Ontario/Vincies let down by President

29.AUG.08

Editor: As an Ontario SVG National and the Public Relations Officer of The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Association of Toronto, I feel somewhat compelled to clarify to the SVG Diaspora the reasons for the shortcomings that caused the small turnout of Ontario Nationals at the presentation session of National Economic and Social Development Plan for St. Vincent and the Grenadines.{{more}} An article in another newspaper from 2008/08/14: “Toronto Vincies discuss Development Plan” necessitates a clarification to this embarrassing scenario.

Over the years, The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Association of Toronto has been recognized by the SVG Consulate Office as the main organization within the Ontario Diaspora, and has been used as the foremost source in dissemination of information to the Toronto and area SVG community. For that purpose, the current President of the Association kept a close link with the Consul General, and for some projects represented the community; similar to her role in this National plan presented a few weeks ago with only about six Ontario Nationals in attendance.

The President, at more than one Executive meeting between May to July 2008, did briefly mention her involvement with some projects within the Consulate and said that she would provide information on the projects at a later date. However, she only sent notification of the subject session to the Executive on August 6th, 2008, the said morning prior to the presentation.-The notification read:

“Hi All,

Please note that the Planning Information Session hosted by the Consulate Office will take place today Wednesday, August 6 at Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen Street, Committee Room #1 from 6:00 pm – 9:30am.

Francelia”

I have since confirmed that the President had flyers given to her by the Consulate office for distribution at the Unity Picnic of July 19th; but for unknown reasons she refused to circulate them at the event. It was also recently brought to my attention that the meeting location at the Toronto City Hall was also booked by the President, an administration process that required pre-booking. This indicates that the President had all the required information, but for reasons still unknown she chose not to inform the SVG Toronto community.

It is interesting that the Consul General gave the information to our Toronto President and our Montreal and Winnipeg counterparts at the same time. But unlike Toronto, our Montreal and Winnipeg counterparts were each able to have impressive turnouts.

SVG Nationals in Toronto and surrounding areas in Ontario are usually always delighted to be made inclusive in decisions, especially on Economics and Development for our Country. It is unfortunate that the Ontario Nationals have been deprived from participating in such an important initiative of our homeland. Now many are furious, having missed the presentation and dialogue on the future of our homeland.

Elma Gabriel