Most of us don’t even know his name. Yet he’s a familiar face on the streets of Victoria.
For 12 years a white-haired/white-bearded fellow, John Chomyn, sold the community newspaper Street Newz on the sidewalk at the Bay Centre’s Douglas Street entrance.
When that publication shut down in 2014, the 70-year-old former cook became a vendor in the same location for Megaphone, a street news publication reporting on Victoria and Vancouver.
Now Megaphone has named Chomyn “vendor of the year” for Victoria.
Published by the non-profit Street Corner Media Foundation in Vancouver, the monthly magazine is sold by low-income or homeless vendors.
Chomyn was honoured because “he really is the heart and soul of the vendor program in Victoria,” said Sean Condon, executive director of Street Corner Media Foundation. Condon will visit Victoria next week to present Chomyn with a certificate and prize.
It was Megaphone vendors, staff, volunteers and board members who voted Chomyn vendor of the year. He’s one of a dozen people selling the magazine in this city.
Interviewed on a rainy day last week at his favourite spot, Chomyn said some customers have asked him to autograph the December issue of Megaphone. That’s because it contains a colour photo and a write-up on him as well as other featured vendors.
“I’ve been in this location since Day 1,” said Chomyn, who totes his magazines in a shopping bag.
Born in Prince Rupert and raised on a farm in Wakaw, Sask., he worked for 28 years as a cook for Canadian National trains and hotels. He’s divorced, with adult children living in Montreal and Toronto.
When Chomyn retired to Victoria at the age of 55, he realized he didn’t have enough to do in his spare time. Friends told him about Street Newz. Chomyn became a vendor in August of 2004, shortly after the newspaper was founded. And when Megaphone took its place he switched over without missing a beat.
“If you don’t have anything to do with your day, you’re lost,” Chomyn said.
He sells in front of the Bay, 12:30 to 5 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. On Saturdays and Sundays, Chomyn sells at Quadra Street and McKenzie Avenue. He takes Wednesdays off.
Chomyn buys copies of Megaphone for 75 cent apiece and sells them for $2 — up to 200 copies a month.
“Having that sort of income is really crucial to paying your rent, having healthy food, just having a better standard of living,” Condon said.
Selling the magazine is a source of pride and self-esteem for vendors, he said. For many — struggling with poverty, addiction, mental and other illnesses — it is a way to reconnect with society.
Selling Megaphone does provide extra cash for Chomyn, who rents accommodation in a seniors’ complex in the Quadra Street area. Yet he says the main appeal of the job is having a regular pastime and meeting people.
He encounters problems selling on the street only rarely. “Ninety per cent of the people are perfect. No matter where you are, you always get someone saying ‘Get a job’ once in a while. I don’t know why they do it. Got nothin’ to say better, or whatever.”
Over the years, Chomyn has developed friendships with many customers. Some have even invited him for Easter and Christmas dinners. “I know quite a few people,” he said. “Some buy off me. Some don’t. I still talk to them. I talk to everybody.”
