Minutes of the Monthly meeting held on September 14, 2009 at Queen’s Park

Present:

1. Thomas S. Saras

2. Dr. Bikram Lamba

3. Asha Rajak

4. Daniele Zhu

5. Irene Keroglidis

6. William Doyle-Marshall

7. Bahrami Shahidul

8. Islam Mintu

9. Muhammad Ali Bukhari

10. Mohammad Tajdolati

11. Dumitru Popescu

12. Hassan Zerehi

13. Rosemarie Meyer

14. Mila Garcia

15. Jamof Sambre

16. Ara Tir Arootunian

17. Gerald V. Paul

18. Adan Rindkivi

19. Kevin Wang

20. Teshome Woldeamanuel

21. John Saras

22. Gulanavhonon

23. Moorthy Sellathurai

24. Prem Arasaratram

25. Hermie Garcia

26. Thomas J. Simpson

Agenda:

1. Welcome Remarks by the Chair

2. A call to order by the Chair

3. Minutes

Presentations:

A presentation by the Official Speaker of the day Andrea Horwath, Leader, Ontario’s NDP

4. Report by the President

5. Word on the Street Exhibition (Ahmed Shah Hotaki)

a. Awards 2009 Dr. Bikram Lamba

b. Professional Educational Seminar

a. New Business (Motions)

b. New members

8. Adjournment

Minutes:

Dr. Lamba chaired the meeting in absence of Clyde McNeal and welcomed everybody to the meeting and declared the meeting open.

Irene Keroglidis moved a motion to approve the agenda of the meeting and Muhammad Ali Bukhari seconded it. It was unanimously accepted and the meeting was started with remarks made by the Chair.

Irene moved a motion to approve the minutes of the previous monthly meeting held on August 10, 2009 and Mohammad Tajdolati seconded. The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as is, and the motion was carried.

1. A call was made by Dr. Lamba for the President, Mr. Thomas Saras to present his report

a. The President Thomas S. Saras, in his report emphasized that a number of 400 free tickets were distributed to our members to visit the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE). Even though 400 tickets were distributed among our members with free parking passes for their visit to the CNE, there were only four members present on the day of our event at the international stage celebrating multiculturalism. This number includes the President himself, John Saraidaris, Asha Rajak which presented the show and Ahmed Shah Hotaki, whom the president thanked for his continues support. He also expressed his doubts whether it is an appropriate idea for the Council to spend its budget on sponsoring an event like this if the members do not show any interest as they do not getting involved in the activities of the Council, as the one at the EX.

b. Mr. Saras then informed the members about the ‘Word on the Street festival’ which is planed to take place on Sunday 27th of September, 2009 Queen’s Park Crescent, ( around the provincial legislative building). Like all the previous years, we are also participating with one booth for the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada. Mr. Hotaki has voluntarily agreed to undertake full responsibility of the arrangement and the booth setup. All members are requested to bring 10 copies of their publication at the earliest date possible to put them for display and also they must be in touch with Mr. Ahmad Hotaki to have an idea about how to arrange them. Members from radio and television can bring brochures, promotional materials & posters for display.

c. Our first Professional Development Education Seminar is going to take place at the premises of Seneca College, Finch Campus, on November 13th, 14th and 15th, 2009.(Friday, Saturday and Sunday). After contribution of many hours of hard work and multiple follow-ups, we have finally received an approval for the funds that were proposed to the federal government for this seminar. We have also finalized and signed an agreement with the Department of the Canadian Heritage. The agreement was signed between the Canadian Heritage and NEPMCC for the seminar as the topicalities’ are concluded. As soon as we receive the amount, we will start making payments to the academic institutions that are going to conduct this seminar. The President expressed his pride over this successful agreement with the government of Canada and expressed his warm thanks for the Hon. Moor minister of Canadian Heritage and to PMO for their understanding and help. He expressed hi special gratitude to R. Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada for his support to this project, the first in the history of the ethnic press of Canada for this seminar which is so important for our members either publishers, editors or Journalists of the community of the Ethnic Media. This is an extraordinary seminar where our members will have an opportunity to get educated and be informed about the rules, regulations and media laws in Canada. Every member of the Ethnic Press who fills up the registration form and sends a $50.00 cheque (registration fee), are eligible to participate in this seminar. As Government regulations are not allowing us any expense for meals during the seminar, we decided to collect this amount which we receive from the participants and placed it on a special account we are going that we are going to utilize in paying for the breakfast, lunch and dinner for the three days seminar for all participants as well as the two coffee breaks. We are going to have breakfast, lunch and dinner with two coffee breaks during the period of the three days seminar. Details will be provided soon.

There of the limit of 150 participants. For now, every member has to send an email stating his/her interest to attend the seminar is acceptable but later participants will have to fill a registration form which will be uploaded on the website at the earliest date. There is a second travel and accommodation form for people travelling from outside Ontario. These forms must be downloaded & filled respectively and mailed it with a $50.00 cheque payable to the NEPMCC. An email with detailed information will be sent out to all the members as soon as the registration form is accessible and ready to download from our website. However, a brief email about the seminar has already been sent out to the members and we have received emails from about 40 members expressing their interest to participate in this seminar. Ms. Asha Rajak, our Vice President for membership and also Executive Secretary to president, started calling members from outside Ontario requesting them to submit their request for participation.

We are expecting more than 30% of the participants to be from outside the Toronto Area. Members/participants who are travelling from outside Ontario are highly recommended to arrive at the venue by Thursday evening. NEPMCC is going to bear travel expense for people who are attending this seminar from outside Ontario. Participants from Western Canada are requested to buy their tickets from Nick PANOS of Omega Travel Service, in Vancouver. The Omega Travel Service can be contacted to 1-800-663 2669 or the local number 604- 738 7126 and ask for Nick Panos. NEPMCC has signed an agreement with this travel agent to provide us the best possible rates for the tickets. The agency received instructions to provide tickets from Thursday to arrive in Toronto, until Sunday evening to return back. If any member attending the seminar wants to stay more days in Toronto he can make arrangements with Nick, but he/she must know that they pay fro the hotel and other living expenses for the remaining days they will stay here. As per the rules of the government, the least expensive mode of transportation must be used. Participants travelling from Quebec are requested to use either bus or their own car to the venue. Participants/Journalists from Ontario attending this seminar cannot claim transportation expense. For members who are travelling by air is not going to be paid travel expense from their home to the airport and back. However, a transportation expense occurred to come and go to and from the seminar venue to the airport can be claimed. Participants are responsible for overstay charges and need to cover it by themselves if at all.

The R. Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada is going to hand-over the certificates to participants at the end of the seminar, during a gala gathering on Saturday the 14th. I am expecting this event to be attended also by the mayor of Toronto. Every member who attends this seminar is going to receive one certificate from Seneca College and one from the NEPMCC. Every class is going to have about 35 participants. They are going to rotate from one class to the other of their choice during this three days period. Each class will be for about 90 minutes. We are going to bring members of academia from the school of Journalism and also from the school of Business. We will also try to bring at least one or two corporations and leading business organizations to share their idea about their expectation from the Ethnic Media. We do not have details ready right now. We will provide detailed information soon. Once we have our agenda ready we will consult with John Miller, Vice dean of the school of journalism, at Ryerson University for his feedback and suggestion about the content of our programme. We will discuss details among our members about the seminar agenda on our next meeting, the 19th of October.

d. We are sending invitation to Canadian Heritage to come and explain about the new funding regulations for the sector they are planning to launch on the 1st of April of 2010. They are going to give funds to the members of the media which can be utilized for the survival of the publication. It is upto the media organization to decide about how and where to use that fund. It can be used to mail their newspapers & magazines, pay staff salary or cover other office expenses. Details will be provided by Canadian Heritage during the seminar. An invitation also has been extended to Mr. Marc Saint-Pierre, Director General, Government Information Services Sector, Public Works Canada to be with us and make a presentation about the rules and regulations of his department about the rules and regulations for the distribution of the Government of Canada Ads.

e. The Award Ceremony is going to be held on Monday the 26th of October at the Lieutenant Governor`s office on Queen`s Park. Award receivers are requested to send their full name, address and names of their guests in order to inform Lieutenant Governor’s Protocol office for the invitations and also to prepare the plaques and certificates.

f. Members are requested to solicit donation from their community for the NEPMCC. Until today the President is the only source of funds which is not a solution to a long term survival of the organization.

g. Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty has accepted our invitation to be our official speaker for the October 19th meeting. So, please bring in your list of questions and put them all infront of him confidently during the meeting.

Presentations:

A presentation by the Official speaker of the day, Ms. Andrea Horwath, Leader, Ontario’s NDP

Dr. Lamba introduced the guest speaker, Leader of the NDP, Andrea Horwath and requested her to talk about her vision of Ontario and what she expects from the Ethnic Press. He also requested the members to confine their question to one per head during question and answer session after her talk.

Highlights of the discussion were:

a. Start by giving an idea of her personal history: Born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, and has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Labour Studies from McMaster University. Father was a European immigrant and worked in an auto factory – in ford. It provided Ms. Horwath a value to work with unions and collective actions. Watched her dad face challenges at his workplace with problems like his thick accent and not being able to communicate and express his opinions. Grew up with three other siblings.

b. Later worked closely with the Hamilton labour movement for several years, programming and providing literacy, numeracy and ESL training for workers. She subsequently got involved in the cooperative housing movement in Welland, and later became a community development coordinator for Hamilton's McQueston Legal Clinic, providing public legal education to groups working with tenants, injured workers and people with disabilities. Worked with community from all across the world.

c. In 1996 earned a certificate of achievement in anti-racism training, and was an organizer of Hamilton's highly successful Days of Action campaign against provincial government cutbacks announced by Mike Harris. That year she received the Woman of the Year Award in Public Affairs from the Hamilton Status of Women Committee in recognition of her work in the community. She also dedicated her time and efforts toward the field of social housing and was subsequently awarded the Graham Emslie Award for Community Development in Housing by the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association.

d. In 1997, elected to Hamilton City Council for Ward Two and emerged as a prominent voice for the political left in the city, and was re-elected to council in 2000 and 2003. During her three terms as city councilor, chaired the solid waste management committee and the municipal non-profit housing corporation.

e. Elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in a 2004 by-election in the then-extant provincial riding of Hamilton East.

f. Won the NDP leadership election which was held on March 6-8, 2009 leading on the first two ballots, and won on the third ballot with 60.4% of the vote.

g. Challenged govt. to bring solution for the recession and bringing forward suggestion on how bring jobs in this province of Ontario. Ontario needs to focus on manufacturing in order to be bringing prosperity in the province. Focus attention on Ontarians who have been most affected by the continuing recession.

h. Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) next challenge for the province – it’s going to hit families when they can least afford it. It's the wrong tax at the wrong time. Unfair tax grab that leaves people paying more and will slow job growth. Collected over 70 thousand signature against HST.

i. The $4.5 billion in corporate tax cuts announced in the budget are going to profitable corporations. That tax reduction is not for the struggling companies, it's not for the ones that are asking workers for cutbacks or rollbacks or that are laying off.

j. Asked the government for the disclosures of expenses made in last 2 years. Rules of proactive accountability being followed.

k. Individual communities can contact Ms. Horwath and invite the leader to identity the solutions through the website directly: www.ontariondp.com

l. Reducing power plants and focus on environmental issues. Practical solutions and bring environmental initiatives.

m. Actively working on pension issues and minimum wage. Ontario pension systems need to be overhauled – PM agrees. There is an inadequacy in pension reform. Proposed to provide financial security to both working and retired citizens.

The Chair of the meeting thanked the Official Speaker of the day Andrea Horwath, Leader; Ontario’s NDP for her time and wished her good luck with her leadership.

Then immediately after, the Chair introduced Mr. Thomas J. Simpson, Director- Community Outreach, of the Office of the Leader of the Official Opposition of Ontario to the members:

a. Mr. Simpson is the contact person from the media office of the Office of the Leader of the Official Opposition.

b. Looking for an opportunity to work with the members of the NEPMCC.

c. Requested for an Associate Membership and approval to attend our monthly meetings.

President agreed to provide Associate membership and welcomed him to attend our monthly meetings.

The Chair thanked and welcomed Mr. Simpson officially.

Adjournment: Irene Keroglidis moved a motion to adjourn the meeting William Doyle-Marshall seconded it. The motion was carried. The chair adjourned the meeting at 8:15 pm. The next meeting would take place on October 19, 2009

The above minutes have been prepared by Asha Rajak , on the absence of Neel Nanda.