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       |             THE MONTREAL GREEK TIMES GOPHER NEWS SERVICE             |
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                                      March 2020                               
       
       Greek Community of Montreal laid off Social Services workers at time
       deemed Essential Services
       
       
       The Government of Quebec declares ESSENTIAL SERVICES that
       must be open, AS PRIORITY 1:
       
       1\. "All occupations in the health and **SOCIAL SERVICES** network".
       
       The Board Directors of Hellenic Community of Greater Montreal has shut
       down the Social Services department, in a time needed the most, and
       contrary to Government guidelines. HCGM Blocks social services workers
       computer access, contrary to Government recommendations that employers
       should allow employees working from home.
       
       The «raison d’être» of the HCGM is to provide Social Services to the
       community. In this crisis lots of citizens depend on social services to
       assist them and support them through this hardship.
       
       Furthermore, the Social Services department is Government funded and
       salary is subsidized by the Government, yet, the HCGM sends these
       ESSENTIAL Social Workers home to collect Unemployment Insurance.
       
       "What a sad state of affairs! The Social Services of the Hellenic
       Community of Greater Montreal should have ramped up its much needed
       essential services as required by the government instead of shutting
       them down. Our elderly population needs now, more than ever with this
       deadly pandemic, a life line in their own language. Instead of
       eliminating staff they should have added staff (perhaps from other
       departments such as teachers, etc) to answer questions and give
       directives through a Hotline. A Hotline announced through our mass and
       social media. The HCGM's raison d'etre at this time of COVID-19 fear and
       uncertainty should be comforting our most vulnerable citizens." said Dr.
       Theodore Halatsis, president of the Canadian Hellenic Congress.
       
       Meanwhile, the HCGM kept their Public Relations department to
       produce clickbait amateur videos on fαcebοοκ with unnecessary
       content which is already produced by professional broadcasters to
       serve our community at large.
       
       Pursuant to the Government of Quebec, Public Relations Operations are
       Non-Essential Services, and must cease operating. On the other hand,
       Professional Media and Broadcasters are Essential Services. And here we
       have a situation where the HCGM closed a Top-Priority Essential Service
       (Social Services dept.) and kept a non-essential service (Public
       Relations dept) to produce amateur content already being served to the
       community by Professional Media, overtaking Essential Services, at the
       expense of top-priority essential services.
       
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