TENSIONS RISING
Students, faculty charging through pickets P3
P. 8-9 ANTI-MIGRANT RALLY CRASHED BY NUMEROUS SUPPORTERS P. 7
Active attacker alert at Carrier
Annays Medeiros, Benjamin Steeves
HumberETC News
Humber Polytechnic’s North Campus staff and students were welcomed back to their first day on campus with the threat of a potential gun attack and lockdown at its Carrier Drive building.
The Sept. 2 incident turned out to be a false alarm.
Toronto Police responded to the threat, as the college implemented its attacker protocol to alert staff and students due to a threat at Humber’s Education and Training Solutions facility at 30 Carrier Dr. Humber Polytechnic’s director of public safety and emergency management, Rob Kilfoyle, who has spent 13 years protecting Humber faculty and students, said the threat was limited to the building.
“What happened is someone issued a threat in writing to a partner agency, who then contacted us by phone to say, ‘Hey, someone has made this threat.’
And, you know, without a lot of information, they had suggested [to] send the police. And, you know, because there’s going to be a shooting,” he said.
“In the absence of confirmation or any information, we decided to put the school into the active attacker protocol. The threat was specific to 30 Carrier Dr.,” Kilfoyle said.
Kilfoyle said emergency alerts are distributed equally between Carrier and Humber College Bou-
levard because of a connected media infrastructure.
“We don’t have the ability to just say only activate the messages over at 30 Carrier or only do them on the North campus,” Kilfoyle said.
“It’s all or nothing. Because in a real emergency, you want everybody to have the information and know what to do.”
Many students, educators, and staff on campus were informed by Humber’s Guardian app alert that said the incident was at the North campus.
Krysti Jaglal, a media communications student at the University of Guelph-Humber, was working at the Spirituality and Wellness Centre (SWC) when she heard the announcement about the active attacker alert.
“I was really nervous because I hadn’t been in the Spirituality Centre before when an active attacker alert had happened,” she said. “One of my co-workers was there, and she was able to walk me through the steps of what we do if the attacker comes to our campus.
It was definitely a nerve-wracking experience, especially for the first day.
“In the moment, we just tried to stay as calm as possible, and kind of keep running business as usual,” Jaglal said.
Since such alerts don’t happen often, it left some students and faculty members confused regarding what to do and how to react to the situation.
“We always take the priority of safety and our students first. And sometimes it doesn’t always
Humber Et Cetera is the Humber Polytechnic journalism program laboratory newspaper. It is created by journalism students in the Advanced Diploma program. Et Cetera serves to inform the Humber community and give its readers wellrounded coverage on the things that matter to them.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Reet Arora
NEWS
Benjamin Steeves
Julia Ilano
POLITICS
Tait A. Graham
ENVIRONMENTA L
Samuel Brito
FEATURES
Aislinn Millette
CULTURE
Ethan Alcaidinho
go as smoothly as possible. But at the end of the day, the systems worked,” Kilfoyle said.
“Would I do it again? I don’t know. To be honest, it’s one of those things where you think it makes sense in the moment,” he said. “But, as I hear now, people were confused and they don’t know what it means,”
Milos Vasic, president of the Humber faculty union and a professor in Liberal Studies at Humber, said he was at North campus when the alert happened.
“I ran out into the hallways and at that point, all of the screens and monitors around the campus were saying that there was some sort of active attacker alert at Carrier,” he said.
Vasic said people were intrigued by what they were seeing on the monitors around school, where reactions ranged from people not caring to others almost panicking.
“We people, collectively, we kind of go to those extremes,” he said.
Vasic said he was concerned that Carrier is a open space with visible classrooms containing glass walls.
“So if there is an active attacker, there’s not necessarily a lot of places to hide. So that was the fear that was running through my head,” he said.
It was Vasic’s first time in an active attacker alert, as fire drills occur more often, and he said it was interesting to see how it played out.
“Collectively, we don’t really have a lot of history with these sorts of drills. And now we’re starting to do them, and things
Protesters face dangers and racism
Strike continues amidst stalled negotiations
Reet Arora, Annays Medeiros HumberETC News
People crossing the picket lines at Humber’s North campus are being threatened by motorists trying to avoid the mandatory stopand-talk with strikers.
Fredy Mejia, president of Local 563 of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), said one of the challenges picketers face is abuse towards them from people driving through trying to access past picket lines.
He said people are speeding by them as if they don’t care about their legs being crushed under the vehicle.
“They don’t care about our health and safety, and the profanities that they shout at us, it’s just not acceptable,” Mejia said.
that they will drive over our legs,” he said.
Mejia said these people are students and staff.
He asks that students and faculty, coming to campus, be patient and respectful as they are their coworkers.
Mejia said there will be action taken against wrongful conduct towards picketers. They have security personnel present to reduce tensions at every intersection.
He said the last incident took place 15 minutes before the interview with Humber Et Cetera.
“We had a student who declared himself racist, who shouted profanities at us, and stated that he hates immigrants, and I can’t even repeat what he said,” Mejia said.
Meanwhile, Meija said there are no updates on the state of bargaining with the College Employer Council.
the backbone of the colleges. I do believe we deserve something reasonable as a salary increase,” Mejia said.
He said if there was an offer on the table that they could not refuse, it would already be on the table by now.
John-David Kato, a Fitness Laboratory Technologist, said he hopes things get resolved and that an agreement is made so they can get back to work.
Kato said he feels pretty good about the strike as there are still a lot of people supporting it, but that “it’s been a week, and you know, no one wants it to drag on too long.”
important as they also help with counselling and career advising, and that the strike is an existential fight for the future of education that is both accessible and affordable.
“Right now, colleges are being systematically defunded by the provincial government, and what’s happening is that money that is meant for the college system is being siphoned into these privatized education schemes which shortchange students,” he said.
are getting better in the sense that we’re learning what can go wrong in these drills,” he said.
“We’re kind of stuck with lessthan-ideal scenarios to learn what to do. And that’s not really a dig at the administration or anything like that, it’s just the reality of it,” Vasic said
Kilfoyle said there will be different training methods in the future, and that they are working to improve the instructions with online training with the York Regional Police. However, the strike by full-time support staff has postponed the planned Sept. 23 drill.
“Are there things we do differently next time? Probably. But, you know, we always try to live and learn from those incidents,” he said.
Selena Ferreira, Ignite’s Student Advocate for Humber, who’s also in her fourth year of the Criminal Justice and Social Science program at Lakeshore, said that students shouldn’t be concerned about the event but it is important to stay informed to have the information readily available and not worry about it daily.
“Ignite, we prioritize the safety and well-being of students always. We want to make sure that everybody who is on campus, whether you’re at North, Lakeshore, IGS, even if you’re remote, you’re staying safe,” Ferreira said. “It’s really important that Humber students are aware of the procedure and the protocols in an emergency situation and what to do during that time.”
OP-ED
Julia C. Sequeira
SPORTS
Nina A. Kersnik
Luis Miguel De Castro
LAYOUTS
Harnoor Kaur
Parthvi Patel
Haley Lynch
Matthew R. Ziniuk
Celine Sy
PHOTOS
Annays Medeiros
FACULTY ADVISER
Rob Lamberti
Lara King
TECH ADVISER
Gabrielle Austin
Tait A. Graham
Denny Luong
“People are declaring themselves racist, sometimes in front of a camera, that they just hate people, and the fact that they are running behind an engine that is running makes them feel more powerful,” he said.
Mejia said he is very shocked to see such behaviour from some people and how disrespectful they are.
“We understand the frustration, we are explaining, we are asking for a few seconds of their time, yet we get these profanities and threats
“Our bargaining team is ready to go back to the table and resume the conversation with the College Employer Council (CEC), but there is no update,” Mejia said.
“We are going to be here for as long as it takes,” Mejia said.
He said their team is ready to talk, but they can’t do anything if the employer does not respond.
“This is not about money specifically, of course, we are asking for recognition for the great work that we do for this institution, we are
Usman Malik, a Humber librarian technician, said the support staff are responsible for the technical services as they catalogue the materials and help with course reserves, so professors have the course materials they need to give to students for them to progress through the term.
“It’s hard not to know about the support staff strike, because it’s impacting all of us even though we’re not on strike, the loss of our colleagues is really impacting the system, it’s affecting the quality of education that students are receiving in a very negative way, so I want to come out here to support,” he said. Malik said support staff are
“In essence, Ford is enriching his rich buddies, these private companies, to offer their own education schemes instead of the quality education that we come to expect from the college system,” Malik said.
He said the support staff are there to tell the public of what is happening so they can reverse the course and restore funding to the public college system.
Joseph Italiano, an advisor from the University of Guelph-Humber, said they wanted to get back to their jobs and be able to be there for the students, as they put their heart into education and genuinely care about the students.
“We want to be back in our offices as soon as possible so that way we can provide the support that our students rightfully deserve and need,” Italiano said.
Malik Grant is back at Humber after a year that will be hard to top.
The Brampton native started playing basketball when he was three but it became his true passion at six, playing club basketball and developing his skills and love for the game.
The veteran guard powered the Hawks to a Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association championship last season, earning the finals MVP and averaging 16.6 points per game. He was also named OCAA Player of the Year, becoming just the third Humber men’s basketball player to win the award.
“It’s a great feeling,” Grant said. “Hopefully, I can accomplish the same things, if not more.”
His return comes after being selected 24th overall by the Ottawa BlackJacks in the Canadian Elite Basketball League draft this past spring, a milestone he said has prepared him for the future.
“It’s getting me closer to my goal,” Grant said. “It’s preparing me for that big jump to maybe play overseas or even in the G League.”
Although he initially planned to move on, circumstances led him back to Humber, where he looks to lead the Hawks to back-toback national titles.
“Make sure we get the new guys in order,” Grant said. “We’re looking to go back-to-back.”
Rob Kilfoyle, Humber’s director of public safety and emergency management, advises students to stay updated with the Humber’s Guardian app.
HUMBERETC/ANNAYS
HUMBERETC/MATTHEW R. ZINIUK Humber Hawks guard Malik Grant built a legacy of national championships, finals MVP, and even his name called in
HUMBERETC/TAIT GRAHAM
Humber’s IEN boosts nursing staff
Laura Rodgers HumberETC News
Humber Polytechnic is tackling Ontario’s nursing shortage with a program designed to fast-track internationally educated nurses into the workforce.
Humber announced this summer that its Internationally Educated Nurses (IEN) Education
Requirement Pathway is the first in Ontario to meet changes to registration standards set by the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO).
Health Minister Sylvia Jones said in a release that the program will help ease the province’s nursing shortage.
Humber’s IEN Pathway Program Advisor, Selam Teweldai, said Humber’s program started this fall and is in a condensed format.
“The program was developed to meet the specific 38 competencies,” Teweldai said.
The CNO updated the registration process on April 1. On their website, it states that it allows registered nurses (RNs) and registered practical nurses (RPNs) to complete, “a nursing program that is recognized or approved in any jurisdiction and is substantially equivalent to a CNO-approved
nursing program,” She said the IEN program was crafted with the CNO to support nurses who are internationally educated and have not yet met the requirements.
Thea Santiago, an IEN at Scar borough General, said the process when she first came to Canada in 2013 was very tedious.
“I have also heard it is very easy now compared to before,” Santiago said.
The Registered Nurses’ Associ ation of Ontario (RNAO) said in a press release from July 25, 2024, that data from the Canadian Institute for Health Informa tion shows that Ontario needs 26,000 additional RNs.
It said the province needs that many, “just to catch up to the RN-to-population ratio in the rest of Canada, a profound gap that has widened by three per cent since 2022.”
“Approximately 2.5 million Ontarians lack access to a pri mary care provider, with an expected increase to 4.4 million by 2026,” the RNAO said in the release.
Selam Teweldai said it often
when hospitals are low on nurses.
“It is challenging to be one person and look after seven to eight patients when you want to provide the best care,” Teweldai said. Sunnybrook’s IEN Career
“bring a wealth of knowledge from back home.”
Shah said vacancies are already declining in the Greater Toronto Area and credited IEN programs with helping more nurses enter the field.
Thea Santiago said there are few shifts that she can count on her hands that are fully staffed,
“Most of the time we are short,” she said. “We do help fill in the gaps.”
Jones was not available for an interview, but spokesperson Emma Popovic said in an email that Ontario has a record number of new nurses.
“Adding a total of 50,000 new nurses, with another 30,000 studying nursing at one of Ontario’s Colleges or Universities,” she said in the email.
Selam Teweldai said Humber’s IEN program, which started this fall, is two semesters long and is very fastpaced.
She said it consists of virtual theory sessions for the first four months, once a week, five-hour in-person labs, followed by a clinical practicum.
Humber does work with
the nurses to accommodate the learner, based on their different experiences, Teweldai said.
While no one was available for an interview, CNO Communications spokesperson Elizabeth Almeida said in an email that the CNO learned from applicants that the most impact could be caused by modernizing the education requirement.
The pathways are designed around a base of entry-level competencies, including both theoretical and practical components built on an IEN’s foundational education, Almeida said in the email.
She wrote that the challenges she has seen IENs face are language barriers, and a different nursing practice from what they know from their home.
“It’s very much physician-focused in some areas back home,” Shah said.
That leads to learning to speak up for themselves in Canada in a way they didn’t before, she said.
HUMBER’S AWARD-WINNING STUDENT NEWSPAPER
A clinical simulation room in Humber North’s E building designed to help nursing students gain practical knownedge in a clinical setting. A mannequin lies on the far left hospital bed.
HUMBERETC/LAURA RODGERS
becomes double the workload
COURTESY/VISHWA SHAH
Photo left: Sunnybrook’s IEN Career Pathway Project Manager Vishwa Shah talks about internationally educated nurses (IEN’s) and how Sunnybrook has supported them.
Decreasing rent not helping students
Joseph Zago HumberETC News
Student income isn’t in line with the new rental market despite a 2.3 per cent decrease in rent.
Statistics Canada reports low-income individuals net about $2,500 a month, while the average rental cost post-decrease is $2,170 in Toronto. For property to be affordable, it must be no more than 30 per cent of the annual income, said the Statistics Canada report in September 2024.
Senior researcher at the University of Toronto, Carolyn Whitzman, advocates for housing affordability and said the national problem is not a new one.
“We’ve known the students in housing need, but we’ve kind of ignored it nationally for quite a few decades,” Whitzman said.
UTIL, a non-profit housing developer for students, rents out 1-bedroom units for $1,000.
Whitzman said units like these are not generally what is being built.
“Investors need to look at the human right to housing in the same way that they’d look at not having child labour. And that’s not currently being done in terms of ethical investment decisions,” Whitzman said.
A 2024 city of Toronto press release said it will build 16,000 purpose-built rentals.
The city started the fast-tracked construction of one of the first purpose-built rentals at Mount Dennis near Weston Road and Eglinton Avenue on Sept. 3.
“Toronto is taking bold action to address the housing crisis. We’re offering up incentives to build thousands more purpose-built rentals and affordable homes,” Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said in the release.
The three development and
investor companies, LiUNA Pension Fund, Fengate Asset Management and The Hi-Rise Group, responsible for the construction in Mount Dennis, have not commented on the project.
According to a city of Toronto report, purpose-built rental homes have been neglected from the 1980s to the present day.
The report said Toronto built about 200,000 purpose-built rental units from 1960 to 1979.
It said that it was followed by a steep decline to about 5,500 in the 80s and 90s.
Rental unit production has risen to approximately 21,000 between 2000 and 2023, the report said.
Nicolas Villarreal, an international Humber student, lives with three roommates in a repurposed home. He said he pays 75 per cent of his income toward rent, including support from his family in Colombia.
Villarreal said if he didn’t have the support of his parents, he would barely break even on his necessities.
Melanie Chiu, a Humber real estate program facilitator, said students inherited a poor system.
“(Students) want to improve themselves, improve their society and contribute to something. And it’s almost like they’re being punished,” Chiu said.
Jason Mercer, Chief Information Officer of the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB), said rental transactions didn’t grow as fast as the listings in the past year, which meant more competition between landlords.
“A lot of these would-be renters are benefiting from more choice,” Mercer said.
Whitzman said new immigration policies have directly affected rent costs.
“Because there is less population growth, and that equals slightly lower rent,” Whitzman said.
Statistics Canada reports population growth from earlier this year has been the lowest since 2020, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Canada’s population decreased by 1,232 people later that year.
Natural increase to the population is near minus 5,000 due to low fertility rates and an aging population, Statistics Canada said.
Chiu said that although the new immigration thresholds have slightly lowered rent, they have unintended consequences.
“Those policies haven’t necessarily come out with the desired outcome,” Chiu said.
College support workers are striking and losing jobs because of the lack of students coming through.
Counter-protest scatters anti-migrant rally
People joined in support of immigrants at Christie Pits Park as part of a counter-protest to a planned anti-immigrant rally.
A group named Canada First organized a rally on Sept. 13, Canadian Patriot Day, focusing on opposing mass immigration with the agenda of putting “Canadians first.”
Ontario Public Service Employees Union’s President JP Hornick joined the rally in support of the “NOPE (Neighbours Defending Democracy) rally,” which stood against hate and the anti-immigration rhetoric.
“The few of the fascists that are down the streets that are trying to like step up, we’re here to say no way, this is not our Ontario, not our Toronto,” Hornick said.
They said Christie Pits has a history of racist riots, and they are here to make sure they are taking that back. The park at the corner of Christie and Bloor Streets is familiar with anti-immigrant protests. A riot involving thousands erupted at a baseball game in 1933 when youths flew a Nazi flag to provoke Jewish people attending the match.
“I think what’s happening right now around the xenophobia, the talk about international students, any anti-immigration rhetoric is a load of bullshit,” Hornick said. They said Canada is a country
built on immigration, and standing united is what makes the country stronger.
“So, we got to say no to this crap, this is the easy way out, you want to be strong, you want to be Canadian, then you have got to do it with everyone who wants to claim that space,” Hornick said.
They said their daughter was the one who told them about the rally and asked them to counter-protest.
Hornick said Canadians are not immune to whatever happens across the border, and we must draw our land in the sand, “grow a little privacy hedge between us and our southern neighbours.”
closed, said his parents immigrated to Canada during the Second World War, where Canadians died fighting Nazis in Holland, freeing his family.
He shared tales he had heard from his family about how they had seen the consequences this kind of hate brings about.
“They saw people being taken away and murdered,” Alex said. “I can’t stand by and let that happen here. People are wrapping the Canada First rhetoric, and it is just racism, and they are trying to wrap
against this hatred taking place in their beloved park, she said.
“We’re really shocked, we’re like no way, we need to stand up against these racist stereotypes and this misconception that somehow immigrants are to blame for the fact that we can’t find affordable housing,” Ladd said.
She said Canadian politicians sparked these views, and they are doing more of a disservice to communities with these notions.
Ladd said the economic crisis being blamed on migrants is the fault of our government.
THIS IS THE SAME OLD STORY I’VE HEARD IN THIS COUNTRY, HAVING BEEN HERE FOR OVER 40 YEARS. THEY DID IT IN THE ‘90S. IT IS HAPPENING AGAIN. NO MORE,” -
They said this movement is for our collective future and not just for them.
Jennifer, who did not want her last name revealed, said she is lucky to have white privileges as an immigrant.
“Actually, I have been told ‘you’re the right kind of immigrant,’ and at that time, that horrified me because I’m not better than anyone else, and it’s wrong to tell people that,” she said.
Jennifer said this was the reason she attended, so she could fight for all immigrants, no matter where they came from or what their privileges are.
Jennifer’s husband, Alex, who also did not want his last name dis-
it in the Canadian flag.”
The Workers Action Centre’s communications representative, Deena Ladd, who is also a resident of the Christie Pits Park neighbourhood, said when she heard about the hate rally taking place, she knew she had to do something.
“I called a whole bunch of different organizations and people and said, ‘What are we going to do about this? ‘” Ladd said.
She said the Elementary Teachers of Toronto, Migrant Workers Alliance and Toronto Labour Council were among the first few to come on board.
They started to invite everyone, and people showed up to stand
“Making decisions to not control rent, for not stopping grocery stores from increasing prices, and for not making sure that we have affordable housing and if those kinds of hate groups want to blame us, they should know they are the minority, not us,” she said.
Ladd said this hate group does not have any support for their views, which is why their number were small.
Police at the rally arrested eight people, including one for assaulting a police officer.
She said she finds it shocking that governments are taking the life savings of people coming into this country to get an education and then throwing them out.
“We see every day, many newcomers, many of the international
students, many migrants, who are taken advantage of at work, paid less than minimum wage but do really hard, essential jobs,” Ladd said.
“And then we have the audacity to blame them for the crisis, that is racism, and that is what the rally is really about,” she said. She said this has resulted in the shutdown of several programs across the country.
Ladd said she believes it is really important for students to question politicians like Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when he starts to blame high youth unemployment rates on temporary foreign workers.
“Temporary foreign workers come in and work in industries that people from this country do not wanna work in, they work in the farms, they grow our vegetables and fruit, they work in the fisheries and the meat processing plants,” she said.
Ladd said these are places where even students would not work, and for Poilievre to blame immigrants is absolute racism.
She said people like Poilievre are blaming people who are visibly different instead of taking responsibility.
“The darker we are, the more we are to blame for everything, and this is the same old story I’ve heard in this country, having been here for over 40 years. They did it in the ‘90s. It is happening again. No more,” Ladd said.
Reet Arora HumberETC News
Counter-protesters hold “refugees welcome” banner in response to anti-immigrant rally in Christie Pits park on Saturday afternoon, September 13.
HUMBERETC/REET ARORA
Two excavators start working in a construction site for a non-purpose-built rental condo properties going up from across York Mills subway station.
HUMBERETC/JOSEPH ZAGO
Deena Ladd
FOI reveals Vaughan’s resistance
Humber ETC retrieves documents from post-secondary
Fernando Bossoes Senior Reporter
Internal emails obtained by Humber Et Cetera show that Humber Polytechnic President Ann Marie Vaughan resisted former board chair Akela Peoples’ call for in-camera meetings during escalating governance tensions last winter.
Humber Et Cetera obtained 45 documents through Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, covering correspondences between Humber and the Ministry of Colleges and Universities on governance concerns and board resignations from August 2022 to January 2025.
Deputy Minister David Wai and Vaughan, how ever, reveal that the board’s desire to hold in-camera meetings was a sore point.
have in-camera meet providing that there are policies that exist to support them and they do not exclude members of the board unnec essarily,” Vaughan wrote in an email to Humber Et Cetera on March 26.
The 45 documents, including
to in-camera talks ministries and board resignations.
by the very governors who were themselves subject to the ministry’s fact-finding exercise.
In one email exchange with Wai, Vaughan requested the deputy minister to take action, accusing board mem bers of “ignoring policy and legislation,” citing the com mencement of in-camera meetings that excluded internal members and herself, according to records obtained through the FOI. The records show Vaughan leaned on Humber’s bylaws, which conditions, such as litigation, contract negotiations or collective bargaining. However, board members saw in-camera time as an essential tool for fulfilling their oversight role. Assessing the performance of the polytechnic’s presi dent is one of the board’s duties according to
The president wrote that two reviews would “result in a significant effort and commitment from the Executive Team at Humber –impacting the work that we need to do on all other matters. It will also come at a significant legal cost to Humber.”
“The communications received detail that members of the Humber Board of Governors are operating in total disregard of the government directive for which they are appointed to be operating within,”
The next day, eight members of the board resigned within 15 minutes of each other. In their emails, they said the ministry’s restrictions had restricted them from basic functions, leaving them unable to serve the organization as board members.
“Thus, there is no option but to resign,” Peoples wrote in her resignation email.
“With regret, I feel I am unable to discharge my duty to provide oversight and guidance to Humber Polytechnic as a member of the Board of Governors,” former member John Breakey wrote. “As a volunteer I offer my experience and skill where I can contribute to the growth and success of any Board I have served.”
Vaughan also noted to Wai that she was seeking to meet with the student member of the board, Ana Downes, the following day. Downes submitted her resignation letter the next day at 9:55 p.m.
D“The in-camera meetings in question organized by the former board chair were held inap propriately, improperly executed, excluded board mem- bers and the pres- ident and
In response to the newly public correspondence, Humber’s associate vice-president of marketing and communications, Andrew Leopold, wrote on behalf of the president in an email that Vaughan “supports in-camera meetings provided they are held in keeping with good governance, practices and policy, and that all governors are included.” Leopold said in-camera sessions have been part of recent board meetings and have followed “proper governance, policy and structure.” However, he said that improper.
did not follow policy,” Leopold wrote.
FOI documents show Deputy Minister Wai wrote to Peoples on Dec. 10, 2024, confirming that a third-party review of Humber’s governance practices would be launched after concerns were raised to the ministry, also by a third party. The government is not required to reveal the source of the concerns, Leopold said Humber does not know who con tacted the min istry. The records show that three days later, board counsel Carol Hansell emailed Wai on behalf of the chair to request a meeting about the deputy minister’s letter and governnce issues at Humber.
The meeting, held on Dec. 16, was attended by Peoples, former vice chair Anne Trafford and former
board member Ali Ghassi. Vaughan then met with Wai, without the other board members, on Jan. 8 to clarify his December letter to the board.
in-camera session at the end of the next public meeting.
“Ann Marie – as previously noted we disagree with your interpretation of the Deputy Minister’s letter and what you are suggesting is inconsistent with my phone call and our meeting with him,” Peoples wrote in her email, released in the FOI documents. Leopold said in his state ment this week that Wai’s letter was “clear and not open for interpretation.”
Peoples refused Humber Et Cet request to ment.
As indicated in the FOI docu ments, Vaughan forwarded Peoples’ response to Wai and asked the deputy minister to confirm that he did not intend for a competing review to be undertaken
review of Humber’s gov ernance practices led by Linda Franklin, former dent of Colleges Ontario. Wai instructed the board to continue with its six-month performance review agenda of institutional goals, but to suspend any formance evaluation of the president and management team. He also asked Peoples to pause all governance-related activity, including potential changes to structures
And while he acknowledged that in-camera sessions are appropriate in “certain circumstances” and should eventually be codified, he ordered the board to refrain from holding any in-camera meetings during the review.
Peoples held an in-camera meeting with select governors on Jan. 16, urging them to resign, according to an email Vaughan sent to Wai after the resignations.
“The issues the Board is facing currently are complex. As the student representative to the Board, I find the time it now requires to wrestle with this complexity is interfering with my academic responsibilities,” Downes wrote in her resignation letter.
“In addition, it has been causing me tremendous
Leopold said this week that the meeting between Vaughan and Downes did not take place.
Downes did not answer Et Cetera’s request for comments.
Franklin’s report, “When Governance Fails: Humber College Fact Finding Report,” concludes that a better relationship between the board and the president is essential to restoring trust, improving collaboration and ensuring effective oversight.
Leopold said Humber’s board has and continues to meet since the ministry’s report. He wrote that newly joined and remaining board members have an “acute” understanding and a commitment to “good governance practice and policy, along with support for Humber’s leadership and the direction of the institution.”
Humber’s Board of Governors’ website does not provide any information regarding the next board meeting.
ozens of families gathered on Sept. 7 for the end of the outdoor soccer season hosted at Humberline Park. But it could also be the last time soccer is played at the North Etobicoke neighbourhood park.
Humberline Fields, however, might soon disappear entirely. Federal Housing, Infrastructure, and Communities Minister Nathaniel Erskine-Smith announced on March 1 that $20 million would be provided to support the Somali Centre for Culture and Recreation, which will be built on the Humberline Drive park, just south of Finch Avenue.
The proposed building site is located on a soccer field, one of the few in the area used by many in the community.
Area residents aren’t supportive of the idea of demolishing valuable green space. They instead made signs, knocked on doors and eventually hosted an awareness event at Humberline Fields in a bid to save the park.
“This is our lifeline,” said one person who attended the gathering. “Day and night we are here, our life will be gone, this is the only place where we can come, where we can meet friends, where we can walk and talk, meet and greet.”
Humberlinefield.ca was launched by the community to urge governments to locate another site to construct the centre after early reactions from politicians.
They argue that Humberline Fields is not the right place for it.
“The most important thing is that this has to be protected. Because that’s where the kids have to come and play,” said concerned citizen Mr. Anil Vij. This issue eventually caught Premier Doug Ford’s eye, and he sent Michelle Telfeyan, the executive assistant for his constituency office, as well as Etobicoke North MP John Zzerucelli.
“I know about the controversy around the fields,” Zerucelli said.
“And I’m going to make sure you guys always have a place to play soccer here, the premier and I are aligned on this, and we are aware of the issue and the community’s concern.”
Vij says that initially, the government was supportive.
“Every level of politician has been with us. And they’re trying to work within the system,” Vij said.
But after inaction from the regular pathways, Vij said the community started a petition.
“We had over 2,500 to 3,000 handwritten, signed-up petitions, over 3,000 to 3,500 online petitions, and when we knocked at the door, every single person signed, nobody even thought about it.”
The community has been feeling pressure from surrounding growth, including from Humber Polytechnic. They argue the park is used by thousands of children playing in the Rexdale Soccer League. With a place in the area since before 2009, many community members are left wondering if there will be any green space left.
“How many green spaces are there now? And how many were there 20 years ago?” Vij asks.
COURTESY/ONTARIO GOVERNMENT, COURTESY/COLLEGES ONTARIO, COURTESY/UNITY HEALTH TORONTO, COURTESY/LINKEDIN, COURTESY/IGNITE
From top to bottom, left to right; Linda Franklin, former president of Colleges Ontario. John Breakey, former board member for Humber Polytechnic. Carol Hansell, board counsel for The Conference Board. David Wai, former board member and current deputy minister of colleges and universities. Ana Downes, a student recruitmernt opfficer at University of GuelphHumber. Anne Trafford. a former board member. In the center of the photo; Ann Marie Vaughan, the current president of Humber.
Humberline community resists proposed plans to build a Somali centre. Ford hears community that fears its losing its park
HUMBERETC/TAIT A. GRAHAM
Tait A. Graham
HumberETC Politics
Campus crises lead to a rocky first week
As Humber students returned to campus this fall, few could have predicted the rocky start that would test their patience and resilience in the first few weeks of the semester.
The first day back to school, Sept. 2, there was an active attacker alert across campus.
There was no information provided regarding what was happening, where the attacker was located or even how credible the information was.
There was panic among teachers and students because an unprecedented alert of the sort meant there was an active attacker on campus.
With instructions being given to students through a pre-recorded announcement, the students and faculty, while in hiding, were trying to get more information by trying to get in contact with others.
Someone had called a partner agency, which informed Humber of a threat, saying there might be a
potential shooting.
Humber’s Head of Department of Public Safety, Rob Kilfoyle, believed it was best to put both campuses on lockdown to ensure the safety of all students.
It was later said that the threat turned out to be bogus.
The next day, on Sept. 8, the Department of Public Safety at the Lakeshore campus received a report of indecent exposure.
The incident occurred offcampus during the morning, and the suspect was said to be a 5’9” middle-aged white male with a “beer belly.”
On Sept. 9, Humber reached out to students informing them of a potential Ontario Public Services Employees Union (OPSEU) support staff strike that could disrupt normal functions.
The union could not strike a deal with the employers and went on strike starting at 12:01 a.m. on Sept. 11.
TALES FROM HUMBER
The support staff to date continue to be on strike as of today, with no word from the employer after having left them at the bargaining table.
The students are particularly affected, with no full-time support staff present.
From missing out on full academic growth with certain courses that, for example, need a support staff to work the equipment, or not having a full team to work offices across campus, including the Accessibility Centre, International Student Services, Career Services, and many more.
Humber students have been abandoned and left to work their way through coursework, with the faculty struggling to hold the classroom together.
The strike is the reason why many of the classes being offered at Humber have switched to remote learning, with students missing out on full academic offerings.
The hallways are not bustling anymore as the support staff continue to guard the picket lines. And all this as Humber’s IT department struggles to fix the issue with their Avro app, which prevents students from entering classrooms. The doors are not opening for the entire student body, as this improperly functioning campus does not let them use all the facilities that they have essentially paid for in tuition.
OnlyFans is more exploitive than empowering
Many of us who read this story, most likely have heard of OnlyFans or know what it is, following the rise of active users, seeing a stark increase over the last few years.
underage predators and their fantasies, so that one can only imagine what they do with her subscription page.
These examples can be seen throughout different people, such as Bhad Bhabie, also known as Danielle Bregoli, who did the same thing Tay did, after which she reported she made four million dollars in her first 24 hours on the site.
look, reports vary slightly in numbers, but the age demographic for active male users sits around 25 to 34, representing around 30 per cent of users, with the largest woman age demographic sitting between 18 to 24, just shy of 30 per cent as well.
posts that I saw didn’t really say anything.”
Solana, like many, fell prey to the starstruck allure of the fantasy that this form of sex work was portrayed, where you have the opportunity to control what you post. The unknown side effect, however, was the process of being dehumanized.
WThese illustrations can romanticize a glamorized industry that, while anyone can do it, these instances are taken out of proportion towards the average user who finds themselves only bringing in around 151 dollars monthly, according to Influencer Marketing Hub.
Male users also make up 75 per cent of all total OnlyFans subscriptions. With the top one per cent of OnlyFans creators continuing to bring in the majority of the revenue, average users find themselves perplexed that creating their own page is not as fruitful as depicted by other creators.
ith the state of her current living situation and help from her boyfriend, then 18-year-old Solana decided to tap into her interests after reading post after post since she was 17, seeing nothing but possibilities like so many others today.
things, and it’s just kind of dehumanizes you a little bit,” Solana said. “I was kind of expecting that, but when you’re actually reading the messages, it just makes you feel kind of icky, like gross. They talk to me as if I’m not a real human being at the end of the day, behind a screen.”
Some of the requests were so vulgar that Solana felt too uncomfortable to repeat them, and those she did can not be shared. Is this the industry young girls look up to? The industry they want to swim into? The unfortunate reality is that it is.
Sabira Solana, 22, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, first heard about OnlyFans in a similar fashion to how a
“I wanted the money that could come from it, I saw how much potential other people had from it, so I was like, I want to make that
“It didn’t help that I wasn’t earning nearly as much as I hoped I would, like my self-worth was kind of like dropping by the day,” Solana said.
A staged photo of an ‘attacker’ roaming the hall, with two students hiding in a
lit room. They’re
wary of being seen.
My religious trauma made me thanatophobic
Navigating death anxiety at a young age is debilitating
The attacks always start with a tightness in my chest. I don’t know if it is skipping or racing or both at the same time. I suddenly feel like I can’t inhale fully, and as if my body isn’t getting enough air.
The thoughts begin. What if there really is nothing after? That once we perish, there will eventually be no trace of us.
I never think about how I am going to die or picture the details, but rather the intensity of the fear of what things will be like when I do die. Once I reach this level of panic, it feels like I am about to die.
In this moment, it feels like my heart is being squeezed over and over. After this, my brain sees pure
darkness.
And then it repeats until I can be distracted or pulled out of it by someone.
There is a medical term for this.
Thanatophobia, the fear of death or death anxiety, is an intense, persistent fear of dying or the process of dying that can significantly impact a person’s daily life.
Recently, I had a quick reconnect and falling out with someone I thought would be my best friend and sister for life.
We were friends for two years prior and had a massive falling out. A lot happened during that time, including the sudden death of someone close to both of us.
During our reunion, I experienced extremely impactful religious trauma, which was brought on by her. As someone who went to Catholic school, I consistently struggled with the idea that a person had to be wholly God-fearing or they would be eternally damned
All of these notions contributed to the death anxiety I felt at the time. After reaching high school, I concluded that I am agnostic and don’t quite know what my beliefs are. I felt comfortable with this and accepted it.
But after those many years, the anxiety came back. The same forcefulness I felt within the Catholic school system was equally matched by the person I disconnected from.
I ask myself often, “If I am not consistently God-fearing, but am a good person, am I still eternally damned?”
Michelle Régnier is a registered social worker and psychotherapist at Toronto Psychology Clinic with a master’s in social work from the University of Waterloo. In May, she is starting her PhD.
Her research will be focused on death and people’s needs at the end of their lives.
Régnier said a part of the brain, the amygdala, controls our fear response and can cause anxiety when triggered. It is the part of our brain that processes emotions.
“Your amygdala, its job is to keep you safe,” she says. “The thoughts that are triggered are also dependent on other things that are going on in your life.
“So if you look at religion, the central ideas to some religions, not all religions, are around: heaven or hell, fear around punishment, the afterlife, a person’s worthiness. So if you’re unworthy, then you go to
hell.”
She said that because of our natural survival instincts, if a person ever feels at risk in their safe spaces, it is considered a trigger and can send them into panic.
“Religious trauma can challenge your sense of safety,” Régnier said.
“If your sense of safety is challenged, your amygdala is going to immediately perk up and say, ‘Okay, you’re in danger, we gotta move.”
This is something I still struggle with daily. But I am slowly regaining my old, comfortable self.
Talking about it has been my form of healing. Before I experienced this, I didn’t even know that
such a phobia existed.
I’ve learned that this fear is something I experienced during my Catholic education.
I have learned to cherish the moments I have with the ones I love more than ever.
Coming to terms with my mortality so young is a very strange feeling, but I also feel like it makes me appreciate my life even more.
What makes life so terrifying is what also makes it so special.
It’s that it ends.
Julia Sequeira, she/her is the Humber Et Cetera opinion and editorial editor. She covers culture, lifestyle and social justice.
Whether it be through content creators we see online, or “influencers” that have it linked to their social media, OnlyFans has captivated younger audiences with its allure to make ‘easy money’ by posting pornographic images of themselves, and interacting with subscribers to produce custom content for them.
Created to provide a subscription-based platform for creators to earn directly from their content and interactions, OnlyFans was founded at the end of 2016 by Timothy Stokely.
The implications of the COVID-19 pandemic were widespread, and with people’s jobs on the line and their source of income in jeopardy while being stuck at home, people sought alternative ways to support themselves, resorting to ‘selling’ themselves digitally on the OnlyFans platform, creating a boom in users not seen before on the site.
While access to creating a page of your own is quite simple and only open to those who are 18, certain creators have sparked controversies surrounding the age at which they decided to open one and the portrayal it could have on younger audiences.
For example, one social media influencer who goes by Lil Tay, whose real name is Claire Hope, debuted her OnlyFans page the day of her 18th birthday at 12:01 a.m. In the short span of three hours, Tay revealed she had accumulated just over $1 million in a photo posted on her Instagram.
Tay has since kept her age on her OnlyFans page set to “Freshly 18” in her bio, unfortunately tapping into the egregious amount of
Despite the negativity surrounding young audiences producing these forms of media, the platform saw an execrable 377.5 million users at the end of 2024, according to Business Insider. A number that continues steeply upwards year after year since 2020.
Unsurprisingly, in a Zipdo education report published at the beginning of May, 80 per cent of OnlyFans users are male, while 70 per cent of content creators are female.
Depending on where you may
majority of us heard of it, through social media and word of mouth.
“I saw it on a lot of blog posts, like 6ixbuzz and stuff, and there was another, I think her name was Belle Delphine, or something like that,” Solana said.
“From the posts and things that I saw online, it seemed like a quick, easy money kind of job, and very body positive, in a way, everyone was kind of supporting the women who did stuff like that,” Solana said.
“No one really talked about the negative effects, at least the blog
money, you know what I mean?” Solana said. “Like, obviously, I wasn’t expecting to make millions, but I thought I could get some form of financial stability from it.”
However, the rose coloured glasses that once sat comfortably on her nose quickly slipped, revealing a truth she knew about very quickly in her first few months.
“Some of the things that people would say, when they reach out to you, whether it’s to make requests or to just literally comment, say some pretty nasty and very vulgar
Despite this, Solana acknowledges the privilege we all have of choosing to do something no matter what, and hopes girls of all ages simply walk into this, should they choose to, dressed in knowledge.
“Don’t rush, don’t let other people influence your decision,” Solana said. “Do your research, please, like do all [the] research. I feel women, or anyone really, should have the freedom to do what they please. So I’m not saying don’t do it, but think about it first, like really, really, really think about it.
“At the end of the day, you’re still kind of catering to a male audience, and is it really empowering then?” Solana said.
Solana has since left the industry after several months and has moved on to pursue her dreams of starting her own business.
This form of media, or forms of expressing oneself in this way, is not a reality I see being plausible for young girls to continue to grow up in and to sexualize themselves in this way. Once something is on the internet, it never goes away. That’s the ambiguous thing about it While the concept of posting such promiscuous photos of yourself online is foreign to some, to others, it remains open for those who want to indulge in such self-expression. After all, wouldn’t you do it too if you knew it was going to be successful?
Benjamin Steeves
Julia C. Sequeira
HUMBERETC/LUIS MIGUEL DE CASTRO
dimly
crouching,
Melanin Market boosts campus culture
into a lively hub of conversation and celebration.
graduate Sophia Jackson, owner of Soulful Colour.
trations.
Cultures were showcased as Humber’s Black Student Support and Engagement Committee hosted this year’s Melanin Market at the Learning Resource Commons on Sept. 17.
Back for another year, the market transformed the concourse
Students, alumni, and community members browsed tables filled with wellness products, local seasonings, and handmade goods from Black-owned businesses.
Free haircuts were also provided to participants of the event by Trendsetter Barbershop.
Among the vendors was Humber
Her colouring books, filled with affirmations and diverse illustrations, were born from her own self-care journey.
She created adult colouring books with a childlike feel. Along with this, she includes powerful messages and words on every page, along with the original illus-
Art show highlights gender inequity
Jesse Mockrin, an American painter, opens her first solo exhibition, Echo, at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), urging people’s attention to gender inequalities and violence through European art history.
According to the AGO exhibition catalogue, Echo is the result of Mockrin’s close study of AGO’s historic European art collection. She then creates a large-scale multi-paneled painting zoom and crop heroine, intended to push their stories out of the past into the present.
Mockrin did an interview in February 2025 with Adam Harris Levine for the AGO exhibition catalogue, talking deeper about her artwork.
Through their catalogue interview, Levine called Mockrin’s work an “extremely self-aware painting.”
“I think that comes out of a modern condition of approaching things from a critical perspective,” Mockrin said to Levine in the AGO catalogue interview.
Jan Wong and Lori Scopis, exhibition visitors, said this is the
OPINION
At a table nearby, Sharon Joseph of Bess Juse offered homemade juices and spices rooted in her Grenadian heritage.
She started her business during the COVID-19 pandemic to promote health and wellness. Events like this help her connect with people who might never have known about her business.
The afternoon was about visibility and connection. Vendors shared stories, built networks, and reminded attendees of the importance of supporting Black entrepreneurship year-round.
This year’s Melanin Market once again showed the strength of culture and community at Humber.
first time they have heard about Mockrin. As someone who loves to analyze, Mockrin’s artwork caught their attention.
“It takes a while to figure out the relationships of her art to the source, so we want to try and figure this out,” Scopis said.
Both Wong and Scopis agree that The Descent by Mockrin is their favourite artwork.
“She has a theme. It’s all about women and violence,” Wong said as she looked at the painting, The Descent, in front of her.
The Descent by Mockrin is based on the historical story about the Sabine women.
In an interview with Levine for the exhibition catalogue in February 2025, Mockrin feels that the “historical works about the Rape
of the Sabine seem to celebrate the strength and action of men.”
“I hope my version tells the story of the women as the main character,” Mockrin said in an interview with Levine.
In the AGO catalogue interview with Levine, Mockrin said that “it feels like she’s working with complicated subjects, which are about the violation of women or the abuse of power.”
She also said in the interview that “acting as if they’re [women] flawless representation of the real world doesn’t feel right to her.
“They feel like they have to let you know that they are aware of all their problematic issues,” Mockrin said in the interview with Levine. In the exhibition catalogue, it says that she uses familiar female biblical and mythological characters, like Mary Magdalene, the redeemed prostitute, and Jewish Matriarch Rachel, who dies in childbirth, to create new focus and make them the protagonists of their own stories, according to the catalogue.
It shows in the catalogue that Mockrin is aware of her standpoint in society. She reads and paints ancient stories and myths through her lens as an artist.
Through her art, Mockrin led people’s attention to important parts of the story that were rarely exhibited in museums before.
AGO offers free admission for people aged 24 and under. The gallery is located on Dundas and McCaul Streets.
AI is changing how people make music
Artificial Intelligence has been taking over many creative processes, including in the music industry.
From producing to composing, many creators use AI tools to make their music. Unfortunately, some creators use AI to do everything for them, even writing the lyrics. I grew up listening to different kinds of music. It is part of my life, something I can’t live without. I spend so much of my free time every day just looking for new songs from all kinds of genres so I can listen to them when I’m studying or just walking around campus.
One day, I was scrolling on YouTube, looking for a new, fresh playlist to use while studying, when I
stumbled upon a video featuring different songs.
As someone who loves R&B, I was intrigued by this video’s playlist. From the lyrics, voice-tomelody, I thought whoever composed these songs is a genius. Then I tried to find them on other music platforms.
After 30 minutes of searching, I couldn’t find it anywhere.
I was curious, so I decided to look at the creator’s comment section. This is where I found that all of the songs I had enjoyed were made by AI.
The creator said all of their songs were created with the help of AI. There are no singers involved in the making, and the songs will be released on other music platforms later.
A 2023 study by Michele Newman, Lidia Morris, and Jin Ha Lee explored the use of AI in the creative process of music and the ethical implications.
The researchers interviewed six creators working in the music field professionally about the use of AI in their own processes. The three researchers concluded that while AI can help creators to enhance their work, their findings also sup-
port that creators are concerned about the transparency of using AI..
My biggest concern is not how people use AI in creating something, but how people feel okay in using AI to replace their own work.
One thing I realized after listening to this AI-generated music is that the more I listen to it, the more it sounds like robots. It feels different compared to when I listen to Keshi or Justin Bieber. It lacks feelings and emotions.
One of the participants in the Newman, Morris, and Lee study said AI might be able to create things, like poems, but it doesn’t create things deliberately like humans do, making it harder for people to “emotionally connect” with it.
I don’t mind listening to any kind of music, but I want to listen to a real human voice with humanmade lyrics, not with lyrics made by robots.
Art belongs to humans. It was created by humans, and it’s not supposed to be replaced with AI.
I think that’s something that we need to protect.
It seems that the reason why
people depend on AI too much is that they’re not confident about their ideas.
I believe that creativity is part of a human being’s natural gift. We are gifted and capable of creating new things and developing those creations into even greater things. AI is created to imitate or copy.
If AI could imitate emotions, humans would have nothing left to give.
Giovanna Apelabi
Luis Miguel De Castro Senior Reporter
Giovanna Apelabi Culture Editor
A picture of Jesse Mockrin’s painting called The Descent, 2024 displayed at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
HUMBERETC/GIOVANNA APELABI
A student from Humber Polytechnic used the free services provided on campus at the annual Melanin Market by Trendsetter Barbershop, a local barbershop located in Etobicoke.
Sophia Jackson is a Humber graduate from the Child and Youth Care program and owner of Soulful Colour.
ARTWORK/EMMA RANDALL
HUMBERETC/LUIS MIGUEL DE CASTRO
HUMBERETC/LUIS MIGUEL DE CASTRO Valerie Augustine, the owner of Lite it up, sells natural personal care.
HUMBERETC/LUIS MIGUEL DE CASTRO
“I was already expecting that I was going to be late. I thought was going to be 30 minutes late, but was 40 minutes late,” said Rin Alvarado, a first-year pre-health student at Humber.
“People were on strike because they were unhappy with their salary, that’s pretty much all I know,” said Charlotte Cecelia Noseworthy, a psychology student at University of Guelph-Humber.
“I didn’t expect to enjoy the classes that I’m in right now. Even though they’re like three hours long, I’m actually enjoying what I’m doing. And I’m actually enjoying doing homework too, which is weird,” said Audrey Steven, a first-year esthetician and spa management student at Humber.
“The way the government is going and everything, the funding is going everywhere else than for us...Day one has been pretty good. We are very strong support. We’ve had the faculty come out to support us too because even with them like, they stand behind us. And there’s been other unions here as well. As you can see, the buses aren’t turning in because they don’t want to go across our union because they support us and everything.” said Amanda Phillips,a faculty schedular at Humber Polytechnic.
A day in the life of Humber
Full-time support staff walkout, day one
Et Cetera asked the Humber community about their day as more than 10,000 full-time support staff(FTSS) begins strike. FTSS includes technicians, clerks, analysts, technologists, tutors, placement advisors, and facilities operators across 24 Ontario public colleges. Student services such as library, financial aid, student wellness & accessibility centre, etc reported limited support.
Push for inclusivity on campus esports
Marco Moretto HumberETC Sports
The new president of Humber’s Gaming Club, Ethan Sanchez, said he hopes to build on the success of this summer’s esports events, including France x Canada 2.0, by bringing more inclusive gaming opportunities to campus.
Humber Polytechnic hosted France x Canada 2.0 this summer, an esports event that was a big part of Toronto Games Week. The event, which promoted inclusive play, featured a Tekken 8 tournament with respected professional players from France and Ontario.
Jessica Powell, community engagement for Humber Esports, said the goal was to promote inclusive gameplay.
“I think events like this benefit Humber outside of just gameplay in the sense that it really does highlight that anyone from anywhere can engage in gaming in a deeper way,” said Powell, who helped coordinate the event.
Data from a report from Naveen Kumar from demandsage.com shows how esports is growing bigger every year around the world.
The global esports market was estimated to be worth $1.38 billion in 2023, with predictions that it will reach $2.89 billion this year.
France x Canada has now been held for the second year, and Humber Esports producer Alex Kiiffner would like to see it become an annual event.
“Absolutely, I mean that’s the idea behind it,” Kiiffner said. “We would definitely love to do it again.”
France x Canada 2.0 was co-presented by the Ambassade de France au Canada, Institut Français, Women in Games France and
Esport Canada, with Humber Esports handling the behind-the-scenes.
“So not only do you have to coordinate the usual suspects of staffing and production and venue and money, but you’re also working with an arm of the French government,” said Kiiffner on the difficulties of hosting an event like this.
Hosting a tournament with Humber handling on-site production and collaborating with coordinators from another country can be a challenging task. However, the effort can be worth it in the long run.
“Events like these also definitely bring in engagement from separate audiences to Humber Esports,” Powell said.
Looking into the future of Humber Esports, this year’s student gamers can expect Call of Duty, Rocket League, Valorant, League of Legends, Super Smash Bros Ultimate and fighting games like Tekken 8 and Street Fighter to have teams.
“As the new club president of the Humber Gaming Club, I hope to introduce previous events and new ones too,” Sanchez said.
Canadian Collegiate Esports has the
potential to reach the level of its American counterparts as Humber Esports continues to expand. So much so that Humber Esports was recently honoured by the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE).
“Our Esports program just won Emerging Program of the Year at the NACE awards, so this definitely gives me some hope that our program will be one that more and more people recognize as the years progress,” Powell said. “I would hope that success for Humber Esports looks like an inclusive, diverse space where everyone is able to flourish.”
“It’s been a little confusing but like, it’s actually pretty nice, so can’t complain too much, you know? Mainly just like all the terms and stuff they’re using in my courses,” said Nick Panetta, a first-year heating, refrigeration and air conditioning student at Humber.
mentioned the cancellation of her classes.
You love to play. You push boundaries and solve problems. Now get the skills you need to design a better world. We show you how.
There is a story to be told here: mediaarts.humber.ca
“I don’t get why classes are cancelled...They are essential workers and clearly the place is falling apart ,” said Alexis McDonald(left), a pre-health student at Humber Polytechnic. Paige Applegath, another pre-health student also
Contributing reporters clockwise from top left: Josh Melgar, Jordan Pestana Dos Santos, Hayden Dignard, Jo McRae, Andrzej Wisniewski, Thomas Mckenzie, Brookelynn Dell.
Ethan Sanchez, the new president of Humber’s Gaming Club, seeks to bring more inclusive gaming opportunities to the school.
Home opener victory for men’s soccer
Hawks win with 3-0 shutout against Falcons
The first half of the game came and went, and the game remained a scoreless tie.
The Humber Hawks men’s soccer team recorded a clean sheet against Fanshawe Falcons in a 3-0 home opener win at Zanchin Automotive Soccer Centre in Vaughan on Wednesday, Sept. 10. The team were skilled on the field, showing everyone that last year’s Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) champs are more than ready to start this season.
“The first half we struggled, but then we sat down at halftime, had a word with each other, and then picked it up,” fourth-year defensive player Luca Pinto said.
Head coach Jason Mesa said the team did not live up to its potential in the first 45 minutes.
“The first half, we weren’t able to get a good flow into the game, we weren’t able to just settle the ball down,” he said.
During halftime, Mesa said he had “an honest conversation with the players, and they took accountability, knowing they weren’t playing to their full potential, so we made a few substitutions at halftime.
“We brought in some different players into different positions, and it impacted the team in a very positive manner,” he said.
The game remained scoreless until midfielder Tariq Joseph scored the opening goal to set the team off at the 66th minute.
Humber baseball falls to Sheridan in home opener
Denny Luong HumberETC Sports
The Humber Hawks baseball team lost to the Sheridan Bruins, 11-8 in their home opener on Sept. 11.
The Hawks gave up 10 runs in the first three innings while committing seven errors in the game.
Humber fought back, scoring five runs with Jack Young delivering three runs, hitting a double, cutting the deficit to three in the sixth inning.
But the team was unable to close the gap in the seventh inning and was handed its first loss of the season.
Despite the defeat, the Hawks entered the season with new motivation and a hunger to improve following last year’s playoff early exit.
“Going into the game, it felt like a lot of weight on my shoulders,” Joseph said. Joseph wasn’t the only one who noticed the team’s focus changed after the first goal.
“The goal was a huge momentum boost for us and gave us all confidence to keep going,” Pinto said.
Getting the first goal of the home opener was a big deal to Joseph.
“That was a big goal, as soon as I saw it hit the back of the net, I was like ‘Oh my God,’” Joseph said.
Not only did the players notice the change, but the head coach did as well, applauding the work done on the pitch.
“The overall work rate we adapted in the second half elevated our team and put us in more of an attacking phase more consistently, so our team’s confidence grew throughout the second half,” Mesa said.
Shortly after Joseph’s goal, Pinto kicked off into the net, paving the way for Humber’s second goal after a trip was called, and the Hawks secured a penalty shot. Pinto took the shot on Fanshawe goalie Dylan DaSilva and got the second goal
for Humber at the 69th minute.
“It felt really good for the team, it always feels good to score,” Pinto said.
The streak didn’t stop there for the Hawks. Forward Cristiano Candelaresi scored the final goal of the game at the 82nd minute, giving the Hawks a clean 3-0 sweep in their home opener against Fanshawe with a fantastic start to the 2025-2026 season.
The red-hot men’s team, ranked Number 1 nationally, boasts a 5-0-0 record, with a tally of 21 goals for and two against so far this season.
Meanwhile, the Humber Hawks women’s soccer team took the field directly after, finishing off with a 2-0 win against the Falcons. Forward Kaylese Callender scored the opening goal, followed by midfielder Elisa Oliveira, who found the back of the net in the 39th minute, giving the women’s team a 2-0 win against Fanshawe in their home opener.
The women’s squad is now 2-0-2, with a tie against Conestoga Condors on Sept. 13, and is ranked eighth nationally.
Both teams play again next Sept. 24 at their home field, Zanchin Automotive Centre in Vaughan.
Being a sports journalist has always been a dream of mine.
Often, as a kid, I would find myself in front of the television, wondering about the thought of “how cool it would be to cover this one day” as I watched a game.
But now that I have somewhat reached my goal of becoming one, I realize how difficult it is working in a male-dominated industry.
According to a 2021 report by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES), 85.6 per cent of reporters within Canada and the United States were men, and 14.4 per cent were
“I think this year kind of humbled us, and I think that’s going to be the biggest key coming into this year, we’re a little bit more humble now and a lot more hungry than we’ve ever been,” he said.
Groves said the team’s key to the championship is coming
Outfielder Justin Groves said before the game that the team’s postseason last year left them more humble and hungrier heading into this season.
together as a group and ensuring that everyone is on the same page.
“It’s hard to win baseball games when you have three or four different guys pulling separate directions, so we just need to all work together as one big group, and I think that we have the team to do it this year,” he said.
“Baseball is tough, like you can be doing everything right and have some negative things happen to you and not have a ton of success,” he said.
“Eventually, if you’re doing things the right way and you’re talented like we are, things will break through.”
Head coach Troy Black, now in his fifth season with the Hawks, said while playoff seeding is important, the team’s focus should be on trusting the process and not being result-focused.
Fair play equals access for female reporters
women.
From the interviews to late-night game coverage, final deadlines, and the comments I’ve heard over time, starting as a reporter can be rewarding but equally draining, too.
Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to cover women’s basketball, softball and even the Ontario Colleges Athletics Association (OCAA) women’s volleyball championship games.
In the background, there were also times where I’d stay up writing into the early morning hours or come home to see my family was all asleep, after not speaking to them all day.
And of course, I could not forget the late-night barbacoa burrito orders from Gus Tacos. Those things saved me.
The crazy part is, no matter how much it deteriorated me emotionally, I’d somehow get up in the morning and do it all over again the next day, simply because I love what I do.
This time last year, I remember attending one of my first-ever pitch meetings where my professor asked me if I’d be willing to cover a softball game that weekend.
Unsure if I even wanted to cover that
beat in the first place, the pressure of everyone’s gazes got to me as I hesitantly spat out a “yes” without even thinking.
My mind, on the other hand, instantly thought of the countless what-ifs.
“What if my photos don’t turn out well?” Or, “what if my interviews go south,” or “what if I seem like I don’t know what I’m talking about?”
The list went on.
Despite the amount of doubt I had in myself, I went through with it, and this softball story was my debut article for Humber Et Cetera.
Little did I know that it would become a constant uphill battle
A few months in, and I no longer found the pitch meetings to be something I enjoyed.
Every week, I sat in an uncomfortable, plastic chair, feeling judged any time I tried to offer a suggestion or pitch a story.
Not only this, but whenever I tried to make conversation with some people in my beat, nine times out of 10, they’d speak to me for five seconds, then turn around and ignore me as if I never existed.
This moment in particular was when I realized that I’d have to work one thousand times harder to prove that I, too, deserve a spot at the table.
Having to go from covering one story a week to eventually two in a day on top of my other classes was anything but easy.
Some weeks, I found that I would stretch myself thin to make sure that we’d be able to get at least one women’s sports story up on the website.
Now, it’s not much different.
Fast forward to the final year, and I am now Humber Et Cetera’s women’s sports editor.
The first sports editor within my program to take on a role solely dedicated to women’s sports.
So far, my editorial role has been a little harder than I thought.
Suddenly, I found myself having to rely on those in the year below me to report on the stories.
A task that isn’t as easy as it sounds, especially after I’ve built up the skills to be able to report on multiple stories a week.
It felt like I had been transported back to elementary school, but instead of being the girl surrounded by friends, I was the girl standing in the corner alone.
As for when I leave the program, I hope that other women in the future see my work as an inspiration.
I’d want them to know that even though it might be a difficult path to go down – like many events in our lives –your hesitancy is the only thing stopping you from chasing your dreams. Know that it is okay to make mistakes while doing something you’ve never done before, because what matters is that you still tried.
Making spots for other women at the table is the only way to change the narrative for a better future.
Instead, I now find myself waiting for those stories to come in. In addition, I also didn’t think I’d be greeted without using my name or told that the quality of my work was supposedly sloppy. Especially since I’ve worked incredibly hard to get to where I am today. I have now realized, unfortunately, experiences like this may continue to be my reality. I just have to remember to keep my head held high throughout it all.
From left, defender Adrian Anthony joins teammates Evan Moreau, Matias Lescano, Franz Mella, and Matthew Smith in a group photo before the game. The Hawks beat Fanshawe. HUMBERETC/MADISON BOYNTON
Nina A. Kersnik
TALES FROM HUMBER
Third-year Humber Hawks baseball pitcher and first baseman Callum Blue (21) swings on a pitch during the Sept. 11 home opener against the Sheridan Bruins at Connorvale Park.
HUMBERETC/DENNY LUONG
Nina Kersnik, she/her, is a Humber Et Cetera Woman’s Sports editor. She covers sports and news stories.
HUMBER ET CETERA SPORTS
HAWKS’ 7 ERRORS RUIN HOME OPENER
