By William Doyle-Marshall
Sara Singh, Deputy Leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party congratulated Thomas Saras, President of the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada and his team for their efforts in keeping unity alive in Canada. The occasion was the council’s year-end Christmas get together at which unity emerged as the main theme for the evening.
Beaming with pride at the turnout Saras says the 2018 year end Christmas get together was very successful. He told the gathering of members and guests, it was an occasion to celebrate “our humanity” and ignore those who want to keep Canadians apart.
He regretted that 98 media colleagues lost their lives and 251 others around the world are in prison. Thirty percent of them are being punished for reporting what politicians claim to be false news and 70% are accused of writing articles against their government. Saras was pleased that in Canada journalists are free and they have the ability to be critical of government. “We feel free,” Saras remarked to the applauding gathering.
Kathleen Wynne, Member of the Ontario Parliament for Don Valley West, accompanied by Michael Coteau (Don Valley East) thanked NEPMCC for keeping the multicultural press alive.
“Your role is even more important than it was last year. Diversity is our strength,” she emphasized. Wynne reminded the assembly there are forces saying immigrants are not welcomed and they would love to divide Canadians here but she stressed “Canada is a welcoming shore.”

The former Premier of Ontario acknowledged that the work of the NEPMCC demonstrates how multiculturalism works and stressed the need to focus on what “brings us together”.
Robert Oliphant, Member of the House of Commons also regretted that there are movements stirring up negative images against immigrants. Referring to them as people on the far right who are telling newcomers to Canada that they are less valuable, the MP appealed to council members for help to ensure that “that dialogue is not carried any further.” Referring to new Canadians, Oliphant added “you have every right to play an important role in Canada”.
Daniel Bernhard, representing Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, informed the gathering that politicians who say that journalists are the enemy of the people and are causing trouble, are very wrong. Bernard noted no matter where NEPMCC members come from, “you have the right to do what you do.”
All the members of the council came out to the year-end event and Saras was pleased that among them were media practitioners from the western province of British Columbia. Saras said NEPMCC membership across the country are involved in newspapers, magazines and broadcasting operations. He considered their large presence as an indication of the power of the organisation. “It shows that the industry or sector are very strong,” he said in an exclusive interview.
The NEPMCC is now associated with the Canadian National Media Council – which represents the so-called mainstream media (English and French). “Together have about 850 member publications and about 150 radio and television all over Canada. We are the official voice of the ethnic press,” Saras disclosed.
During 2018 Saras reported that he appeared three times in the Senate of Canada and once in the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Media where they discussed a series of upcoming events. Reflecting on meetings with Ottawa politicians, NEPMCC President proudly acknowledged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announcement that the Government of Canada is putting aside $600 million in kind and in money for the press of Canada.
“The good thing is that we have been also included in this program and I am expecting sometime after the 15th of December to be called for the first meeting because the government, in order to avoid the wrong impression decided that this amount is going to be administered by the industry. The politicians will not interfere,” he disclosed.
Part of this programme, Saras explained, is $50 million which has been set aside for five years – ten million a year. “This is something that I hope is going to be really serious. With this $10 million we are going to split among our members, according to the size of the publications and how many years the publications have been around in circulation. This is going to be distributed among our members,” he added.

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