Islamic Banker, Photojournalist, Civil Rights Advocate, Torontopreneur
From Mondovile
Who will have the best social media strategy for the November 2010 Toronto municipal election? Mayoral candidate George Smitherman is laying low until spring; Rocco Rossi can’t decide whether to tweet under his partisan @liberalrocco handle or go for @roccothevoteTO; Giorgio Mammoliti promises a “no-nonsense campaign” that probably has no role for a Twitter [...]
In 2029, on the 40th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, we will look back and say, “Only Obama could go to Egypt.”
Tariq Ali answering a question on mobilizing for Civil Rights in the Coming Obama Era.
Bismillah. AsalamAlayKum, Peace and e-Greetings be upon you. My name is HiMY SYeD.
The National Post’s Dave McGinn writes about Torontopedia.ca, a wiki started by two Torontonians aiming to share stories & secrets about the city
Interest-free banking, Islamic finance, and takaful – the Islamic alternative to insurance.
Between what Toronto ought to be while watching what Toronto is becoming – Torontopia.
Capturing, describing and explaining to others what words often fail to do – photopia.
Himy Syed waits to light a candle for Jane Creba during a vigil he organized for victims of gun violence in Toronto, Monday January 2, 2006. Hundreds of people turned out for the vigil for Jane Creba, the 15-year-old girl gunned down in a brazen Boxing Day shootout on Toronto's Yonge Street.
By Anthony Reinhart
The Globe and Mail
Before he headed out to the Boxing Day sales on Yonge Street in 2005, Jeremiah Valentine ignored previous court orders and slipped a familiar item into his pocket: a fully loaded, snub-nosed .357 magnum revolver.
Because of that one decision, a 15-year-old girl named Jane Creba was killed, six more people were wounded and Canada’s largest city was plunged into a long bout of grief and rage over gun violence run amok.
On Monday, the 27-year-old Mr. Valentine stood in a downtown courtroom a scant six blocks from the scene of his crime and took responsibility for it. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Jane’s death and received an automatic sentence of life imprisonment. He can apply for parole in 12 years.
Asked by Mr. Justice John McMahon if he had anything else to say, Mr. Valentine replied, “No, your honour.”
Judge McMahon, however, had much to say about the “indiscriminate firing” that followed what court heard was a robbery attempt on Mr. Valentine as he shopped for shoes in a Foot Locker store. Two males approached him in the store, revealed handguns under their shirts and demanded the chain around his neck, defence lawyer Edward Sapiano said.
Mr. Valentine rebuffed them and the two went outside, where they waited and stared through the store window at him and his friend, Milan Mijatovic. Rather than wait them out in the safety of the store, the armed Mr. Valentine and his friend chose to go outside.
“As he left the store, Mr. Valentine held his gun in his hand, up his sleeve, so that only a part of the barrel could be seen,” Crown prosecutor Maurice Gillezeau read from a statement of facts agreed upon with Mr. Sapiano. Outside, a large group of men waited to the north of Foot Locker. Mr. Valentine recognized one and called him over to ask what was the problem.
“Are these your boys?” Mr. Valentine asked, “ ’cause these are my boys. And I have a .357.”
He waved his gun in the air, and when members of the other group drew their guns, Mr. Valentine fired on them. They returned fire, and within less than a minute, Jane, caught in the crossfire, lay dying from a single shot to the back. It had pierced her aorta.
As the young men all fled, Jane was rushed to a trauma room at St. Michael’s Hospital, where a blood-stained bullet fell to the floor from her gurney. Forensic tests were inconclusive, but suggested the slug “very likely” came from Mr. Valentine’s weapon, which was never recovered.
Judge McMahon said that while Mr. Valentine did not intend to kill Jane, his “callous disregard” in carrying a gun into a crowd of holiday shoppers snuffed out the life of a girl whose “only mistake was to believe she could go on a family shopping trip on Boxing Day” in safety. Her death, the judge said, “has irreparably damaged Ms. Creba’s family.”
They haven’t been able to sell the Metro Theatre , after a decade or so of trying, so why not spruce up the sign?
Torontopedia curator HiMY SYeD — who used the boutique area at the front of the 677 Bloor West building as his campaign office during a 2006 run for city council — snapped a TwitPic of restoration efforts atop the bijou once known for its “hot-hot -HOTline” where a sultry-sounding woman could hardly catch her breath whilst listing the titles of the latest XXX triple-bill.
These days — well, a charmingly naive female-written review of the premises on BlogTO this summer was followed in short order by an online NOW piece explaining that the old men shuffling around in their seats probably weren’t interested in her .
New York had a vacant Art Deco cinema called the Metro that is now an Urban Outfitters .
Locally, gentrification has a few blocks left to go before it reaches Koreatown .
By DON PEAT , SUN MEDIA
Even before the city has announced locations of temporary dump sites, residents are threatening to boycott and set up pickets at the dump sites.
Christie Pits residents told the Sun that if the park is made into a temporary dump site, as is expected to be announced this afternoon, they’ll do whatever they can legally to keep the Pits from filling up with garbage.
"I think it’s a reasonable thing to voice our opposition in every possible legal way," resident Boris Steipe said. "If CUPE can picket transfer stations, I think we can picket here."
Temporary blue fencing has already been set up around the park’s outdoor hockey rink, a tell-tale sign of one of the coming garbage drop off locations that have sprung up across the city overnight.
Friends of Christie Pits say the decision stinks, especially after watching the 2002 strike ruin the park with piles of garbage from the 16-day city strike .
Group member Himy Syed started [promoting] a petition earlier this week to urge city council that parks should not be used as dumps . That petition garnered hundreds of signatures and received support from residents living around other parks in the city. The initial protest prompted a city cleanup of garbage left in the park from the weekend and illegal dumping on Day 1 of the strike . Read the full story »
Updated: Fri Apr. 10 2009 5:54:20 PM
Toronto Fire crews battled a fire near Bloor Street West and Ossington Avenue. A spokesperson says the blaze isn’t officially under control, but has been beaten down.
"I imagine they’re still going through some smaller locations in the building and knocking down any further fires," Capt. Adrian Ratushniak told ctvtoronto.ca on Friday around suppertime.
He said that the fire’s address is being reported as 804 Bloor St. W .
Firefighters ascend to the roof of the Bloor Street blaze on Friday, April 10, 2009. (Himy Syed /Special to ctvtoronto.ca)
However, eyewitness Himy Syed told ctvtoronto.ca that the blaze also affected 806 Bloor St. W.
He described the location as being just west of Crawford Street on the north side of Bloor, a location just west of Christie Pits Park.
Syed had been returning to his Shaw Street home from taking photos at the annual Good Friday Way of the Cross procession in Little Italy , "when boom — three-alarm blaze."
Ladder trucks were dousing 804 and 806, which house an Ethiopian restaurant and a small radio repair store, along with residential units on the second and third floors, he said.
Syed said he saw firefighters toss a microwave oven out of the restaurant.
He described the second and third floors as "all gone."
About 20 to 30 people were gathered on the street. A few were crying and some held a few bagfuls of belongings, he said.
"It looked to me like they just grabbed whatever the hell they could" and then gathered on the south side of Bloor to watch the blaze, Syed said.
The 804 building appeared to suffer the worst damage, he said, adding, "it’s a real big mess."
Ratushniak said there are no reports of any injuries.
"We arrived to find flames visible and thick black smoke," he said, adding it got bumped up to a third-alarm fire .
Web Links
Special to Globe and Mail
December 20, 2008
When Torontoist announced it was going dark , a catfight broke out over the domain name Torontoest. One group , started by Torontoist contributing editor Jonathan Goldsbie on Facebook , called for a new site capturing the old site’s zeitgeist.
The other party was web designer Himy Syed, who registered the domain name for $13.50 and slapped up a splash page saying Torontoest.com would launch this past Thursday.
Mr. Syed wanted to include stories in Mandarin and Hindi and segments dubbed the Scarboroughest and North Yorker. But yesterday, Torontoest featured little beyond a legal warning from Torontoist’s parent company. So, what’s really happening? Two new blogs will launch in the New Year: Mr. Goldsbie’s resurrection project and Mr. Syed’s new city blog, T. , "The website for the ‘est of us," he said.
Nadja Sayej interviewed me some time ago about TheStoreFront Community and today her article appears in The Globe and Mail.
…Unlike most businesses, the StoreFront is a social enterprise – a community-driven business model that would rather see its neighbourhood shine than rake in the big bucks. The window reflects that: The mask and flowers are from the recent Night of Dread parade; the photos are winter shots of Dufferin Park in the 1920s."It’s a blog," says Himy Syed, a self-proclaimed "Torontopreneur" who uses the space, "showing what’s going on in the neighbourhood right now."
The StoreFront’s director, Ghazaleh Etezal, 22, explains. "It’s not a non-profit and it’s not an organization," she says. "It’s an open rental space and network hub dedicated to building community in whatever form. I want to get people together."
The StoreFront has been a hit at hosting creative events. The garrulous Ms. Etezal led a graffiti walk through colourful alleyways on Sept. 20; just this Monday hosted an Alchemy Art Jam, during which garbage, broken telephones and iPods were tweaked into art….
You can read the rest of Nadja’s complete article here: Social enterprise, with a twist .
Something to keep in mind as you wind your way watching The Santa Claus Parade .
Pedestrian Sundays Kensington Market
Earth! Global Harvest Traditions
Toronto Ontario Canada, Sunday September 28 2008
I love the Emma TeRa labyrinth at the intersection of Baldwin and Augusta. The square design and the beautiful straight lines makes me think of a traditional maze they used to build in Europe, with the high hedges.
The yellow and orange colours emphasize the design and make it look so pretty, The Egyptian-like hieroglyphics in the middle must have a mystical meaning, I think something to do with 2 different times coming together, as depicted by the egg timer-like shapes And the repeating star shape at the top has a vibrating merkaba look, maybe it means that if we walk this labyrinth we will be transported to a better time.
I hope so.
Thank you Himy for creating this memory for Emma. She lived on this street and would absolutely love it too.
She was a person who loved people and wanted to find a way for them to come together with art as a theme.
With this beautiful cube-like design on this busy intersection, where people come together all the time, you have helped make her wish come true.
The day you worked so hard to design, paint and create this labyrinth, I walked through this puzzle and when I arrived in the centre, a woman and her daughter approached me and told me I should now give thanks for everything I am grateful for, and then I should walk out the same way as I had walked in.
On the way in I should have some intention or question on my mind and on the way out I should have the answer.
This woman told me she was a shaman.
The fact that I met her in the centre where she gave me guidance was magical in itself. I took the answer to be that my daughter Emma is still here and involved with life.
Thank you Himy for your kindness and artistry, I’m sure you make a lot of people happy with your labyrinths all over the city.
– Edwina Frankford
Dressed in Prsoners costumes, these two musicians captivated many transit passengers with their Banjo and Guitar Bluegrass music at the TTC ’s busiest subway station interchange, Bloor-Yonge Station.
By HiMY SYeD
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA – It is Registered Retirement Savings Plan – RRSP – time across Canada, and for investors looking for tax sheltered income devoid of Interest, that means attending a seminar by brother Jaafer Syed of No Interest Investments Inc .
Jaafer Syed has hosted annual educational seminars on Islamic Investing for the past decade at masjids, universities, public events and Islamic Centres across Canada.
HiMY SYeD Toronto Ward 19 Trinity-Spadina .
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