National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada

 

 

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Minutes of the Monthly Meeting held on December 10, 2018, at Committee Room #2 City Hall.

Present:

Thomas S. Saras
Neel Nanda
Maria Saras-Voutsinas
Rosemary Sadler
Ricky Castellvi
Jonathan Annobil
Leila MonteiroLins
Jonathan Annobil
Mohammed BagherSamimi
Ali Mahmoud
Mohammad Tajdolati
GhulamRasool
AnfisaLyasota
Ranjit Wicks
Sandie De Freitas
Norman Hart
TeshomeWoldramanuel
Khalid Magen
GezahegnMekonnenDemissie
SaadAlsafar
Rui Yang
HaiTien Lin
Joe Volpe
Logan Longarigham
BanglatoreNagaragn
Arif Ahmed
Marek J. Goldyn
KumananThnambi
Nishrite Don
ErnestoDonan
Isa Melo
ThavapalanKathiravelu
Yuri Natcetoi
John Saraidaris
Said Henry
LuiQueano
ElizabethMurok
S. Krinalingam
Inga Cernei
Hermie Garcia
Mila Garcia
KumayanThambi
NajibullahPopalzai
Robin Beckosian
Khalid Magnam
HannanMamun
NobodiNews
AysegulKalkan
ErsoyKalkan
Nishanta Don
Ali Mahboub
MulugetaZergaba
JanuszNiemczyk
Denis Brito
Stensont A
GeethaNangarajh
Syed Irbal
Mike Kolosowski
EugineaBakchinow
Boddy Wang
AnastasiosChatzitheofanous
MuhacumadNaeemUl Islam
NajibPopalzai
WaisPopalzai
Foe Jole
Nishantha Dion
ThanapalanKathivarelu
DimitrisVohaitis
DarilBrar
Ahmad Rostamijam
LalitThakar
Lawrence Joseph
Ronny Yason
KhuvanAftab
Abdul Azeem
Qazi AFRASIAB
NawrinFoorah
S Krishnalingam
Sonny Mir
Shaiful Horn
Khalid Morgan
Bobby Wang
Muhammad Boukari
Ahmad Hotaki
Thomas  Galgor
S. Sivamohan
Kathy Lin
Kathy Geraklis
KumananThambi
Tamil Muraka
Hermie Garcia
Mila Garcia
Solomon Areinu

BetyGlothai
Salah Allam
Stena Allam
S. Subramanian
Elizabeth Muzale

Agenda of the Day:

  1. Welcome Remarks by the chair.
  2. Minutes of the previous meeting
  3. Report of the President/Discussions
  4. Presentation by Mitzie Hunter MPP  Scarborough- Guildwood
  5. New Members/New Business
  6. Adjournment

  7. Welcome Remarks by the Chair:

    Dr. Tajdolati chaired the meeting and declared the meeting open. Rosemary Sadlier a motion to approve the agenda. Mareck Goldyn seconded it. The motion was carried. .

     

    Minutes of the previous meeting:

    Rosemary Sadlier moved a motion to approve the minutes of the previous monthly meeting Isa Melo seconded it.  The motion was carried.

       President's Reportm / Discussions:

  8. President Thomas Saras reflected on the achievements of the year in the last monthly meeting of 2018. Over the years the organization has grown from strength to strength and has made a positive impact to the society. This was possible due to hard work of many members. Looking forward NEPMCC and its members have a lot of opportunity to prosper and as a result the hard work should continue. President Thomas Saras said that in 2019 there are many exciting projects that NEPMCC intends to work on. Members have been benefitted from the organization as it sends a unified voice of ethnic media to the government and all other stakeholders.
  9. President Thomas Saras encouraged all the members to renew their membership in 2019 to take advantage of the privileges of the membership. NEPMCC has been over the years fighting for the rights of the members to stand in shoulder to shoulder with the mainstream media.
  10. Motion: In order to take advantage of the privileges of the organization, each member should be in good standing and should pay their membership fees in time. The motion was unanimously carried.
  11. President Thomas Saras attended the hearing of CRTC to grant broadcasting licences to new ethnic channels. The chair of the CRTC gave good attention to the views presented by President Thomas Saras. NEPMCC would put forward about 5 applications for obtaining broadcasting licence in Canada.
  12. Motion: A motion was on the floor that as soon as NEPMCC is able to gather $70,000 in its treasury – the council will apply for a number of broadcasting licences for its multicultural network in Canada. Sandy De Freitas moved a motion. Ahmed Shah Hotaki seconded it. The motion was unanimously carried.
  13. NEPMCC would submit a proposal to build a free website for all members who do not have a website.
  14. An Educational conference/seminar is proposed to be organized in 2019 for 3 -4 days. A survey will be sent to the members to finalize the curriculum of the seminar. The seminar will most likely take place in Seneca College.
  15. Motion: There was a motion on the floor authorizing the office of the President of NEPMCC to organize an educational seminar and to build website of those members who do not yet have a website. The motion was moved by Dimitris Vohaitis and seconded by Mareck Goldyn seconded it. The motion was unanimously carried.
  16. President Thomas Saras, informed the members that he represented the ethnic media at the standing committee of the senate to educate the committee about the grievances of the ethnic media industry.
  17. President Thomas Saras mentioned that the Government promised in the last budget to allocate $50 million dollars for five years or 10 million dollars per year, for financial support to community publications, out of this amount 20 to 30% should be allocated to Ethnic Media.

  18. He encouraged all members to apply for funds under the Canada Periodical Fund and other such programs by Federal Government.
  19. President Thomas Saras would meet with the officials to discuss distribution of advertising in ethnic media. To this extend he is appearing also at the committee of the Senate of Canada on telecommunications for the same reason.

  20. Thomas Saras mentioned that rules will be changed for receiving grants under Canada Periodical Fund and more emphasis will be given on Canadian content and circulation than sales, which was the measure in the previous years.  He emphasized that before submitting their application under the Canada Periodical Fund, the members should thoroughly go over all the rules in order to avoid any rejection of their application
  21. The president also encouraged all the members to apply for an ID or Media Pass of the organization. There are so many benefits; the president said that it is a great advantage and prestige to have media pass issued by NEPMCC as the organization is recognized as the legitimate representative of the sector in Canada.
  22. The President spoke about student internship program with the schools of journalism.  Internship will be from 3 – 6 months. The program will cover $14 per hour per student and the rest has to be covered by the respective organization. The program will begin from January 2019.
  23. President Thomas Saras will be travelling to Ottawa to have number of meetings to persuade the government to improve the funding program for ethnic media industry. A motion was unanimously carried to authorize all expenses in completing this task.
  24. Tickets for the Annual get-together were almost sold out during the meeting. Keeping with the tradition the annual dinner will take place at the Cypriot Community Centre on December 14. It is a great time to be with the families of the members of NEPMCC and celebrate the success of each other and of the organization

  25.  

    Presentation by Mitzie Hunter MPP Scarborough- Guildwood. (Member of the Standing Committee of Regulations and Private Bills and former Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development)

    The former Minister and present MPP of Scarborough- Guildwood made a brief presentation on her present role and her expectations from the new government in Ontario especially as lot was achieved in the education sector during her time at the ministry of advanced education and skills development. During her time at the former ministry hundreds of thousands of students were eligible for free tuition under the New OSAP. She raised concern with the pay equity and other areas where the new government is proposing to make sweeping changes which could in turn affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ontarians.
    Following her presentation there was a roundtable discussion with the members. MPP Mitzie Hunter candidly answered all questions to the satisfaction of all.
    Bhaskar Sharma, Mareck Goldyn, Dr. Tajdolati, Janusz, Dimitis Vohaitis and others asked a wide variety of questions on wide range of topics such as minimum wage, pay equity, New OSAP, economic growth, etc.
    The chair thanked MPP Mitzie Hunter for spending her valuable time with the members and hoped to continue the dialogue going forward.

     

    New Members/ New Business:

    Lydia Sun – Writer/Editor – Jane-Finch.com

     

    Adjournment: Ranjit Wicks moved a motion to adjourn the meeting and Ashikeen Farah seconded it. The motion was carried. The Chair, Dr.Tajdolati adjourned the meeting at 9 pm. The next monthly meeting would take place on Monday, January 14, 2019 at committee room N# 2 at the Toronto City Hall.