Canadian Heritage Committee on May 10th, 2016

[Thomas Saras]

Sir, my magazine has been publishing for 50 years. Being the president and CEO of this organization, I never applied to receive any subsidy or any help, because I believe there is a conflict in being the president and at the same time asking for benefits for your own publication. My publication suffers because of that, just to bring that to your attention.

The second thing is that my publication is a totally Canadian publication. It is doing exactly the same job as any other publication. If you think that because the other one is printing in another language it should get the benefit of a million dollars and I should be left to die, I believe that you are seeing this country in the wrong way.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

No, that's a good point.

[Thomas Saras]

I have 800 members and about 103 different languages and tongues, and every community wants to survive. It is a matter of pride for them—

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Yes.

[Thomas Saras]

—to show that they are strong, vital communities, so we have to support them.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

That's good.

The situation of journalists has changed. There isn't a paper in this country that doesn't use a freelancer every day, so you're right, Mohammad. I know guys who blog and who have more followers on a blog than some newspapers in this country do. That's the reality of this business.

To use the word “journalist” is fine, but the editorial boards in this country—we were going to talk a little bit about this, but I ran out of time—are where this needs to be harnessed, right? Because I can steal from this freelancer, you're doing a story here or you're doing a story there, you bring it in, and then we do the editorial board. I would say that the editorial boards in every ethnic newspaper in the country are probably more important than the journalists.

I would like you to comment on that.

[Dr. Mohammad Tajdolati]

Let me tell you a bit about the reality of many of the ethnic media in the different communities. We have some examples here. The most important example is a very tiny monthly publication that has 12 pages. That magazine is produced by one or two people. There is no board of editors. They can't apply for professional journalists. They produce everything they can with the very little time and energy they have to produce some news for their community. This cannot be compared to the big media and their boards, etc.

You are right, though, that times have changed. There is digital media now, but the majority of the ethnic media addresses to new immigrants. New immigrants are the parents. They are people who have a very strong connection with their home country and their culture. They need to know how things are going in their homeland.

This is not about the second or third generation of immigrants. They have every new device to connect to everywhere. This is a different tool. You also have to consider that reality too.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

I'll turn it over.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Mr. Maguire.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Thank you.

I had a question with regard to your UN committee work, Mr. Saras. You said there's no official recognition for being a journalist and that sort of thing. Do you believe there should be some kind of training or some kind of other development status?

[Thomas Saras]

We are doing that. We did that already in 2009 and in 2013. We organized educational seminars with Seneca College in Toronto. About 350 members from all over Canada attended. We had about 15 academics from the School of Journalism at Ryerson University, York University, the University of Toronto, and the School of Journalism of Seneca College. We are planning to do another one again this year. We are doing our best.

The only problem we have is trying to make sure that the members are spending their time and energy in supporting and reporting on Canadian affairs and not only on the affairs back home. I agree totally with Canadian Heritage the majority of the content of the newspaper, 70% of it—it was 50% until now, but I told them at least 70%—should be Canadian content, which means that if you get a penny, that penny should be given to Canada. It should be left to Canada.

I would add something for my colleague. I want to remind him that in being the publisher of an ethnic publication, you're the journalist and the distributor; you're doing the artwork and the printing; you're moving here and you're moving there; and you're going to get money. You have to make sure that everything has been done by you. If you miss something, you lose.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 25 seconds.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

The small amount of funds you get must be just a fraction of the cost of your operations. Can you give me an idea? Is it 2% or 3%?

[Thomas Saras]

Of what...?

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Of your costs of operation, the amount of money that you get from the government.

[Thomas Saras]

From the government, I get less than 2%. For the last three years, I haven't received a penny.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

As a follow-up, what do you rely on and why are you so successful?

[Thomas Saras]

I rely on my supporters, on the members of the community, and, as Dr. Tajdolati said before, my pocket. My wife and my kids know the cost of producing a newspaper, because we are cutting from there to produce the newspaper.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much, Mr. Saras.

Now I go to Mr. Nantel for the New Democrats.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Saras, I do not know if you speak French.

[Thomas Saras]

Yes, I speak French.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Okay.

First of all, Madam Chair, I gathered that the committee was probably going to continue its work in camera. Whatever, I hope that, if possible, we can debate our motions in a public session. That would be more transparent.

Mr. Saras, I have visited your organization's website and I see that a very large number of people from a variety of ethnic communities sit on your board of directors. That is quite impressive. You bring together almost all the communities that make up the new population of Canada. Your desire to handle Canadian news in the language of each of those communities is truly admirable.

Am I wrong to say that, apart from a few radio stations, most of your activities involve the print media? If government assistance were renewed, are you hoping for a new form of assistance, different support? If not, do you want, for example, the subsidized postal rate to be brought back? Structured assistance could strengthen the online presence of your publications and your articles. What kind of assistance do you think would be most constructive?

[Dr. Mohammad Tajdolati]

You know, it's a little bit of everything. Most of our members are print media. Some have websites that do not work and that are not at all up to today's realities. It is fashionable for a newspaper to have a website, but there is no comparison between the content of a newspaper and what is online. Newspapers do not always have the ability or the energy to adapt and to reproduce their content online.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Do you think—