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An Open Letter to the Members of the Hellenic Community

February 6, 2019


An open letter to the members of the Hellenic Community

The goals of the Hellenic Community of Greater Montreal are to enrich and unify the members of our community, by bringing them together, responding to their needs and strengthening our bond.  These are fundamental to our day to day operations.

With these goals in mind – to unify us, to respond to our needs, and to strengthen our bond – on Monday, February 4, the HCGM extended our hand to a few members of the community who challenge the strategic direction set forth by this Board of Directors in the hopes of greater collaboration and to further ensure the prosperity of the HCGM. Our community is divided, and this must end.

Our objective at this face to face meeting was to realign and move forward in a peaceful and united manner with the best interest of the Community at heart.  We discussed the petition, the rights and obligations for a general assembly and the audit committee.

Our position is as follows:

  1. The HCGM is not opposed to a general assembly initiated by members, if requested in accordance with the Community’s bylaws.
  2. the current administration is committed to having a legitimate audit committee in place and are actively working towards that goal.

At the end of this meeting, we committed to providing a statement about the GA and the audit committee in the next few days, as a meeting of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors will need to be called.  It saddens us that those who challenge us have failed to honour the terms of our alignment to keep this out of the public eye while we worked to bring a peaceful resolution to this conflict.  We will nonetheless honour our commitment and towards this end we have called an Executive Committee and Board of Directors meetings for this Friday, February 8 to make our statement.

We would also like to make it clear to the media and to all the members of our community that, with respect to the letter published in TA NEA TIS EKMM on January 25 and the press release dated January 30, we regret the tone used in both communications. What we hoped would be firm and definitive, came across as defensive and arrogant. That was not our intention and for that we offer a sincere apology to all the members of our community.

Additionally, we would like to remind everyone that the employees of the HCGM are neutral and non-partisan and serve under the direction of the President, the Executive and/or the Board of Directors.

The current administration has been, is and remains dedicated to ensuring a sustainable future for our Community and to safeguard it from uncertainty and instability. It is this core mission that drives every action and decision of the Board of Directors.

Our schools, churches and community centres are our shared patrimony and all have an obligation to ensure their existence for the generations to come.