Meeting Minutes - Jul. 11, 2005

Minutes of the monthly meeting held at Queen's Park on July 11, 2005 Present: Thomas Saras Neel Nanda Eva Wasda Srimal Abeyawardene Maxwell Wynter Clyde McNeil Luba Cherny Hassan Zerehi Anne Dawson Kenrick Bobb B. Ubale Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed Shah Hotaki Iraj Emad Massood Mashadi Hasan Yilmaz Sunny Sang Ned Blair Sybille F.Reintmeister Majid  Johari Josivaldo Rodrigues Abdul Rahim Cindy Gu Danielle Zhu Mohammad Tajdolati William Doyle Marshall Malkom Kliff John Saraidaris William Doyle Marshall Emmanuel Ayiku Emily Mills Cindy Gu Aris Babikian Teshome Wordemmanuel Tanya Nutal Absent: Elizabeth Wolski J.O.Maharaj Mona Feng   Special Guest: Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair   Agenda  1. Opening Remarks by the Chair  2. Remarks by the Police Chief, Bill Blair  3. Minutes of the previous meeting  4. President's Report  5. New Business  6. End of meeting   Opening Remarks by the Chair: The Chair, Clyde McNeil welcomed Chief Bill Blair to the meeting and invited him to address the NEPMCC   Remarks by the Police Chief: Toronto Police Chief, Bill Blair thanked NEPMCC for the opportunity provided by the Council to reach the members of the organization. He introduced Mark Pugash, Director of Corporate Communications, Toronto Police Service, to the Council. The highlights of his remarks were: -The role of NEPMCC as a facilitator to reach out to various communities, working together with the Toronto Police Service to ensure that Toronto remains a safe and livable city. -Developing a mutual trust between the various communities and Toronto Police Service -Toronto Police Service is encouraging recruitment among youth from the diverse community in the city. -Members can contact Mark  Pugash, Director of Corporate Communications Toronto Police service to seek any additional information on the various programs launched by Police Service. -The importance of filtering out information, made available by the Police Service catering to a specific community was also mentioned.   Following his opening remarks he welcomed questions from the members of the NEPMCC. Clyde McNeil, Thomas Saras, Dr. Ubale, Srimal Abeyawardene, Masood Mansoorzadeh, Kenrick Bobb, Malcom Cliff, Sybille Forster-Reintmeister Rosavildo Rodriguez, and other members asked a wide variety of questions ranging from -The ethnic relations squad -Racial profiling -Unsolved crimes -Investigations carried out by the SIU -The percentage of visible minority officers in the present squad -Ability of the Police Service to prevent an unforeseen situation like the 7/7 London bombings   The Police Chief candidly answered questions on all of these issues.  The highlights of his responses were -The present percentage of visible minority officers in the Police Service is around 13-14% and the last recruiting class had around 40% coming from various ethnic communities. -The officers belonging to the visible minority groups provide a great value to the force and have a positive impact in the  understanding of various cultures. -The Toronto Police Services is equipped to meet any unforeseen incidents with its highly trained personnel and takes the highest precaution to prevent any incident that endangers the safety of the public, but it is almost impossible to guarantee that the bombings which shocked London recently won’t be repeated in Toronto. -Racial profiling is totally unacceptable with more emphasis given to operate in a bias free manner through community outreach programs and a number of other ways to eliminate bias. -75-80% of the homicide cases have been successfully solved while the success rate of break ins and robbery cases is much lower -The ethnic relations’ squad is being restructured under the Deputy Police Chief. -The Police chief is the chief for all the people of Toronto: “ no one left behind.” -Approximately 85 % of the complaints against the Police officials are treated informally (to provide timely and good customer service) and only a small number of complaints are thoroughly investigated. -Independent body investigating Police complaint must have the skills and resources to carry on the task. -Good working relations is important between the SIU and the Toronto Police service to properly execute any investigation. -Six consultative committees exist in the Toronto Police to reach out to various communities.   Thomas Saras, President of the NEPMCC promised all possible help to the Police Chief from the Council in order to make this city as safe as possible. The Chair, Clyde McNeil thanked the Police Chief for his time and welcomed him to make a presentation to the Council whenever he feels necessary to do so. Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said he enjoyed meeting with the members of the Council. He sees this as very much the beginning of a process of working together to reach out to all the communities of the city. Minutes of the Previous Meeting: Kenrick Bobb moved a motion seconded by Hassan Zarehi to approve the minutes of the monthly meeting held on June 13, 2005. It was carried.   President's Report/Discussions: The summary of the President's Report is as follows: -The office of the Lt. Governor suggested Thursday September 15 as the date available to host the annual award giving ceremony. -Due to the efforts and negotiations of the President with the Ontario minister for Government Services, Gerry Phillips and with other Ontario Government officials, effective September members of the Council would receive Ontario Government ads twice every month. -The President negotiated with the responsible official of OLGC to get more advertising for ethnic media. -The President met the Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan on the morning of July 11 and discussed increasing the percentage of federal Government advertising in ethnic media to around 10-15% of the total Government budget for their campaigns in the media (This meeting took place at the offices of the Federal Government in Toronto.) -NEPMCC will have an extra table and more chairs at their reserved booth in the "Word on the Street Festival". -NEPMCC would host cultural shows on Friday Saturday and Sunday of the Labour Day weekend. Each show would last for around 45’ minutes. -The President would distribute CNE passes to only those members who would be present during the functions hosted by the NEPMCC.   Business Discussions: Numerous discussions on a wide range of topics took place. The highlights of these discussions is as follows: -Luba Cherny is primarily responsible for organizing the functions at the CNE. Any ethnic group that wants to participate should contact her. -Cindy Gu and Emily Mills, would take turn to be present on the days the functions, that are hosted by the NEPMCC at the CNE. Luba Cherny would be present on all the days. -Massood Mansoorzadeh negotiated with the management of "The Toronto Star" which would enable ethnic language newspapers to be distributed along with the weekend edition of the Toronto Star. The ethnic publications would have to supply their copies to Toronto Star who will distribute them to their respective ethnic readership.{free of charge) -[Motion] Srimal Abeyawardene moved a motion and Sybille Foster-Reintmeister seconded it to accept nominations of awards from the electronic media. It was carried by all. -On the suggestion of Sybille Foster the venue for President's BBQ was put to vote. The vote decided that the President's BBQ would take place in a farmhouse north of Toronto (belonging to friend of Sybille) on Saturday August 20. -There was a general agreement that members attending the President's BBQ would contribute $10 and confirm their participation by July 31. -The following members volunteered to form a committee to organize the President's BBQ. They were Kenrick Bobb, Sybille Forster-Rentmeister, Aris Babikian and John Saraidaris. -Emily Mills invited everyone to re-launching of her website Gypsy Co-op at 817 Queen St West on August 18. -Ned Blair organized a forum with visible minorities on cancer in collaboration with the Canadian Cancer Society on 23rd April at the L'Oreaux Church in Toronto. -Nominations committee has received several nominations and will make their final decision after going through the due procedure.   End of Meeting: Srimal Abeyawardene moved a motion and Hassan Zerehi seconded it to adjourn the meeting. It was carried by all. The Chair adjourned the meeting at 9:00 p.m. The next meeting would take place on August 8, 2005 at Queen’s Park.   The above text of the minutes have been prepared by the recording secretary of the NEPMCC Neel Nanda. The text has been edited by the President Thomas S. Saras