Minutes of the Monthly Meeting held on May 11, 2009 at Queen’s Park

Present:
Thomas S. Saras
Asha Rajak
Jan George Frajkoc
Neel Nanda
Sunil rao
Clyde McNeil
Alexander PolishExpress
Mark Wang
Rob Andregevich            City of Toronto
Ivy Lee
Bahram Bahrami
Hassan Zerehi
Aref Mohammadi
Allen Zhen     Epoch Times
Irene Keroglidis
Dr. Khan Khoda  Daisy TV
Muhammad Ali Bukhari
Danielle Zhu   NDTV
Dumitru Popescu
Raina Sen
Ranbir Chauhan             South Asian News
Srimal Abeyerwardene   Sri lanka Reporter
Luba Cherny                     Canadian Courier
Andrei Mazuruc
John Saraidaris
Saeed Soltanpour  ITC TV
Marek Goldyn                       Polonez News
Andrzej D’ Bursiak
Ranjir Wicks
Priyanac Wicks
Janara Wicks
Taha Hassiani                Taha Publishing
Aaron Berhane
Ned Blair
Tanas Yovanovski        Makedonija
Ara Tir Arootunian        Toronto Hye
Logan Logandrian          Uthayan
Zavan Abdulalah
Feweysoon Rahmani
Moorthy Sellathurai
Meghan Abeysinger    Dasatha Publication
Gommini Abeysinger
Velupillai Ashogan   Kathiroli Publications
Zana  AbdullahAbeysinghe  Gamini               Dosatha Managine
Hai Tien Lin     Chinese Canadian Times
Susana Donan  El Centro Americano
Suleyman Guven
Mila Astroga Garcia
Hermie Garcia       Philippine Reporter
Ahmed Shah Hotaki
Wiiliam Doyle Marshall    Indo Caribbean World / Alo Radio
Rajasekar Anthiappan     Thaiveedu
Thirunathan      Kathitou
Rev. Rajapandian Paulkraj      Kathironi News
Yanus               Estonian Life
Nassim Daneshvar
Syleyman Guven
Mohamed Tajdolati
Niaz Salimi
Bahram Bahrami
Ranjit Wics
Emmanuel Ayiku
K. David Lim
Kevin Wang
Hossein Pourhaider
Luba Cherny
Dumitru Popescu

Agenda
Welcome Remarks by the Chair.
Minutes of the Previous Meeting
Introduction of Hon: Michael Ignatieff
Questions and Answers
Introduction of Rob Andrusevich (City of Toronto)
President’s Report
Reports from the Various Committees
New Business (Motions)
Adjournment

Welcome Remarks by the Chair:

President Thomas Saras chaired the first half of the meeting and welcomed the main speaker of the meeting Hon: Michael Ignatieff, Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of Opposition in the House of Commons.

Introduction of Hon: Michael Ignatieff:

President Thomas Saras welcomed Hon Michael Iganitieff to the monthly meeting as the key note speaker. President Thomas read out the introductory of Hon Michael Ignatieff leader of the opposition in the House of Commons.

Michael Igantieff began his address by thanking the President of NEPMCC to give him the opportunity to open a constructive dialogue between him and the council He stressed on the important role members of NEPMCC play in informing and enlightening the Canadian audience. He mentioned that he does not like the word ethnic as much as we are all Canadians. He said he wants to say things that unite us rather than divide us. He does not want to play the politics of divide and rule. He then invited questions from the floor. Many members participated in the question and answer session.

Suleyman Guven, Ahmad Shah Hotaki, Srimal Abeyawardene, Clyde McNeil, Aaron Mefith, Logan L, Sunil Rao, Muhammad Bukhari, Dr. Khan Khoda, Nasim Daneshwar, Danielle Zhu,Bahram Bahrami, Bhaskar Sharma, William Doyle Marshall, Danielle Zhu, Gerald V Paul, Moorthy Sellathurai, Fereydoon Rahmani, Mila Garcia and other members extensively participated in the question and answer session.

The following are the highlights of the session.
We’re facing a transformation of the Canadian economy unlike anything in recent memory, and that means unfamiliar challenges. We have to meet them in a way that sets a positive course for Canada’s next decade, without letting any Canadian slip through the cracks.

We can’t have any illusions about the enormity of the task at hand. But we can be certain of our collective capacity to succeed and to recover.
There are three principles that I believe must guide our recovery—

Fairness, responsibility, and independence.
Fairness means keeping people working in every part of the country. It means protecting the most vulnerable in the depths of the crisis and along the path back to prosperity. Fairness means a national strategy to create affordable housing so that young families can start life in their own place; so that young professionals can find affordable rentals; so that low-income families don’t face the nightmare of homelessness. We can do this. But it will take a national housing strategy.
Responsibility means that our generation has to pay its own freight—we will not burden our children and grandchildren with a legacy of debt and deficit. 

Responsibility is also about seizing the advantages that we already have at hand. Our people speak every language in the world. Their family and business networks give Canada a unique business advantage in the emerging markets of Asia, Africa and Latin America. We must mobilize these communities, as our bridge to these markets, as our ambassadors, as our trade representatives so that we can increase the percentage of Canadian trade that goes to these growing markets.

The 21st century may share its pre-eminence with China and India, Europe and Russia. Canada must diversify its inward and outward investment. It must diversify its markets, just as it has diversified its identity. Diversity is our strength as a people. Let’s make market diversity our strength as an economy.

We need to build on our diversity and improve our export performance, by unleashing the linguistic and cultural know-how of our multi-cultural communities. .
Here at home, independence means not waiting for the Americans but coming up with Canadian solutions for a greener, more competitive auto sector.
Developing an energy strategy that unites the country, in every region, to make us the most efficient, most sustainable users of energy in the world. Recession must not divide Canadians. We must not pit winners against losers, those with jobs against those without; regions with hope against those that are struggling.
We need unity—now, more than ever.
We need a government that can unite the country around a compelling vision of nation-building.
When asked about LTTE and the conflict in Sri Lanka, he firmly said that LTTE is a terrorist organization. Liberal Party is very clear that there should be an immediate ceasefire and the killing of innocent civilians should stop. We are the only party that wants to expedite the refugee applications.  The demonstrations by Tamil groups at the Gardiner were dangerous both to the demonstrators and to the public. We are trying to hold the Government accountable so that they are engaged in rehabilitation of civilians that have been affected by the conflict.
When asked on the Liberal policy on Afghanistan, the Liberal leader said that we will maintain Canadian presence in Afghanistan by maintaining developmental, peaceful presence to stabilize Afghanistan, far beyond 2011.

Foreign policy – Recession has taught us over dependence on Americans. We need to engage more with China, India, Russia and Brazil and the EU. It is very important to have an independent foreign policy; we have very deep economic ties with Caribbean countries .Canada can be a part of a solution where problems in Cuba are resolved in Cuba and not Florida. We have not nearly done enough to develop our relations with India. Our foreign policy should reflect the diversity of the country.
Public Service Commission should be implemented to actively recruit diverse people in the Government workforce.
When asked about the rekindling within the Liberal Party, the Liberal Leader mentioned that he does not think any party should have a monopoly unless they work hard We have to work to get any  trust and support. This Government underfunded our diplomacy. We need to invest in our foreign policy. We want a foreign policy that has the best and brightest from our diverse communities.
When asked on improving the working conditions of live in caregivers, he is open to explore the idea of giving them equal footing as immigrants in order to help prevent any abuse by employers.
When asked about the foreign policy towards the Kurdish region, Igantieff mentioned that substantial oil exploration in Kurdish region is done by some Canadian Companies. We want the Kurdish region to flourish respecting the sovereignty of Iraq.
On human rights in China he mentioned that there is good progress of human rights issue in China, some issues still remain to be addressed... We have to talk with Chinese diplomats. We do not want to do anything compromising the territorial integrity of China. We can have a good and productive dialogue on these issues with China, none of these implies that we have the trade hostage while we work towards making human rights progress in China.
When asked about talking or having a dialogue with conflicting groups, he maintained that the message is same for all groups regarding a particular issue. He will speak the same language in the church as I will speak in the Gurdwara or the Synagogue
 He firmly said that he cannot compromise this country’s support to the democracy of Israel and the same time we are committed to the creation of a Palestinian State.
When asked to comment on the changes in the citizenship act prohibiting children of naturalized citizens living abroad to apply for citizenship, the Liberal leader firmly said that we should not accept a two tier citizenship for Canada.

President Thomas Saras thanked the Liberal leader for sharing his thoughts with the council.
There was a photo session with the members after the question and answer period.

President thanked Ian and Kathy Lin for their generous contributions to the council

Introduction of Rob Andrusevich:

The regular chair of the meeting Clyde McNeil took over the proceedings and welcomed guest speaker Rob Andrusevich from City Hall. Many members participated in the discussions. There was a wide range of topics from advertising to events organized by City Hall. The guest speaker encouraged members to communicate any relevant information to his office and he would inform the members of any upcoming events at City Hall.
                             The chair Clyde McNeil thanked the guest for his time and answers

The chair welcomed the next guest speaker Llyane Stanfield to address the Council.
The speaker made a presentation on MOTIVIS and EEIFA on the “Night Out” ARTS FESTIVAL, starting with the Russian Night Out. The speaker candidly answered all questions and encouraged the members to attend the festival.

Minutes of the previous meeting:
Irene Keroglidis moved a motion to approve the minutes of the previous monthly meeting held on April, 2009. Srimal Abeyawardene seconded it. The motion was carried.

Matters Arising out of the Minutes
Muhammad Ali Bukhari pointed out that his name was misspelled in the minutes.

President’s Report:
Speaking on the agenda Mr. Thomas S. Saras, brought a motion to the floor that due to heavy agenda of the day and the number of presentations made for almost three hours, the attending members are tired and therefore he asked the members to accept the postponement of the remaining items of the day for the next month’s meeting to be held on Monday June the 8th, 2009. The chair placed the motion to the floor and the members accepted it.
Presidents Report was postponed therefore till next monthly meeting.

New Business:
Ned Blair discussed the possibility of inviting leadership hopeful of the Progressive Conservative Party in the next meeting. He also suggested that members of his committee exchange contact details after the end of the meeting.

Adjournment: Ned Blair moved a motion to adjourn the meeting Srimal Abeyawardene seconded it. The motion was carried. The chair adjourned the meeting at 9 pm. The next meeting would take place on June 8, 2009.