BYCAV In the News - "Mississauga News- Student group wants love, not guns"

They call it BLING, but it has nothing to do with the ostentatious display of expensive jewelry or other consumer goods. In fact, this BLING is about a deadly-serious subject -- the gun violence that is killing far too many of the GTA's young, black people.

The acronym stands for Bring Love In, Not Guns. It is the name of an anti-gun initiative started by a University of Toronto-based group called The Black Youth Coalition Against Violence.

"As soon as I heard about this, I said, this is something we really have to be part of," Fatima Sheikh, the student who founded the Erindale College African Students' Association, said Monday in an interview in the campus' Student Centre.

UTM student leaders such as Sheikh are playing an integral role in staging the conference.

Sheikh embraced the idea of a united youth front to fight violence, an initiative which started last August.

When she heard about the initiative by Kofi Hope, a Clarkson Secondary School graduate who chairs the Black Youth Coalition, Sheikh knew she had to get UTM involved.

"It was an 'ah-ha' moment for me,' said the Mississauga resident. "If we don't step up to do something about this, who else will? You really feel as if you're trying to make a change."

Sheikh and Shaila Kibria, a member of the Students' Administrative Council (SAC) at the University of Toronto, are part of the coalition organizing the BLING Summit, called Black Youth Stand Up, which will take place Saturday, Jan. 28 at the St. George campus downtown.

The conference will bring together young black people from across the GTA for speeches and workshops to help them deal with the issues they face, said Kibria, who is working on her degree in history and English.

"For too long, everyone has just dwelled on the problem but they have not been empowered," said Kibria. "We are still in a phase of oppression in many ways. Police profile young black people and, of those who are being shot, 95 per cent are young, black males."

Although much of the publicity about the problem has focussed on Toronto, there are real problems in Mississauga too, said Sheikh.

"One of the people who wants to come is a student whose friends keep coming to his door to try to make him take a gun," said the 20-year-old. "He and his Mom finally moved, but his friends found him. This is happening in Mississauga, in our neighbourhood."

Space for the forum has already been doubled to 200 students. Sales of grey wrist bands featuring the word BLING are being used to fund the conference. UTM is all but sold out of them. More have been ordered.

While much work has been done on black youth violence, Sheikh said this project has more credibility because it's being organized by youth, for youth.

"We're hitting it from their perspective," she said. "If adults organized it, it might not be what we want."

As well as speakers and workshops, the day's events include musical performances by a number of the participants, including several from Mississauga.