Meeting Minutes - May 14, 2007

NATIONAL ETHNIC PRESS AND MEDIA COUNCIL OF CANADA Conseil national de la presse et des medias ethniques du Canada                                                                                 Canada's Other Voices   Minutes of the monthly meeting held at Queen's Park on May 14, 2007 Present: Thomas Saras        Greek Press Srmial Abeyawardene    Sri Lankan Press Clyde McNeil        Chin Radio Neel Nanda        Indian Press Maryam Aghvami        CBC Radio International Dr. Bikram  Lamba        South East Asian Communities                Ahmed Shah Hotaki        Afghani Press William Doyle Marshall    Trinidad and Tobago Mona Feng        Chinese Press Emmanuel Ayiku        African Press Iraj Emad            Iranian Press Saud Soultanpour        Turkish Press Niaz Salimi        Iranian Press Trifon Haitas        Greek TV Teshome Woldeamanuel    Ethiopian Press Almeiri Brasil News         Brasilian Press Tanas Joyabovski        Former Yugoslavian Press Josivaldo Rodrigues        Brazilian Press Amir Mahim        South East Asian Press Luba Cherny        Russian Press Longendialigan, Nage    Tamil Press Saraidaris John        Greek Press Suku Balasubramaniam    South Asian Press K. Arasaratnam        Tamil Press Ned Blair            Caribbean Press Mohammad Tajdolati, Dr.    Persian Press Kathy Lin            Chinese Press Hai Tien Lin        Chinese Press Katayun Pujirun        South Asian Press Abdul Rahim Moton        Burmish Press Danielle Zhu        Chinese TV Syed Narvi        Pakistani Press Alamgir Hussein        Bagladezi Press K. Davis Lim        Chinese Press Mahesh Abeyawardene    Shri Lankan Press Massood Mashadi        Iranian Press Cindy Gu            Chinese Press Aaron Behrane        Eritrean Press   Absent: Irene Keroglidis Dumitru Popescu   Agenda: 1. Opening Remarks by the Chair 2. Minutes of the Previous Meeting. 3. Presentation by Ontario Premiere Hon. Dalton McGuinty, MPP 4. Presentation by Jean Augustine (former federal cabinet minister) 5. President’s Report/ Discussions 6. End of meeting   Opening Remarks by the Chair: The chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and asked the members to approve the minutes of the previous monthly meeting, if there were no reservations. The chair laid the guidelines for the meeting with Premiere scheduled at 6:pm and informed the members that he would accept questions from the floor, only pertaining to the Provincial jurisdiction.   Minutes of the previous meeting: Dr.Lamba moved a motion to approve the minutes of the monthly meeting held on April 16, 2007. Iraj Emad seconded it. The motion was carried.   Presentation by Hon: Dalton McGuinty, Premiere of Ontario. The chair welcomed Premiere Dalton McGuinty to the meeting and invited him to address the members of the NEPMCC. The Premiere made a presentation on the progress of his government to the Council followed by a question and answer period. Dr. Lamba, Srimal Abeyawardene, Iraj Emad, Alamgir Hussain, Trifon Haitas, Masood Manzoorzadeh and others participated in the roundtable discussions. The following are the highlights of the presentation and roundtable discussions. -Premiere McGuinty briefed the members on the progress his government has made in the course of three and a half years. He also mentioned the challenges facing the province in moving forward. -The Province made significant progress in the areas of health care, economy and education. -The number of students who graduate after five years in high school has gone up from 68 per cent in 2003-04 to 71 per cent in 2004-05. There are 6000 more students in the apprenticeship program. -14,800 more cardiac procedures since 2003 -The Ontario Government is not only measuring wait times, but it is bringing it down. -Wait times for elective by-pass surgery dropped from 30 days to 15 days over the last year; Wait times for elective angiography dropped from 23 days to 14 days -Added 7 new and/or expanded MRI services, replaced 7 old machines with new ones and replaced 31 old CT scanners 64 new ones -Wait times for radiation treatment are down more than a week – about 16 per cent. -Fought on behalf of new Canadians, negotiating the first ever Canada- Ontario immigration agreement, which quadruples federal spending on language training and settlement services over the next five years, from $819 per immigrant to $3,400 per immigrant. -$20 million for 35 bridge training projects to help internationally trained professionals improve language skills, prepare for exams and get work in their field -Launched www.OntarioImmigration.ca to help newcomers and potential newcomers obtain information -$130 million annually in newcomers services and programs; we are spending twice what the previous government did to help newcomers succeed -Doubled the number of training and assessment positions for internationally trained medical graduates: in the past two years, more doctors’ certificates have been issued to international medical graduates than to Ontario graduates. -Introduced a proposed acceleration of our plan to eliminate the capital tax -In 2004-05, the deficit was reduced to $1.4 billion — down from $5.5 billion -New initiative, Move Ontario, announced in 2006 Budget, puts $1.2 billion into transit and road and bridge projects -Secured the first new Greenfield auto manufacturing plant in two decades in Ontario; Toyota invests $1.1 billion in a new facility in Woodstock -Premier McGuinty is leading the Ministry of Research and Innovation created in 2005 to ensure Ontario is competing and winning in the marketplace of ideas -$2.1 billion annually announced in 2006 Budget to the Jobs and Skills Renewal Strategy to help unemployed, new Canadians, the working poor and social aid recipients -Almost 230,000 net new jobs since the Ontario Government was elected in 2003. -Added 3,000 megawatts of supply and advanced projects that will provide more than 11,000 megawatts of new electricity - more than any other place in North America and enough to power about five million homes -The Government of Ontario are committed to cleaner, renewable sources of energy having procured over 1,300 megawatts of wind, water and biomass electricity generation -Set a target to produce 5% of our electricity from renewable sources by 2007 and ten per cent by 2010, putting Ontario at the forefront in North America -Wind capacity is increasing from 14 megawatts when we took office in 2003 to 1,300 megawatts by 2008 -Launched a Standard Offer program to encourage the development of small, community-based generation projects from renewable sources -Ontario's Standard Offer program will generate over 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy over the next 10 years -The legislature recently passed Bill 21 -- The Energy Conservation Responsibility Act - the first of its kind in Canada -Smart meters in 800,000 homes and businesses by 2007. -Invested more in community organizations to help deliver services to various ethnic communities. The provincial grants were delivered to community groups with the idea of improving the cultural infrastructure in the province. Thomas Saras, the President of NEPMCC congratulated the Premiere on the progress made in the last three and a half years in the direction of social justice and equality. He thanked the Premiere for making this presentation to the Council despite his busy schedule. The Premiere thanked Thomas Saras and the NEPMCC for inviting him to make the presentation and promised to continue this dialogue and cooperation with the members of the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada.   Presentations by Jeane Augustine: The Hon. Jean Augustine, former Federal Cabinet minister made a presentation on the "Reflections on the 200th anniversary on the abolition of slavery. She also made a presentation on the fairness commission; an access and resource centre formulated to break down barriers for internationally trained professionals. Dr. Lamba, Srimal Abeyawardene, Alamgir Hussain, Milla Garcia and others participated in the discussions, which followed her presentations.   The following are the highlights of the presentation and discussions: -The 69th United Nations General Assembly marked 200th Anniversary of the End of Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. On November 20, 2006 the United Nations General Assembly designated March 25, 2007 as the "International Day for the Commemoration of the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade -Estimates are that during the 4 centuries of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, over 50 million Africans were forcibly removed from their homes and taken to the Americas to labour in sugar, cotton and tobacco plantations. -Commemoration of the 1807 decision by the British Parliament to abolish the slave trade, acknowledges that this trade in human lives is a crime against humanity and that the forced transportation of millions of Africans as slaves, among the worst violations of human rights. -This anniversary is a time to honour the memory of those who died as a result of slavery or who resisted enslavement, and to acknowledge that the legacy of slavery is at the heart of social and economic inequality and racism which continue to affect people of African descent. -The atrocities of slavery enrage us all. The stories of resistance inspire us all -We are also strengthened by those who stood up for what was right and fought for the abolition of slavery. -Ontario minister for citizenship and immigration, Hon: Mike Colle named educator and former federal cabinet minister Jean Augustine chair of the committee charged with overseeing the Ontario Bicentenary Commemorative Committee on the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. Leaders, academics and educators from across the province are among its 15 members. -Global Experience Ontario is an access and resource centre for the internationally trained professionals. -Global Experience Ontario can help internationally trained and educated individuals find out how to qualify for professional practice in Ontario. This one-stop centre offers a range of services for internationally educated individuals. -The centre provides information for people who intend to apply to a regulatory body to obtain licensure to work in their field. Knowledgeable staff can explain the process for licensing and registration in Ontario. -English and French services are available in person, by telephone and online. Staff at the centre also responds to information requests from prospective newcomers. The Chair thanked Jeane Augustine for making her presentation to the members of NEPMCC and assured all possible help in relaying this information to the respective ethnic communities.   President's Report/Discussions: -The President read the list of the new Board of Directors along with their portfolios. The final list would be emailed to all members within a few days following this meeting. -Sharifa Khan of Balmoral Marketing is working with the Federal Ministry to organize various workshops and educational sessions with members of NEPMCC. -The President informed the members that the minister of external affairs probably would meet with the Council by the end of June. -The Leader of the official opposition of Ontario, the Hon. John Tory, MPP would be the special guest in the next monthly meeting of the NEPMCC. Second guest the same day will be the Hon. Gerry Philipps, Minister responsible for the Government Advertisings. -The Prime Minister would meet with NEPMCC, sometime in July. -Alamgir Hussain, publisher of the weekly Shomoy, made a presentation to the Council on being nominated from NDP as a candidate for Member of Parliament for Scarborough –Southwest. He appealed for individual and moral support from the members. He promised he would provide all possible help to this organization if elected in the next Federal elections. -Milla Garcia, informed the members about a conference organized in Toronto to put pressure on Canadian and Japanese Governments to apologize and compensate “Asian comfort women", kept as sex slaves by its soldiers during the Second World War. A group called Toronto ALPHA - Association for Learning and Preserving the History of the Second World War in Asia - is, along with representatives of Toronto's Korean community and the Filipino community's Alliance for Social Justice, have organized this conference. -Srimal Abeyawardene paid a special tribute to his mother, in his publication and made a special mention of NEPMCC for the heart warming condolences sent by its members on the passing away of his mother. -Thomas Saras asked the special committee in Federal Advertising to make a pre-condition for receiving Government advertising that only those publications that have more than 51% Canadian content in their editions. He also mentioned that to be eligible for Government advertising, the publication should print at least 20 pages and should have no more than 60% of their content as advertising. -NEPMCC is working with a government agency to further develop the website of the organization. -The President will meet with the Secretary of State Multiculturalism, in order to discuss for one more time the government of Canada Advertisement policy. To this extend the President will travel to Ottawa by his own expenses. -Thomas Saras mentioned that the committee for organizing annual event would be formed in the next meeting and that it would be one of the items on the top of the agenda .in the next meeting. -The members of the NEPMCC were also reminded to submit a brief background of themselves and the organization, which would be published in the annual book.   End of Meeting: Iraj Emad moved a motion to adjourn the meeting and Dr. Lamba seconded it. It was carried by all. The Chair adjourned the meeting at 9:30 p.m. The next meeting would take place on June 11, 2007 at Queen's Park. The above document prepared by Neel Nanda, Secretary General of NEPMCC on behalf of the executive.