MAY 2020
VOLUME- 2, ISSUE- 10
CONTRIBUTORS
AMARINDER BHINDER
VARUN DESAI
FREDERICK HALLEY
TONY MCWATT
EDWARD NORFOLK
PHILLIP SPOONER
CURTIS WILSON
PHOTOGRAPHY
LYNETTE BALRAM
GRAPHIC DESIGN
PREEMA GRAPHICS
The coming month of June now seems likely to provide answers to two very interesting developments concerning Canadian cricket. The first of these will be about the commencement of the 2020 Domestic Cricket Season following the effects of COVID-19, The second will be in regards to the scheduling of the 2020 Cricket Canada Annual General Meeting.
As the photo on the adjacent Contents page illustrates Canada’s cricket fields have remained empty since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic! Not unlike other sports across the world the COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread cancellation, and a high degree of uncertainty as to when cricket matches of any sort can resume. Several Canadian provinces have however begun to remove their respective COVID-19 restrictions so there is now justifiable optimism that during the coming June month, Canadian cricketers will be advised as to if and when their playing activities will be allowed to be resumed.
As reported by CanadaCricket.Com of far more immediate concern will be the scheduling of Cricket Canada’s 2020 Annual General Meeting. Cricket Canada’s 2019 AGM was held on May 25-26 in Montreal and this year’s had been reportedly tentatively scheduled for early May, prior to the on-set of the pandemic. Since then there has no official word from Cricket Canada as to the status of this year’s AGM. As CanadaCricket.com has correctly indicated however, Cricket Canada’s Constitution & By-Laws does place some restrictions on the board with regards to the scheduling of its Annual AGM. The most relevant of which are as follows:
• The Annual Meeting will be held within fifteen (15) months of the last Annual Meeting but not later than six (6) months after the end of the Corporation’s preceding financial year.
• Meetings by Electronic Means – A meeting of Members may be held by means of telephone, electronic or other communication facility that permits all participants to communicate adequately with each other during the meeting, if the Corporation makes available such a communication facility.
• Notice will include the time and place of a meeting, the proposed agenda, reasonable information to permit Members to make informed decisions, and shall be given to each Member entitled to vote at the meeting, the auditor, and the Board, by the following means: a) By mail, courier or personal delivery to each Member entitled to vote at the meeting, during a period of 21-60 days before the day on which the meeting is to be held; or b) By telephone, electronic or other communication facility to each member entitled to vote at the meeting, during a period of 21-35 days before the day on which the meeting is to be held; or c) By posting on the Corporation’s website not less than thirty (30) days prior to the date of the meeting.
• Elections may be conducted by electronic/online methods.
• Fiscal Year – The fiscal year of the Corporation will be January 1st to December 31st, or such other period as the Board may from time to time determine.
CanadaCricket.com’s analysis of Cricket Canada’s apparent AGM conundrum goes on to assert that with the Organization’s 2019 fiscal year having ended on December 31st last, the AGM must in fact now be held prior to June 30th. This would also require notice of the AGM having to be posted on the Cricket Canada Website by June 1st.
Finally the CanadaCricket.com report concludes with the suggestion that it would be “interesting to consider what happens if the board of Cricket Canada does not meet its self-imposed deadlines on calling a meeting. They would, at that point, not be in compliance with the Canada Not-For-Profit Act, and thus subject to the Remedies, Offences and Punishment section of that act!”
An extremely interesting June month does now indeed loom ahead for Canadian Cricket!