Minutes
of the monthly meeting held at Queen’s Park on October 14, 2005
Present:
Thomas
Saras
Sremal
Abeyawardene
Maxwell Wynter
Clyde McNeil
Hassan
Zerehi
Anne
Dawson
Kenrick
Bobb
B.
Ubale
Ahmed
Mohamed
Ahmed
Shah Hotaki
William
Doyle Marshall
Jai
Maharaj
Emmanuel
Ayiku
Emily
Mills
Cindy
Gu
Aaron
Behrane
Dirk
Tissera
Tanya Nutal
Mohamed Taldolati
Iraj Emad
William Doyle-Marshall
Michelle Tissera
Massood
Mashadi
Danielle
Zhu
Hasan
Yilmaz
Melanie
Aussems
Andrew
Mackalski
Neel
Nanda
Wallesca
Christina
John
Saraidaris
Hemayoun
Rezuvand
Dumitru
Popescu
AhmadShah
Hotaki
Ahmed
Milaad Hotaki
Aris
Babikian
Marcelo
Paolivelli
Kenrick
Bobb
Luba
Cherny
Hermie
Garcia
Rotand
Isaj
Masood
Khan
Cindy
Gu.
Absent
Elizabeth
Wolska
Mona Feng
Special
Guests:
John Tory-leader
of the official opposition, Ontario Legislature
Reg Williams - A/Director
Immigration Enforcement (GTEC)
Anna Pape – Manager
Communications, Canada Border Services Agency (GTA)
Luisa Saxby-A/Director
JFO, Immigration Security Enforcement Unit
Agenda:
Opening Remarks by the Chair
Presentation by John Tory-leader of the official opposition,
Ontario Legislature
Roundtable Discussions with John Tory
Presentation by Reg Williams - A/Director Immigration
Enforcement (GTEC)
Roundtable discussions with the delegation from Canada Border
Services Agency.
Minutes of the previous meeting
President’s Report/Discussions
New Business
End of meeting
Opening
Remarks by the Chair:
The Chair, Clyde McNeil welcomed the members to the monthly meeting. The chair asked the council to approve the agenda before beginning with the proceedings. Kenrick Bobb moved a motion and Masood Manzoorsadeh seconded it, to approve the agenda. It was carried.
The Chair welcomed John Tory leader of the official opposition, Ontario Legislature and invited him to address the council.
Presentation
by John Tory-leader of the official opposition, Ontario Legislature:
John Tory thanked Thomas Saras and the council for the invitation, before he began to address the council. The following are a brief summary of his address to the NEPMCC
· John Tory would hold a reception at Queen’s Park on December 14 for members of the ethnic media to celebrate the Holiday Season.
· While celebrating the creation of a successful diverse community in Ontario, it is important not to be complacent in neglecting the needs of communities growing within the communities.
· To run a credible government it is important to include people from various communities sitting in the various advisory committees
· Government should make employment opportunities more accessible by reaching out to various community centres and community -based organizations.
Question and Answer Period:
Many members including Emad Iraj, Maxwell Wynter, Anne Dawson, Aris Babikian, Massod Manzoorsadeh, Dirk Tissera, Ahmed Mohammed, Alamgir Hussain, Srimal Abeyawardene asked questions on a wide range of topics.
The summary of the responses is as follows:
· The “work for welfare” program has found reasonable success as a result the present Liberal Government has not changed it or made substantial modifications to it. However people with low income need to be given rent supplement to support their housing needs.
· John Tory personally supports equal rights for all section of the society including the right to marry for gays and lesbians conforming to the court decision.
· Privatization of the health care system to bring better medial options to people is not a problem as long as everyone pays with the same OHIP card.
· Recent happening in France can happen anywhere in the world including Ontario if certain section of the population is marginalized or disenfranchised. Programs like the “Career Bridge Program” are needed to help new immigrants integrate into the work force and prevent marginalisation of people in the neighbourhood. Public Sector should take leadership in this regard to help prevent marginalization of different sections of the society by creating various economic and employment opportunities.
· Multiculturalism of today provides great opportunities and challenges such as the opportunity to connect with one’s own culture and at the same time addressing the economic needs through increased employment opportunities, so that one can accomplish the primary objective of being in this country.
· Ontario’s objective should be to stay competitive and attract various multinational companies to invest in the trade, thereby providing increasing employment opportunities in the province. In this process there may be changes and the government should help people so that they can be trained to acquire new skills and knowledge and be ready f or the changing employment needs of the province
· John Tory would visit India, Pakistan and Sri-Lanka to see the progress of relief aid and assess the potential of trade as well it will be an educational trip to better understand the South Asian culture by visiting various historic, religious and cultural sites.
· The Progressive Conservative Party in Ontario and the Federal Conservative Party are different entities having many similar principles and objectives as well as a few differences.
· The Power of ethnic media is huge and has significant impact in Toronto as more than 50% of the population belong to the visible minority.
The
Chair thanked John Tory for his presentation and also for answering the
questions posed by the members of the NEPMCC.
After
the presentation and the Question and Answer Period, John Tory posed for
individual and group pictures with the members of the NEPMCC.
Presentation
by Reg Williams - A/Director Immigration Enforcement (GTEC) followed by
Roundtable Discussions:
The Chair welcomed the Delegation from CBSA led by Reg Williams and invited him to make his presentation.
Reg
Williams introduced to the council the rest of his team members Anna Pape
– Manager Communications, Canada Border Services Agency (GTA) and Luisa
Saxby-A/Director JFO, Immigration Security Enforcement Unit.
The
summary of the Presentation and the Roundtable discussion is as follows.
·
The CBSA was created on December 12, 2003.
·
The creation of the Department of Public Safety and Emergency
Preparedness Canada enables an integrated response to all manners of
emergencies and threats to our security.
·
CBSA brings together in place the core functions National Security
and Intelligence, Policing and Enforcement, Corrections and Crime
Prevention, Border Services and Emergency Preparedness.
·
The CBSA integrates several key functions previously spread among
the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Citizenship and Immigration Canada
and the Food Inspection Agency.
·
CBSA ‘s core activities are to investigate violations under
Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, represent the Minister before all
three Divisions of the IRB, detentions (low risk and high -risk
detentions) and removal of persons from Canada.
·
Reg Williams pointed out the differences in terms of the operations
between the CIC and the CBSA.
·
Reg Williams spoke of the challenges and opportunities facing the
GTEC and also of the priorities facing the Department (community safety
and security)
·
Ethnic publications can play a very important role in educating its
readership about certain process and procedures and all matters related to
immigration.
·
NEPMCC would provide all possible cooperation to the CBSA in order
to help the agency, strengthen community safety and security.
·
NEPMCC would provide a list of members with contact details so that
the CBSA can send newsletters and media alerts to the members of the
NEPMCC on a regular basis.
The
President of NEPMCC thanked the delegation from CBSA for providing
valuable information to the members. Reg Williams thanked the Council for
the invitation and invited all the members of the NEPMCC for a tour of the
GTEC and for any other issue of mutual interest.
The Council resumed its normal business after the delegation from CBSA left the meting
Minutes of the Previous Meeting:
Kenrick Bobb moved a motion seconded by William Doyle Marshall to approve the minutes of the monthly meeting held on October 17, 2005. It was carried.
President’s Report/Discussions:
The following is the summary of the President’s Report and Business Discussions.
· Thomas Saras briefed the members about the outcome of November 9th meeting that took place with the officials from the Department of Public Works and the representatives from the Cosette Media.
· One of the outcomes of that meeting was the need to create a special advisory committee that would work with the Department of Public Works and the Cosette Media in creating a fair list of ethnic media outlets that would give its suggestions for receiving Government advertising, Accordingly a seven member special advisory committee was created , comprising of the following members:
Clyde McNeil
Masood Khan
Masood Mansoorsadeh
Luba Cherny
Srimal Abeyewardene
Andrew Machalski
William Doyle Marshall.
· The Council authorized Masood Khan to chair a committee that would be responsible for the preparations of Seasonal Party on December 9,2005. This committee has six other members who would assist Masood Khan, they are:
Tanya Nutall
Luba Cherny
Masood Mansoorsadeh
Danielle Zhu
Alamgir Hussain
William Doyle Marshall.
· This Committee would be further divided into two sub-committee with specific responsibilities assigned to each committee
· Thomas Saras forwarded to the awards committee, the names of the distinguished individuals who would be recognized in the seasonal party.
· Emily Mills who is presently working with CTV as an assistant diversity producer encouraged members to send in community stories to her email on a regular basis and she would do everything possible to broadcast any newsworthy story from the NEPMCC.
· NDTV is now officially launched and Danielle Zhu invited all the members for a gala function celebrate the Chinese New Year (the year of the dog) and also to celebrate multiculturalism.
· . The Chair welcomed the new members Humayun Razala from Voice of Today Radio and Andrew Machalski to the council. Also Melanie Aussems from the Deutsche Press, Dumitru Popescu from the Romanian Observatorul and Marcelo Paoliyelli from the Brazil News.
End
of Meeting:
Srimal Abeyawardene moved a motion to adjourn the meeting and Masood Manzoorzadeh seconded it. It was carried by all. The Chair adjourned the meeting at 10:15 p.m. The next meeting would take place on December 12, 2005 at Queen’s Park.
