Minutes of the October 18 2021 Monthly Meeting
Minutes of the Monthly Meeting held on October 18, 2021, through video conference via Zoom
Present/Attendees
- Thomas S. Saras
- Neel Nanda
- Maria Saras-Voutsinas
- Rosemary Sadler
- Ricky Castellvi
- Jonathan Annobil
- Pooyan Tabatabaei
- Nishantha Don
- Lankathas Pathmanathan
- Linda Karuks
- Rue Hayer-Bains
- George Guzmas
- Serge Vankevich
- Roberto Hausman
- Arif Ahmed
- Fiza Syeda
- Denis Poirier
- Arash Kharabi
- Ragee Arasaratnam
- Lydia Sun
- Leila Monteiro Lins
- Jonathan Annobil
- Mohammed BagherSamimi
- Ali Mahmoud
- Mohammad Tajdolati
- Ghulam Rasool
- Anfisa Lyasota
- Ranjit Wicks
- Sandie De Freitas
- Norman Hart
- Kathy L. L. Li
- WaisPopalzai
- Teshome Woldramanuel
- Khalid Magram
- Mooka Tamil
- Bobby Wang
- Maria Swietoizacki
- Elizabeth Muzalc
- Mike Kolososki
- Joe Volpe
- Susana Donan
- Krishnalingan
- Khalid Menan
- Khalid Hamid
- Helen Wang
- Nagamany Logendralingam
- Hermie Garcia
- Mila Garcia
- Nawrin Farah
- Eugenia Bakchinow
- Elsayed Nasr
- MizhardBagant
- Cezar Bangu
- GezahegnMekonnenDemissie
- Saad Alsafar
- Rui Yang
- HaiTien Lin
- Kumanan Thnambi
- Kathy Wang
- Ernesto Donan
- Isa Melo
- ThavapalanKathiravelu
- Yuri Natchetoi
- John Saraidaris
- Said Henry
- Lui Queano
- Krinalingam
- Kumayan Thambi
- Najibullah Popalzai
- Hannan Mamun
- Nobodip News
- Ali Mahboub
- Mulugeta Zergaba
- Janusz Niemczyk
- Denis Brito
- Stensont A
- GeethaNangarajh
- Syed Irbal
- Mike Kolosowski
- Boddy Wang
- MuhacumadNaeemUl Islam
- Foe Jole
- ThanapalanKathivarelu
- DimitrisVohaitis
- DarilBrar
- Ahmad Rostamijam
- LalitThakar
- Lawrence Joseph
- Ronny Yason
- Khuvan Aftab
- Abdul Azeem
- Qazi AFRASIAB
- Nawrin Farah
- S Krishnalingam
- Shaiful Horn
- Ahmad Hotaki
- Thomas Galgor
- Sivamohan
- Kathy Gerasklis
- AthanasiosKourtesis
- KumananThambi
- Tamil Muraka
- Solomon Areinu
- Bety Glothai
- Salah Allam
- Stena Allam
- Elizabeth Muzale
Agenda of the day
- Welcome Remarks by the chair.
- Minutes of the previous meeting
- Presentation by Steve Del Duca, Leader of Ontario Liberal Party
- President’s Report/Discussions
- New Members/New Business
- Adjournment
Welcome Remarks by the Chair
Mohammed Tajdolati chaired the virtual monthly meeting and declared the meeting open. Pooyan Tabatabaei moved a motion to approve the agenda. Rosemarie Sadlier seconded it. The motion was carried.
Minutes of the previous meeting
Pooyan Tabatabaei moved a motion to approve the minutes of the previous monthly meeting and Yuri Natchetoi seconded it. Minutes of the previous monthly meeting were unanimously approved.
President’s Report/Discussions
-
- Thomas Saras welcomed everyone to the online monthly meeting of October 18, 2021. Mr. Saras informed the members that the LJI budget has been increased for the current year and for next year. He encouraged members that have not already done so to apply for funding. He also explained that the Internship Program will also continue, and we are currently waiting for approval. Once we receive the approval, members will be encouraged to apply. He mentioned that NEPMCC has received a number of applications on file and those that are approved will be funded once the program begins.
- President Thomas Saras thanked all the members who generously donated to NEPMCC. Although the industry and our members are struggling financially, he encouraged everyone that can do so to donate.
- Motion: There were various discussions on the floor for having an Annual get-together with Annual Awards in December. The dates proposed were tentatively for December 11 or December 18 depending on the availability of the banquet halls and public health guidelines. The price of the ticket was proposed to be $35 per person. A motion was on the floor on the above proposals and were unanimously passed to authorize the Office of the President to take appropriate decisions.
- Thomas Saras urged the members to participate in different projects that are available. If there is lack of adequate participation, the funds would go back to its source and in future the allocations of such funds could be limited.
- Members who wish to participate in projects undertaken by NEPMCC (other than the LJI) must be in good standing and abide by all the codes governing the council. They should also pay all membership dues.
- The President is in touch with Federal Government and Provincial Government for funding members of NEPMCC during the ongoing Pandemic. President is scheduled to meet with representatives of both Federal and Provincial Government to request more funds for the struggling ethnic media industry.
- President Thomas Saras continued to educate members on various projects undertaken by NEPMCC and especially on the LJI. President Thomas Saras informed about the local initiative program The Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) supports the creation of original civic journalism that covers the diverse needs of underserved communities across Canada. Funding is available to eligible Canadian media organizations to hire an unemployed journalist or pay freelance journalists to produce civic journalism for underserved communities. The content produced will be made available to media organizations through a Creative Commons license so that Canadians can be better informed. He mentioned under this program a publisher can hire qualified journalist or a journalistic student in the final year and get up to a maximum of $30,000 per year. He mentioned that the program has been highly successful. He hoped that the program will continue to receive funds in future. The program also pays for mailing expenses of the copies of the publication to remote communities and provides special prepaid kits to members participating in the program.
- 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 to one’s advantage to have it.
Presentation by Steve Del Duca, Leader of Ontario Liberal Party
Steven Del Duca thanked NEPMCC for the invitation to the monthly meeting and shared some of the new Ideas he had presented on the Annual General Meeting of Ontario Liberal Party. Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca has announced that if elected to the provincial government, the party will introduce preferential ballots and consider the possibility of a four-day work week. He mentioned that the four-day work week would only be pilot. In addition to preferential votes and a four-day work week, Del Duca has announced that he will bring back the Basic Income pilot project that the current Progressive Conservative government has canceled. In a preferential ballot system, voters use their ballot to select more than one candidate and rank the choices in order. Currently in Ontario, voters elect their representatives under the first past the post system, which means that voters vote for the candidate of their choice, and whoever gets the most votes win, even if they win less than 50 percent of the total votes. He mentioned that Ontario Liberal Party is going to introduce a new kind of politics, one that works for people, not against them
After his brief address he invited questions from the members.
Manan Gupta, Arif Ahmed, Mila Garcia, Maria Sweitorzecka and others participated in the discussions and asked a wide variety of questions on various important issues affecting the people of Ontario.
New Business/Discussions
Mr. Saras discussed meeting in person. He is hopefully that restrictions will be lifted soon so that we can begin meeting at City Hall again. We will continue to stream the meetings live over zoom for the members across Canada.
Maria Saras -Voutsinas updated on the various steps taken by NEPMCC to further the cause of the members. She mentioned that NEPMCC is working with industry partners to bring free newspapers under the Aid to Publishers next year.
Mr. Saras also expressed his hope that we will be able to host an Educational Seminar in 2022.
Adjournment:
Roberto Hausman moved a motion to adjourn the meeting and Mila Garcia seconded it. The motion was carried. The Chair Dr. Tajdolati adjourned the meeting at 8:15 PM. The next monthly meeting will take place on Monday, December 13, 2021, via Zoom.
The above notes from the meeting of September 13,2021 were prepared by Secretary General and Senior VP of the NEPMCC, Neel Nanda.