NATIONAL ETHNIC PRESS AND MEDIA COUNCIL OF CANADA
Conseil national de la press et des medias ethniques du Canada
Canada's Other Voices

December 10, 2007 Meeting Minutes
Queens Park - committee room # 230
The meeting called for 5:30

AGENDA

1.Welcome Remarks by the Replacement – Chair – Mr. Saras and call to order

• Mr. Saras taken place of Chair as our regular Chair is ill
• Meeting called to order
• Welcome remarks  by Chair
• Mr. Terrence Allen Resource Facilitator from Vocational Pathways Incorporated and Employment Strategies: working Solutions - introduced by Mr. Saras

2.Presentation by Mr. Terrence Allen - Vocational Pathways Incorporated

• Daniela Cristini - Programme Coordinator from VPI (Vocational Pathways Incorporated) introduced who is also present for presentation
• Funded by employment Ontario and Skills Development Unit of the Ministry of Training Colleges and Universities
  100% funded by government
• If someone approaches organization who is legally entitled to work in Canada that they are unemployed or working less than 20 hrs/week- underemployed
• The person sees a presentation – info session 2-2.5 hrs
• If they want they will come back to meet with case-manager to set-out achievable return to work action plan
• They have to do this before being sent for training or re-accreditation program
• Case-manager responsible to continue to work with them and follow up until client is no longer interested or received offer of employment
• Few people are out there that know that such services exists
• They are trying to identify ethnic groups within catchment area and retain services/ fee per service
• Daniel adds: because of geographic that we serve – there are a lot of ethnic communities – Vietnamese, Russian, Polish etc.
• Traditional mainstream advertising – such as employment news or Toronto Star and Sun are not reaching their clients
• Published series of articles – translated into Russian – about stories
• Serve youth, women – anybody who is underemployed or unemployed
• Received positive response from Russian community through Luba and has encouraged them to approach other Ethnic community groups
• Material such as postcards, pamphlets distributed
• Not limited to newcomers, anyone with a SIN can take advantage of these services
• The difference between this and HRDSC is that this can benefit those that have not collected EI before as well
• They can also provide services for those suffering from mental health issues or learning disabilities

Questions & Answers:

Massood: Do you have success finding them a job for foreign trained professionals
Answer: they can provide access to mentoring services with organizations like COSTI – job developers will also promote you, working with services that assess credentials
Massood: Do you have access to real jobs that people who come to yu can be connected to these real jobs?
Answer: Yes, we do – we are not an employment agency – we will identify what is preventing you from getting a job – we will serve as an intersection point to accessing other services such as wage subsidy or skills upgrade

Sima: Are you in a position to advocate for these who are facing barriers to accessing employment in their field
Answer; In North York Area – if you want to be accredited you must walk to our door – however, we do not do advocacy – as an assessment centre we are like a gateway – to refer to any appropriate government funded program

Iraj: ODSP, since 2005 they have stopped training
Answer: are you asking for continuation of training and support – there is a network of about 25 agencies that have been contracted to for training – there is some training through self-employment and EWI fund – SES network is the alliance that provides these services

Irene Keroglidis: What is the difference between you and an employment agency? Do you only service North York? Did you approach the North York MP?
Answer: We usually service the North York, there are a number of other assessment centres in other areas – we did speak to politicians from all 3 areas of government - Mike Feldman a municipal Councilor suggested a Link to Ethnic community

Mr. Saras: Suggests that members of Council give special rate for 1/4th of page – however Mr. Saras suggests placing a larger ad for the price of a 1/4th page

Daniel: suggests that the ad should run for a month to offer continuity – they had no expectations of getting a price at this time

Irene Keroglidis: suggests that we discuss this after the meeting and communicate later

Mr. Saras: At least 4 runs – weekly or bi-weekly – suggested by Mr. Saras
Mr. Saras will also forward literature about the work of Employment Strategies – he suggests that articles be translated and published
Mr. Saras also asks that photographs be forwarded through emails for those interested in running articles

3.Minutes Approved from Previous Meeting

• Mr. Zerehi motion to approve, Dr. Tajdolati seconded, all in favour
• Chair accepted vote to approve minutes

4.Reports by the President:

• Took 3 days to sign and mail holiday cards
• Everyone received the cards

4a. Survey and Educational Update

• Only 60 out of 500 people have completed the survey
• Certificate of retraining for journalist will be awarded by Sheridan College for those participating in educational sessions
• For the first time we are receiving some benefits from government – this is historic
• The monetary value of this program is very high and will benefit all members
  80 people had returned emails
• 3 people sent emails to surveyor saying they this organization is defunct – criticism is fine but should not be sent to the surveyor
• Please ask all other members to complete questionnaire
• Extending deadline to end of December

Questions regarding survey and Re-Training of Ethnic Journalists:

• Mr. Alemgir asked if we can we work with other educational institutions like Ryerson or UofT
• Mr. Saras responded that Sheridan College has received funding from government to provide retraining – UofT is asking for 3 times more money
• We need to wait for response from survey to decide what educational programs to implement
• People from across country must be able to access training – educational
• This organization has created history, we have been so strong
• Maryam Asks: is Sheridan using the same program that they already have, the journalism program?
• Mr. Saras responds this certificate or diploma will be condensed in 4 weekends – like the Canadian Labour Congress
• Maryam asks if this could end like the journalist in exile classes – which were cut short
• Mr. Saras responds we are paying Sheridan – for rent and cleaners
• Iraj asks if this survey is for only publications or freelance as well
• Mr. Saras responds every member should be able to respond
• Luba asks how can we be sure that Balmoral received the survey
• Mr. Saras says that if they did not receive survey they will contact you
• Sima commented that we should be sure not to misidentify members as belonging to certain publications if they are not from that publication
• Mr. Saras responded that disagreements so happen – please make sure to keep discussions to a civil and non-insulting level
• If you try to re-submit they survey it will bounce back
• The survey can be re-started from middle – can be done in a few sessions
• Mr. Alemgir did not receive the survey
• Mr. Saras says that this is a problem and collected the email to investigate
• Massood  asked that stats Canada report came from census – Toronto more than 50% of population has another first language other than English and French – as such Ethnic press is more of a focus to reach public at a fraction of the cost
• Shabnam asked how soon will we start the educational classes –
• Mr. Saras says that survey must be completed by end of year, phone calls will be made
• Surveyor and President will send report to government
• After that time Sheridan and other educational institutions will be asked to send info on cost of providing educational
• Likely by Spring – under April budget we will go ahead with classes
• Mr. Adurauvkivi wants to make sure we have space to ask for focus on how to generate funds for Ethnic press
• Mr. Saras suggested to add this to survey

5. Additional remarks about survey by President:

5b. Chair asked if questions will be weighed – response was no

• Sima asked if report will be circulated to members – response was no but it will be discussed and a top-line summary will be made to NEPMCC members
• Dr. Tajdolatti asked how electronic media will be categorized – response was audienceship
• Aaron Berhane asked if members were consulted on the survey questions
• Response was that elected executive was consulted on the questions

5.Annual Get Together on December 14

• Mr. Saras said Premier and wife will attend, Mr. Tory and his wife will attend, Mr. Rae or Ignatief will attend. Mr. Layton as well as the Minister of Culture will attend, Michael Chan Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and Mrs. Margaret Best will attend, Minister Phillips from the Ontario government will attend, and Jim Karyjianis will also attend
• Free entertainment will be provided by various community performers – music, dance etc.
• A committee was struck to organize this event – Irene and Luba will help organize – Irene will bring the centre-pieces – to help set-up arrive early at 4:30
• There will be a great deal of food – two pigs will be prepared – plenty of veggies will also be provided – Fish will also be provided – Calamari will also be served – Shrimp will also be served – Halal meat will also be available
• 4 cases of wine – good wine will be provided – half the wine was donated
• Entertainment will began from 8:30 – 9:00
• Daneille and Shabnam will handle the entrance table
• Niel will, Ahmad will also come early to set-up
• Each party will be presented with a gift

6.New Business/Motions:
6a. Save our Voice press conference Wednesday 10 am Queens Park Media Gallery

• Meeting was held last Friday Mr. Saras was invited, Shahrvand participated and will be there at press conference to speak
• Mr. Saras mentioned the work that NEPMCC has done on this issue including meeting with government representatives and need to fairness
• Previous Finance Minister promised change but resigned
• Mr. Saras called the Premiere and was promised changes – two weeks later a civil servant working on logistics of the issue – including the new Federal criteria
• Mr. Saras will be there and members are encouraged to attend
  

6b. Multimedia Email Scam - Nova

• This organization is sending email saying that they have been hired by government and will charge 30% commission
  Cossette media said they have nothing to do with this
• They finally sent an apology – saying that their message was misread
• Luba said she has been sent order with 30% commission deducted – she signed on many years ago
  Mr. Saras will update further later

7.ADJOURNMENT

• Irene motion to adjourn, Iraj seconded, all in favour
   
  The Next meeting is scheduled for Monday, January 14, 2007, Queen's Park, committee room N# 2, first floor, Please after 6:00 pm enter the building from the front south door, (next to the Main entrance of the building).