Minutes of the Monthly Meeting held on July 09, 2012, at Committee Room No 2, Queens Park

Present:

Thomas S. Saras

Neel Nanda

T. Vasnthakumar

Bikram Lamba, Dr.

Janus Roudkavi

William, Doyle-Marshall

Mohammad, Bagher Samimi

Khan Roda, Dr.

Suleyman Guven

Dumitru Popesku

Ran jit Wicks

Teshome Wopldeamanuel

Upali Obeyesekere

Aaron Berhane

D. NISHANTHA (Ceylon Express),

Saad Alsafar

Mohammed Tajdolati, Dr.

Parry Long

Hai-Tien Lin

John Saraidaris

Jacques Varbeolion

C. Senthi

Srimal Abeyerwardene

Logan Longaringham

Bob Ristic

Kevin Wang (MCT)

Ned Blair

Isa Melo (Etc & Tall)

Liz Philbert  (HK Magazines)

Hermie Garcia

Mila Garcia

Presenter: Fiona Green, Ombudsman City of Toronto

 Agenda

1.         Welcome Remarks by the chair.

2.         Minutes of the previous meeting

3.         Report of the President

4.         Presentation by  Fiona Green – Ombudsman, City of Toronto 

5.         New Business

6.         Adjournment

Welcome Remarks by the Chair:

Dr. Lamba chaired the meeting and declared the meeting open.  Suleiman Guven moved a motion to approve the agenda, William Doyle Marshall seconded it. The motion was carried

Minutes of the previous meeting:

Suleiman Guven moved a motion to approve the minutes of the previous monthly meeting held on June 11, 2012. Janus Raudkavi seconded it.  The motion was carried.

President’s Report/Discussions

·           President Thomas Saras expects a very busy year ahead with many important projects and events for NEPMCC.

·           President Thomas Saras thanked all members who participated in the Canada Day dinner. The event was a great success. President Thomas Saras also expressed disappointment with some of the members blocking a number of tickets for Canada Day dinner and not showing up with number of ticket reserved.

·           President Thomas Saras met with R. Hon. Stephen Harper on June 17. The office of the President is trying to arrange a roundtable meeting with the Prime Minster.

·           President Thomas Saras mentioned that NEPMCC needs funds for the CNE exhibition. The CNE exhibition opens on August 17.

·           President Saras distributed a letter from BPA Worldwide regarding auditing of circulation of ethnic publications. The office of the President is trying to negotiate a subsidized price for the audit of member publications of NEPMCC with BPA Worldwide.

·           President Thomas Saras informed the council that the nomination process for this year’s awards is now closed. President reiterated to the council that persons with criminal record ware not eligible to be nominated for any awards.

·           Bob Ristic – expressed his concerns about funding for TV programming from Rogers Media. The President advised him to prepare a letter with all his concerns so that the office of the President could take it up with the appropriate authorities.

.

·           President Thomas Saras attended a special event on May 22 hosted by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebration at Queens Park for His Royal Highness Prince Charles. President Thomas Saras also attended the Government of Ontario Reception for His Royal Highness Prince Charles at the historic distillery district in Toronto. This was a great honour for ethnic media as President Thomas Saras represented the voice of the ethnic media in Canada in this historic function. It was a proud day for President Saras and the NEPMCC. It was a recognition of the significance of the role of the Ethnic Press in the development of the culture and evolve of the Canadian Democracy.

·           President Thomas also received an invitation from Lt. Governor celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebration on June 18. President Thomas Saras accepted the invitation on behalf of all the members of NEPMCC to receive Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.

·           President Thomas Saras plans to visit Vancouver to meet with the members of NEPMCC and the Premier of BC along with various MPPs of British Columbia. Motion: A motion was moved by Suleiman Guven and seconded by Dr. Khan Khoda in this respect. The motion was carried.

Presentation by Fiona Green Ombudsman, the City of Toronto

The office of the Ombudsman was opened in April 2009. The office has a broad jurisdiction in the city.  The Ombudsman explained her role and then took questions from the floor.

Following is the brief summary of the role of the Office of Ombudsman, City of Toronto.

·           The Ombudsman’s office is independent from City Hall – both the elected representatives and the staff. Nothing can interfere with the Office’s ability to thoroughly investigate complaints.

·           The Office investigates and resolves complaints in a fair and balanced way, providing equitable opportunities to Toronto residents and to staff. This Office is not an advocate for either the complainant or the government.

·           The Office of the Ombudsman intends to treat each individual case in a timely manner.

·           While there are certain steps that need to be taken to ensure fairness for all concerns, and while there can be unavoidable delays, the office will treat each case in a prompt yet thorough manner.

·           The office of the Ombudsman, City of Toronto is the office of last resort-after the public has tried to resolve the problem with the City.

 Bob Ristic, William Doyle Marshall, Aaron Mefith, Saad Alfasar and other members participated in the discussions on various issues with the Ombudsman, City of Toronto. Fiona Green thanked NEPMCC for the opportunity of dialog and hoped the readership of ethnic publications would better understand the role of the office of the Ombudsman, City of Toronto. President Thomas Saras thanked the speaker for her presentation

New Business

Ahmed Shah Hotaki suggested that Hon. Jim Karigiannis be honoured for helping the ethnic media during the December annual dinner.

New Member –

The Chair welcomed Babu Vasanthkumar – Publisher of Athvan a Tamil Publication and hoped that the new member would be an active participant in the organization.

 Adjournment:

 Dr. Tajdolati moved a motion to adjourn the meeting.  Dr. Khan Khoda seconded it. The motion was carried. The chair Dr. Lamba adjourned the meeting at 8:30 pm. The next meeting would take place on August 13, 2012 at Queens Park.

The above minutes have been recorded and prepared by Neel  Nanda, Secretary General of the Organization and given to administration for distribution to the members.