Paul Nguyen

Paul Nguyen grew up in the Jane-Finch community and continues to live there as of 2018. Paul, an award-winning community activist and journalist, launched Jane-Finch.com in 2004. The goal of the site is to create a better understanding and appreciation of the Jane-Finch community by sharing its cultural and historical beauty.

Can you please tell me about yourself?

Ok I’ll just give you the basic… so I was born here in Toronto and grew up and lived in Jane-Finch most of my life. I’m still here. My parents are boat people – so that slang means they left the Vietnam war and they were refugees, and they came over here with the wave of most Vietnamese, like in ’79 or ’80. And then, so they raised a family here because housing was cheap at the time, and I think there is a lot of Vietnamese in the area as well. So, I just grew up here as a normal Jane-Finch kid, my best friend’s a Black dude – go figure, right? And so, I guess, yeah, I went to York as well, I went to all the schools around here…and after I graduated (from) York I created a website for fun called Jane-Finch.com and it took a life of its own. I didn’t settle to be an activist or anything although a lot of people kind of refer to me as that. But initially I just did rap videos for my friends and one of them went viral. This is before YouTube existed. It went viral, it was on T.V, and then people in the community heard about me and they’re like ‘ok you have this platform’ and they advised me that I should use it to do something good. So, I started learning about the social issues, and I was always into video, so I thought ok maybe I’ll be like a storyteller in a way – but I’m not an expert in any of these issues; the housing, the poverty, the violence, this and that, so I’ll just use my talent which is like being the video guy and using the internet telling these stories and spreading it out there. So, then it grew from there.

What year did you start?

I started the site in ’04… I was curious about Jane-Finch myself, so I went on Google, and I googled it and there was nothing existing, there was no official source, so I thought maybe it was time to do something like that. So, I did it, and then by accident it caught fire and it grew pretty fast in the first year. We were all over the news, and when anything seems to happen people always call us up. So, we’ve been through all the issues; the summer of the gun, and all the things that you can imagine, right? And even CBC contacted me a long time ago, and they wanted to do a documentary about kids growing up and the challenges that they faced so we made a video with them in 2006. It’s a documentary, I can send you the link I think it’s somewhere online, a documentary… it’s about 40 min long. It was mostly about, you know, thug life… stuff like that. So that’s a resource that you can access. And I also things like, have you ever heard of a show called Goldhawk live? It’s like a public affair show on Rogers. So, they usually do it in Rogers studios but they were doing a special on Jane-Finch so I was like, ok – I helped them and said why don’t we come and do it here, at Yorkwoods public school. They did a live broadcast, so they brought the trucks there, the host, I was on a panel with Dwight Drummond, the MPP, the city counsellor and Sabrina from my website, so we were just talking about Jane-Finch; its history and about the next 50 years or something like that.

When you started the website, Jane-Finch.com, did you have an intended audience?

I guess it was me. I just wanted to learn about my ‘hood and show off some of the videos I made. But then a lot of people in the community reached out to me, like Sabrina Gopaul – she’s like a resident and she went… she took journalism at Humber. I actually bumped into her at the mall one day, and she was like ‘hey! I heard about you. You know you should do some positive news, I can help you with that.” I was like ‘what?’ At that time, we were just doing gangster rap videos. So, I said ok, and afterwards I just brought my camera and she told me about all these issues and community events and I started just filming it. I thought this was good because we can give a counterpoint to like the mainstream news. Because if anything happens, they always come here… the gun violence, the shootings, whatever, so we started covering like the positive stuff like community events, the fairs, the tree plantings – all the weird stuff that you can think about. So, it was a way to show the people… Jane-Finch… a different side that they’ve never seen. They always see about the shooting on the corner and whatever, right? But they don’t see that oh there is a lot of cultural events. There’s people of different colours getting along, doing different stuff together, a lot of positivity and a lot of talented youth – they’re not all gangbangers, right? So, I just wanted to show the reality, my reality of Jane-Finch, and I guess it included a lot of different perspectives.

You said you started off by creating rap videos. What motivated you to start there?

Rap videos? Because I was at York, I was in the film program, so I wanted to do an easy project… I was looking for some guys in the hood to do music videos with and then I just did it for fun. I’m interested in rap stuff, right? And then I did a video with this guy and it blew up for some reason and it opened a lot of opportunities. So, it was basically just a school project that went out of control.

That’s a whole other story unto itself. So, the video went viral – remember there’s no YouTube, no Facebook, no Twitter, it’s 2004 – so people are emailing a little video around. Luckily, I put my website logo at the end and then somehow it went viral around the world and some Asian guy, he’s a producer for Global, saw it in Vancouver and then he thought there was a story there. So, then he called me on my phone and then it took us actually six months to get it on Global National because of so many things that happened. The reporters changed, the story – it’s not breaking news… at one point the reporter was going to do the story but then the Pope John Paul died, so she had to fly to Rome to do the story, so we got pushed back. I never thought it was going to get done. And I never had dreams of being on the news or anything. So, but once we were on it crashed my site because it was national news, right? It was the last story of the whole program. So that really put us on the map and a lot of people started calling us for all kinds of stuff. Anything Jane-Finch related, they just call us because we were so visible at the time. So, it opened a lot of doors, and I got a lot of guys in the hood on T.V and giving their perspectives on whatever issues it is, and we finally had a voice from the streets represented in the media. And not just the community leaders – it’s always the church guy, the pastor, this guy/that guy. Now we’ve got some grimy dudes with some grimy histories, but they still are very articulate, they have a very valid point of view, and I basically help bridge those guys with the mainstream press. So, it’s good to have that.

What was the video about?

This Asian guy rapping – it was about race. Well, people interpreted it as race. But for me it was about an Asian guy rapping about being proud about being Vietnamese etc. and then he had a confrontation with some Black fellas, so it was about that. For people in the hood, they watched it and they loved that because seeing an Asian guy rapping was kind of cool, right? But then people, you know, outsiders who don’t understand like… white folks were like ‘this is racist, this is this and that’ but none of my Black friends complained about that so…you have to think about racism. How do people view things and who is it coming from?

What’s your perception of mainstream media?

Well back then, I mean, especially if you’re a kid growing up here, I don’t think we payed attention to the news as much because we were worried about our little lives – young people don’t pay attention to the news. But as you grow older you hear about what other people feel about the neighbourhood and you start to buy into the hype. So, you start to go ‘yeah, maybe I am living in a dangerous place. Like I didn’t realize it but maybe it’s not so great’. So, you start buying into the hype, but then me, as a person who is frequently dealing with the news, and actually making friends… I’ve been burned before, and people twisting the story and manipulating and all that stuff. And while making some friends in the news and understanding their business and their side of things, we have to understand the opposite side and realise that they’re doing their jobs and if there’s a shooting they have to come down and do it, and if there is a positive event maybe they can’t afford to come down and do it because they can’t afford the air time and all this stuff right? So, I think it’s to understand, and also if you want to promote positive stories you have to know how to market it as well, you can’t just except the news… it’s not a service, they don’t have to provide positive news right? It just depends on whatever the audience is watching. So, we are also responsible for consuming and demanding what we want to see on the news and in the media. And I think what we’ve done successfully at the website is to make boring or mundane things more interesting. So, like a tree planting – put a spin on it. Or how to promote something… the local elections, something like that. So, we always try to put a little spin and try to make it attractive enough that mainstream eyeballs pay attention. So, it has a little bit to do with marketing, selling stuff and knowing how the press works.

What do you mean by ‘putting a spin on it?” Tree planting, for example, how do you spin tree planting?

So that...we made a vide about that. It just shows people you wouldn’t expect, the public wouldn’t expect to be taking the time to be concerned about their environment, their backyard, planting trees for the future in Jane and Finch in conjunction with the city counsellor. You see a little Asian kid, Brown kids, Black kids and their elders, so it’s kind of cool, kind of different. Because people, when they have a perception of Jane and Finch they just think it’s all buildings… gangs on every street corner and cops everywhere, but it’s not like that – it’s a normal community. We have community farms, tree plantings, we have parades – kiddie Caribana, I don’t know... there is so much stuff going on here.

Do you think that if Jane-Finch was not as a racialized community as it is, would the coverage be the same as it’s been?

If it was a White town? That’s a big question. Because that doesn’t just speak to the outlet, but that speaks to the reporter. I mean if there is a little white area of town and there is a big serial killing, they’re going to come there for sure. And I don’t think it has to do with race, because we do have high crime rates here. And also depends on the reporters understanding. So, someone like a Dwight Drummond who grew up here, he’s a Black dude, so he’ll come at it from more of a fact point of view. Where as some people, maybe if they’re White and grew up in an all White neighbourhood doing their stories here, they might not have that much of an understanding growing up because they didn’t have that multiculturalism growing up and being surrounded by that. So, it depends on the reporter’s perspective. And uh… I don’t know if it’s because it’s you know, more racialized, I would hope not. But I would say I don’t think it’s race, depending on the source it’s a lack of understanding. So, they just dealt with their own communities, whether it’s all White or all Chinese or whatever, that’s all they know. They’re not going to know how these other guys think and operate how they feel. They’re not going to have that understanding. I mean it’s not just White people by the way, I mean I have Chinese friends – they’re from China, they just come here, they don’t know anything about Black people. Because there it’s all Chinese, right? So, people do have their prejudices or misunderstandings and their misconceptions and that’s why we have things like my website and other people just trying to share their stories and try to create a better awareness. On my website we have all kinds of peoples, talking about all kinds of stuff- whether doing it through art or articles… for me it doesn’t matter what colour they are or what sexual orientation, we try to promote everybody. And even, I don’t necessarily agree with some of the messages, but I feel like I don’t have a right to censor them, and I do want to embrace divergent viewpoints. So, I’m just a guy – I’m just a conduit, I’m not like ‘pro-this or against that’. If these gangsters want to say something… if the cops want to say something, then let’s go say it. And then you can discuss in the public forum, you know, your points of views and we work towards a solution.

What are some of the barriers or challenges you face doing media work?

It depends…it depends what and when, so like are we selling a story, are we covering a story, and what time and what topic it all depends. So, for example, today, if we’re talking about 2018, media is suffering. The rise of fake news, also people don’t trust the media as much and also most sources are independent and online so traditional sources like the Star, Sun, are not as, I guess, influential anymore … cable TV and all that stuff, so I guess, it depends. I would say back then, it might have been an easier sell saying I have a Jane-Finch story, people would be more interested in it. It depends on what outlet, it’s such a big question.

Let’s take it back to around the time you started the website, 2004, Sabrina Gopaul came on board, when you started doing that was there any hesitation or ‘nah, I don’t want to read those things’, anything like that?

Well for me, the positive news was never like a big winner in terms of like internet views, but I felt it was important to keep it going. It was supported by the rap videos because there was so much intense attention and interest in like the rap stuff. So, it would score like hundreds of thousands of views, the local videos might get a thousand views, it’s painful but you know we are doing this on a volunteer basis and I make sure that it’s part of the identity of the site. We advocate for these issues and showcase them, even when no one’s watching – I mean sometimes there might be the 5 or 10 people that find it useful. So, for example, someone, I think it was a former resident or former teacher sent me a lot of materials from the 80s – she did like a report on Jane-Finch and all that stuff. I scanned everything. It was a pain in the ass, I didn’t think anyone was watching it. I put it up there, ok… whatever. In five years later or something, some teacher at Westview found these documents and did a whole project with this class and reached out to me. I was like ‘holy shit you actually read that stuff?!’. I didn’t think anyone read it but someone had value in it – even if it was years later. They invited me in to speak to the class and all this stuff and I found it very… that was worthwhile. You know… it was a lot of work.

What would you say has been the response over the years to Jane-Finch.com?

Response to the site? Umm in the early days we were driven by… we were popular because of the rap stuff. So, a lot of young people would reach out to us – either they want to get into rapping or I had a lot of emails back in the day from kids from around the world who would ask for help with their homework, or they have relationship projects or family problems. And I also got this anonymous cheques and stuff. I remember this clearly - I got a letter in the mail, in my P.O. Box, it was a $1000 cheque and a guy just had a note saying, “use this to do some good”. And I was so conflicted, I was like ‘what am I supposed to do with this?’ because when I do my site there is no funding, I never sold advertising – it was never to generate money. I was like

‘f--k, what do I do with $1000?’. And I don’t want to blow it on no pizza party either, right? So, I thought ok, he said he wants me to do something good with it, so I invested it in equipment; microphones and stiff that we can use that will go towards the site. So, I bought some equipment and its nice knowing it touched people on that level. Because to send $1000 to a complete stranger… especially to some guys in Jane-Finch [said jokingly] – actually when I think about it, I didn’t realise it… that’s funny. It’s like a big gamble… but he believed in us and all these years later we are still kicking around and doing videos and stuff. Its very nice, it was a nice gesture and it gave ema lot of motivation to keep going and even though it’s very costly in time and energy, but you know I attracted a lot of volunteers and we all worked together with the same mission, so it feels good.

What changes have you seen in the community in regard to media; so how it’s covered or how community produces their own media?

Ok so back in the day we were the only voice because there was no Facebook, none of that. And it was a one-way conversation we were generating. Now I think it’s been more democratized because of social media; it’s free and accessible, anyone can shoot their videos on their iPhone and edit on YouTube and so everyone has the opportunity to have a voice. Back then we were just helping everyone else amplify their voices. So, the conversations have shifted greatly, and I think it’s for the better. It also creates a long of garbage on the internet but whatever… there is still people that care and share their stories, and it’s putting the power in the peoples’ hands. So, it’s not just relying on that one Toronto Star reporter or that one CityTV guy, now anybody can be their own reporter. And earlier on I wanted to prove that when I started interviewing like celebs for my website. So, I decided to – I asked Maestro, he’s a singer – a rapper. Maestro Fresh Wes – he was BEFORE Drake by the way [said while speaking into the recording]. This guy named Maestro – google him. Anyway, he was Canada’s biggest rapper at the time. So, I had his contact, I bumped into him a long time ago and said, ‘hey I’m doing… do you wanna interview for my website, I’m starting this new website.’ So, he came down to Jane-Finch by himself and we filmed it in my friend’s basement. That’s how cool this guy was. So, the lesson from that wasn’t just to have a celeb on the website, it was more to show the kids who were watching ‘hey you can be your own reporter’… you don’t need to be a CBC you can be some guy from the ‘hood, find those guys, invite them and you’ll be surprised! They might just show up and talk to you if you have good questions, if you’re not asking them nonsense. We asked Maestro like, how’d you get into the music? What’s your advice for other people who want to pursue their dreams? He had a lot of life lessons, this guy is a really smart guy, right? So, we do that just to show that you can be – doesn’t matter where you come from – you can be whatever you want to be. You can be a reporter, you can be an activist, there’s no need to wait, you can get engaged right away. So, we did a lot of that over the years.

You kind of answered this but I am going to ask it anyways: where do you feel you or your work has had an influence?

So, I mean sometimes I bump into some… ok so random thing, I had this guy who just got out of jail for something (I don’t know what he did) because my cellphone is on the website… I was like ‘whaddup, who’s this?’ he said he just got out of jail… some of the music on the website really helped him through the hard times… I was like ‘holy shit’ so I just talked on the phone to this random guy for an hour. So that was one memory. You know, a lot of people reach out to me – students, I’ll help them with their projects about Jane-Finch whatever. Some of them went on to become TV producers and stuff, so they would invite me back onto their show to do interview segments which is cool. So, it’s like they remember, after they make it. Also, you know, some of our volunteers went on to win big awards or scholarships and stuff so it’s always been worth it. Another story is that some researchers from the Netherlands, some University of Utrecht or something… anyways Netherlands, they contacted me, and they were doing a project about diversity. There were preparing a report for the United Nations. First of all, I was like ‘how the f--k did you hear about Jane-Finch and second, where the f--k is Netherlands… I gotta Google that shit’. But yeah, they came down, the researcher came down, I think it was a master’s student or whatever… I helped connect them and the year after they had a conference and they invited me to go to the Netherlands, I went to Rotterdam that was where the conference was. Visited Amsterdam for a day – didn’t smoke – just went there to visit… I’m not into that stuff, but there’s nothing wrong with it and it’s going to be legal in October something. We met all kinds of people; reporters, researchers, students, random people on the streets, making friends with people I normally wouldn’t make friends with. Guys from the ‘hood who are into music, who have challenging pasts but now want to go the right paths, were brought together through art making, video making. I was always an introverted and shy guy, so the website happened at the right time for me and everyone else around me. So, I was lucky. Otherwise I would never have my own voice. And I always encourage kids saying you don’t have to be the loudest, most charismatic person in the room, you can still have a voice but maybe you find it through different means whether it’s through Twitter or Facebook or Instagram… whatever the hell it is. Everybody’s voice matters so you don’t have to be the loudest.

Do you go around and talk to kids regularly?

Yes, I do a lot of speaking – people invite me. I went to Montreal to speak… Calgary… some youth groups, one was a random weird one… It was in Regina, Saskatchewan. A group of government workers – they’re called the Saskatchewan Visible Minority Employee Association… and my best friend moved to Regina, so I was like ‘yup, I’m gonna go!’ …free trip! But they had us speak to their group and even in Regina they have issues. Their goal is to kind of have ethnic minorities represented in government. Their goal is to get 5%. I was like laughing out loud, I was like ‘are you serious?! So, 95% is all one group?’ So, I was like yeah that’s pretty goddamn sad. But it shows that, you know, the website, people have heard about or it reaches them, and people feel comfortable contacting me and they want to get a Jane-Finch guys point of view. And it’s not just me, I always encourage my crew, the volunteers … ‘hey you can go speak’ I might not be the expert, so maybe you can go ask this other guy or this other girl. It’s like a platform for us to get our story out there whether through video or speaking events or TV interviews or research projects, there’s all kinds of things we can do.

What keeps you going?

I’ve always been interested in stuff that’s going in the community and I think more young people should engage and disengage from their Xbox and their PlayStation and Instagram and all the nonsense in the world – I mean, that’s for fun but it’s important to know what’s going on in your backyard. It’s also very helpful from a professional perspective – you can network, you can learn new skills, you can learn new issues it will help you with your school, it will help you with your work, and expand your vision and you’re not just worrying about material things and stuff. There’s lots going on in your own backyard that things need to get taken care of; the trash, stray cats… there’s all kinds of stuff. So, for me, personally, I’ve always been interested in… the last thing I filmed was the provincial debate thing. It didn’t get many views but that not the goal anymore. The few people that do watch it that can’t make it to the event, I think that’s helpful. And for me, that like you know a few hours of my time. You know, some people have fun playing video games, but I enjoy filming the thing and putting it online and getting some feedback. Hopefully I can find new people to continue that journey.

What else do you do when you’re not doing this?

Well I have my fulltime job which I won’t say but I’ve been having a fulltime job since the beginning. So, people assume that ‘Jane-Finch’ is my fulltime job but it ain’t. It’s my fulltime volunteer gig. Which gives me more stress and pain then my actual daytime work. But it’s worth it because I’ve gained a lot, I’ve been able to learn a lot, connect with people, grow my profile, be in a position where I can help other people grow their voices which is the most satisfaction I receive. For example, my brother’s friend who’s a Black guy who lives around here – he was drafted in the Argos. He played for the Argos, the Toronto football team, and they won the Grey Cup. So, he called me and said ‘yo man, I can have the cup for one day, what should I do?’ and I said f--k just come here and I’ll connect you… maybe you can talk with some schools and I’ll try and get your ass on TV, I think it’s a good story… I felt like it was interesting. So, I connected him with the local city councillors. He went to go speak at Elia (Middle School) and Jeffreys (High School) and we took pictures on the corner, got him on Metro Morning and CBC News, great photo op! And it’s not a win for me or a win for him, but a win for the community because they see a young Black guy who’s a very talented athlete who won a championship, bringing it to the frikken corner of Jane-Finch… random people getting off the bus are like ‘what the hell?’ they don’t even know what the Grey Cup is, but they just want a picture anyways. So, I think we increased the moral and showed that Jane-Finch has winners. That was the goal of making the story. And for other people to see, like outsiders are like ‘oh shit, there are some cool cats there’ and also for the young people living here, who want to aspire to become an athlete or to do something with their lives, there are examples right here in your own backyard, you don’t need to look to Kanye West or whatever. We’ve got a lot of local people like Dwight Drummond, now my friend Jamal Campbell, a lot of local Jane-Finch people that can serve as role models. And that was recent, it’s on YouTube I can send you the link to it, it was a good story.

What do you want people to know about Jane-Finch?

It’s more than what you think. And not just that community, but it can be any community or any person. Don’t approach it from a standpoint of fear of the unknown and get rid of your prejudices and your stereotypes. Experience it first hand before you judge anyone. Me as a, you know, I’m not Black but I’m still a person of colour, I still face some racism and discrimination. Not on the same level as my friends for damn sure, but I do experience it here and there, and sometimes it can be a barrier like socially and also professionally it can be a barrier because you’re not – people don’t look at you with the same degree of credibility. Some people, even… they just have these assumptions. So, they ask me what’s my name, and I say ‘Paul’ and they say, ‘did you say Phuong?’ Did I not just say Paul in clear English?! I was born here, right, but they still have that assumption that you must have an Asian sounding name or whatever. Hopefully to make a better world we understand and embrace each other, and I know no one is perfect – you might have your little prejudices inside whether you’re growing up or the kind of neighbourhood you grew up in and your understandings but it’s always good to try and keep an open mind and learn, get to know the other person – you might actually like it! It’ s like food; if you’re just eating the same thing all the time, you don’t know there’s all kinds of foods out there. You go to the strip- uh, Yorkwoods Plaza there’s a like a Pho restaurant, there’s a Chinese-Jamaican restaurant, it a fusion… that’s weird as hell but it exists, they got the roti place, they got this, they got jerk chicken, they got all kinds of stuff! In the one strip mall so you know that’s the community right there. And the world is a big place, there are so many customs and foods and histories that we can all learn about each other and embrace. And not being prejudice… stop being like a dick, right? And your life would be so much fuller if you embrace these things that you don’t know about. For me it was just to break down the stereotype of Jane-Finch. If you don’t have the time or can’t take the bus here, just check it out on the website. If you see something you like, hopefully you’ll come and visit the neighbourhood and open your mind and learn about other people.

Anything else?

A lot of it is on the website; we have random stuff, political videos, videos of kids shooting firecrackers at each other, having firecracker wars… even I thought it was important to put that little piece online, to see that these are the kinds of activities that happen here… I don’t know if its unique to here or it’s not [we did that in Rexdale too]. So, for Rexdale peeps it’s not unique, but for other people they’d be like ‘holy shit’ right? But it’s important to have that out there, the history, it’s not just like the good stuff, I want to show everything in between. So, the pain, the misery and everything… there were two kids that died, they got shot up and then we held a press conference for the parents and I filmed it and I let them go at length. So instead of getting their 30 second sound bite, they talked for 20 minutes about their kid and imploring the community to come forward with information. And to see the pain, and to see how people grieve – they had a candle light vigil and so we were the only camera there filming it and we put the whole thing online. It’s important to have the good and the bad, to see this is how we grieve, this is what happens here, he have issues we still gotta, we’re not perfect, we’re very multicultural and it’s just out there. So, I try not to like tell people what to think, so it’s just like ‘here’s the coverage’. It’s just like political coverage, where people are either for or against Trump or Hilary whatever, but here when they had the debate… I just filmed the damn thing. I had no commentary, they’re speaking for themselves so it’s up to you to decide who do you feel resonates with you if you want to vote. My message is just be engaged. If you want to vote you should vote because a lot of people in different places around the world don’t have those freedoms. So that’s as far as I’ll go to tell people things, but I’ll never tell them what they should think or how they should react. Its more like ‘here are some views’ we try to give both sides and then you figure out what is good for you. So yeah, we’re all about freedom of speech.