On May 9, the Greater Toronto Area Liberal Caucus saluted CEMA with a reception at Monte Cassino Place. The event, hosted by York–South Weston Member of Parliament Alan Tonks drew a number of Liberals from the area, including Senators David Smith, Art Eggleton and Lorna Milne and MPs who were former cabinet ministers, Judy Sgro, Maria Minna and John McCallum.
CEMA Chair Madeline Ziniak thanked the caucus for recognizing the important anniversary of an organization that had an all-inclusive policy of welcoming members of print, electronic and internet media and sought to form a bridge between all Canadian communities.
Ben Viccari, CEMA president offered the association’s condolences on the recent passing of Carlo Caccia, MP for 36 years, an early champion of environmental issues who became Minister of the Environment. Caccia, he said, epitomized everything that was admirable about immigration and citizenship: a successful engineer with a good business future dedicating his talents to an ideal and entering politics.
Also present among the Liberal representatives was a former media colleague, Laura Albanese MPP for York South –Weston, a vigorous supporter of ethnic journalism and former host of OMNI-TV’s Italian language Noi Oggi.
