
Isa Melo
Karim Mirshahi
Ahmad Shah Hotaki
Michael Homsi
Janush Niemczyk-
Peter Galiatsos.
Parry Long
Dumitru Poposcu
Suleyman Guven
Mehmet Onayli
Suhan Ali Shunbill
Tharmasri Rajan
Susan Donan
Saad Alsafar
Nagamany Legendrinligan
Mohammad-Bagher Samini
Ahilakuwaran Multhukymaracamey
Saeed Soltanpour
Srimal Abeyewardene
Hermie Garcia
Mila A. Garcia
Logan Logendraliugan
Agenda

Welcome Remarks by the chair.
Minutes of the previous meeting
Report of the President.
Presentation by Andrea Horwath Leader of Ontario NDP
New Business
Adjournment

Welcome Remarks by the Chair:

Mr. Thomas Saras chaired the meeting and declared the meeting open. Dr Tajdolati moved a motion to approve the agenda. Maria Saras- Voutsinas seconded it. The motion was carried

Minutes of the previous meeting:
Dr. Tajdolati moved a motion to approve the minutes of the previous monthly meeting Sandeep Prabhakar seconded it. The motion was carried.

President’s Report/Discussions:

President Thomas Saras reminded members of Canada Day celebration which would take place on July 4 at Cypriot Community Centre. The event is going to constitute of full dinner with live entertainment. Many distinguished guests from different sections of the Canadian Society will attend this event. A very nominal donation of $15 will be charged per person attending the Canada Day Dinner. Members attending the event would have to notify at the end of the meeting.
The last day of nomination for this year’s annual award ceremony is June 30
President Thomas Saras urged those members to pay their annual membership who have not yet paid their annual membership fee to renew their membership with the organization. NEPMCC has a lot of projects waiting in 2014 for the benefit of ethnic media industry and all projects have cost associated with them. Many members have benefited being a part of NEPMCC and paying membership fees in a timely manner is a duty of all members.
President Thomas informed the members that Canadian Olympic Committee is going to extend an invitation to NEPMCC for the opening of volunteer recruitment centre for 2015 Pan Am Games on June 23 at the Dockside Drive.

The annual ethnic press exhibition for freedom of press which took place on the week of Monday May 5, 2014 at the rotunda of City Hall was a grand success. President acknowledged the hard work of Maria Saras-Voutsinas, Tatyana Fursenko and other members for the grand success of the Ethnic Press Exhibition for freedom of press.

Presentation by Andrea Horwath Leader of Ontario NDP

President Thomas Saras welcomed Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath to make her presentation to the council
The Leader of the Ontario NDP began her address by stating that most people in the Province simply cannot make ends meet anymore. She spoke about Andrea’s saving calculator which will show the amount of money Ontarians are going to save by voting for NDP. The Ontario NDP plan will make the living more affordable. She mentioned about tax credit for job creation.

Some of the highlights of her address were
Health:

Putting nurse practitioners into the Emergency Rooms
24/7 clinics

Jobs:

Invest into companies which are hiring; tax credits for job creations

Andrea’s savings calculator

Freezing tuition fees
Decreasing auto-insurance rates by 15%
Tax credits for caregivers

“Focus on people’s priorities”

Save $600 million with a Minister of Savings and Accountability
Balance Ontario's Books by 2017-18
Take the HST off home hydro bills

After sharing her plan for Ontario she opened the floor for questions.

Isa Melo, Rakhee Prabhakar, Dr Tajdolati, William Doyle Marshall, Muhammad Bukhari, Henry Chiu, Mereck Goodyn and other members participated in roundtable discussion on a wide variety of topics such as immigrant jobs, youth support, corruption, financial accountability in governance and job creation for Ontarians. Andrea Horwath candidly answered all questions raised in the floor and thanked the council for inviting her to the meeting

President Thomas Saras thanked Andrea Horwath for sharing her plan with the council.

New Business:

The chair welcomed the delegation from Black Health Alliance to the meeting.
Dr Christopher Morgan along with other members of Black Health Alliance made a brief presentation on the mission and vision of Black Health Alliance and invited members of NEPMCC to participate in its upcoming events.

George Anderson councillor from City of Nanaimo, British Columbia invited members to visit the beautiful city in BC and expressed appreciation for NEPMCC’s diverse readership in Canada.

Adjournment:

Mohammad Tajdolati moved a motion to adjourn the meeting Rakhee Prabhakar seconded it. The motion was carried. The Chair President Thomas Saras adjourned the meeting at 9:30 pm. The next monthly meeting would take place on July 14, 2014 at Queens Park.