Minutes
of the Monthly Meeting held on August 10, 2009 at Queen’s Park
Present:
Thomas
S. Saras
Dr.Bikram
Lamba
Shahindul
Islam MinTV
Dumetru
Popescu
Irene
Keroglidis
Muhammad
Ali Bukhari
Bahram
Bahrami
Hassan
Zerehi
Suleyman
Guven
Ahmed
Hotaki
Neel
Nanda
Khan
Khoda (Deshi TV)
Asha
Rajak
Iosif
Spataru
Mario
Spataru
Mohamed
Tajdolati
Prem
Arasaratnem
Moorthy
Sellathurai
Viara
Dimitrova
Teshome
Worldeamanuel
William
Doyle-Marshall
Shahram
Sharemi
Sunil
Rao, SAF
Ned
Blair
Aris
Babikian
Roberto
Jovel (CCRS),
Any
Cosallai (CCRS),
Francesco
Rieo Methos (CCR),
Loby
Rico (CCR),
Mila
Astroga Garcia
Hermie
Garcia
R.T.
NATHASN
Kevin
Wang
Shrimal
Abeyewardene
Ranjit
Wicks
Niaz
Salimi
Emmanuel
Ayiku
Tanas
Jovanovski
John
Saraidaris
Hossein
Pourhaider
Luba
Cherny
Agenda
1.
Welcome Remarks by the
chair.
2.
Minutes of the previous meeting.
3.
Matters Arising out of the minutes.
4.
Presentation by Canada Council for Refugees.
5.
Presidents Report
6.
New Business (Motions)
7.
Adjournment
Welcome
Remarks by the Chair:
Dr. Lamba chaired the meeting in the absence of our regular moderator Clyde McNeil. Dr. Lamba called the meeting to order.
Minutes of the previous
meeting:
Hassan Zerehi moved a motion to approve the minutes of the previous monthly meeting held on July 13th, 2009. Irene Keroglidis seconded it. The motion was carried.
Matters Arising out of the
Minutes
Muhammad Ali Bukhari suggested the following amendment to the previous minutes.
Muhammad Ali Bukhari urged the council that “members abide by ethics and NEPMCC should condemn any inappropriate funding received by any fellow member from any government body, includes wrong doings of any nature in gaining government advertisement money.” The amendments to the previous minutes were incorporated by the suggestion.
President’s
Report/Discussions:
·
Ethnic
Press Exhibition was postponed in the week of June 29 due to the strike by
city workers.
·
Motion:
Srimal Abeyawardene moved a motion to postpone the Ethnic Press Exhibition
to May 2010. The motion was seconded by Muhammad Ali Bukhari and carried
by all.
·
The
President is in discussions with the PMO to hold sessions with the
Council.
·
Nominations
for this year’s award are closed. Dr. Lamba and his committee would
decide on this year’s award recipients. More than 50 nominations have
been received. Irene Keroglidis would step aside from the awards committee
for technical reasons. Her position will take over by Asha Rajak, VP
responsible for membership.
·
Work
is in progress for the educational seminar to be held in Seneca College.
The proposed dates of the educational seminar are from Friday November 13th
to Sunday November 15th.
·
Members from all over Canada will attend the educational seminar
and their traveling and living expenses would be covered by the Council.
Every member attending the seminar will have to pay a registration fee of
$50.As this is a historic first for ethnic journalists and publishers
working in Canada, the seminar for the introduction of the laws concerning
journalism and ethics, it is
very important to be attended by all concerned.
·
Prime
Minister of Canada is most likely to attend the graduating ceremony and
hand over the graduating certificates.
·
Word
on the street festival will be held on September 27 and Ahmed Shah Hotaki
will be in charge as like other previous years. NEPMCC would have a booth.
Members should get copies of their newspapers in the next monthly meeting.
The copies of the newspapers will be displayed at the booth in the “Word
on the Street Festival”
·
NEPMCC
is going to sponsor cultural shows at the CNE in the Labour Day weekend on
September 6. To this extend the President blocked a number of entry
tickets for the members and their family which he distributed free of
charge in order to have them attending the Ethnic Press and media Day at
the CNE.
·
Religion
and Politics should be out of this organization. President Thomas Saras
strongly underscored this point and reiterated that NEPMCC is governed by
a professional code of conduct and has nothing to do with the religious
believe of the members. Each member has his own religious and political
believe and the organization is respecting this fact, but that has nothing
to do with the common professional interest of all the members. Therefore
has to be left out of any discussions during our meetings or keep it out
of our business.
·
President
urged the members to abide by the code of ethics. Any member not following
the code of ethics could lose the membership status with the organization.
Members should resist publishing any derogatory articles about fellow
community colleagues or members.
·
President
Saras mentioned about 41 journalists being put in prison in Iran and
especially mentioned about one Canadian Iranian journalist being held in
prison in Iran. President expressed his concern over the unrest in Iran.
NEPMCC would send its concerns over the journalists in Iran to the Iranian
Embassy.
·
The
CNE passes were distributed to the members during the meeting. Each member
received 6 CNE passes along with a parking pass.
·
Liberal
Leader Michael Ignatieff wrote a letter to the President thanking him for
giving him the opportunity to meet with the council.
Dr.
Lamba
received the nominations for the awards. The decision would be taken next
month. The committee is going to closely scrutinize on all nominations
before the finalizing the list this year.
Irene
Keroglidis congratulated the President for his hard work
Motion:
Irene Keroglidis moved a motion to authorize President to spend $280 as
expenses towards the creation of a logo and banner of NEPMCC. The motion
was seconded by Muhammad Ali Bukhari and carried by all.
.
Presentation
by Francisco Rico and Roberto Jovel - (Canada’s Council of Refugees).
The
following are the highlights of the presentation
Canada
Council of Refugees is a non-profit organization working to protect
refugees. The mandate of the Canadian Council for Refugees is
rooted in the belief that:
·
Everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from
persecution; (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 14.1)
·
Refugees, refugee claimants, displaced persons and immigrants have
the right to a dignified life and the rights and protections laid out in
national and international agreements and conventions concerning human
rights;
·
Canada and Canadians have responsibilities for the protection and
resettlement of refugees from around the world;
·
Settlement services to refugees and immigrants are fundamental to
participation in Canadian life;
·
National and international refugee and immigration policies must accord
special consideration to the experience of refugee and immigrant women and
children a
Francisco
Rico asked help from the members of the council.
Muhammad
Bukhari, Hassan Zerehi and other members participated in the discussions.
New
Business:
Neel
Nanda invited members of the council to a gala dinner with musical
entertainment on August 16 at Premium Banquet Hall Mississauga,
celebrating South Asian Culture. He gave away tickets to members who were
interested in joining the festivities.
Muhammad
Ali Bukhari enquired on the course curriculum on the training program
conducted by Seneca College.
Adjournment: Irene Keroglidis 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 September, 14, 2009
