COSMETICS COZY UP FOR CHRISTMAS
HUMBER’S GOT TALENT CONTESTANTS
STEAL THE SHOW P. 3
ANNUAL HOLIDAY TOY DRIVE BOX FILLED TO THE BRIM WITH TOYS P. 5
Frost cycling supports food security
Humber’s fitness program raises money through annual winter cycle
Giovanna Apelabi HumberETC News
Second-year Fitness and Health Promotion student and Frost and Forward organizer, Gebre Byrnes, said they are “hoping to raise $1,000” from this event.
“Honestly, we’re just hoping to raise money for families and anyone who is in need,” he said.
This year, the Fitness and Health Promotions partnered with Daily Bread to support people struggling with food insecurity.
According to the Daily Bread’s Who’s Hungry report, more people rely on food banks more frequently and for longer periods of time because of a deepened hunger crisis.
Aside from the cycling event, Byrnes said they also held a bake sale on Nov. 18 to raise funds.
“We’ve actually just had our free event, which is a bake sale,” he said. “We raised about $600 at that one event, so I think we’re hoping to raise around $1,000.”
Byrnes said everyone is welcome, even if they don’t have anything to donate.
However, they need to donate to join a team.
“We just want everyone who comes to have a good time, have fun,” he said.
Frost and Forward participant Ashlyn Brace said that although she only donated $5, the energy level at this event will get people interested in donating and hearing about the cause.
“The amount of energy you bring will get other people to come and participate,” Brace said. “And if they don’t do it [donate] today, they can do it another day.”
The Frost and Forward wasn’t just a serious cycling challenge. It was an event filled with good vibes and high energy, keeping the
participants’ energy high until the end.
“I just love how everybody got up on the front and danced,”Brace said. “Like, I didn’t feel like I was at a normal cycling class. I
keep it that way when he teaches.
“If you’re passionate about doing stuff, it comes easy. So the energy is already there,” Rosal said.
He also said his coaching expe -
felt like I was at a party.”
Humber’s Fitness and Health Promotions’ graduate Jay Rosal said this was his second time being an instructor for Humber’s cycle challenge.
“I was the MC when I was in school, but last year they had me here for being an instructor, so this is my second time doing it, and I love it,” he said.
Rosal said he’s passionate about cycling, and as an energetic and extroverted person, he likes to
rience made it easier for him to pick up the participants’ energy.
“If I show any fatigue, they’re going to be like, okay, he’s tired, I’m going to be tired,” he said.
“But if I show that I’m having fun, and that the energy is up, then they’re more inclined to also keep that energy up.”
As of press time, the Daily Bread Food Bank’s campaign page for Frost and Forward reported $1,821.79 had been raised.
Participants, and staff laughing together at the Frost and Forward cycling event raising money with the Daily Bread on Dec. 2 for food insecurity.
HUMBERETC/GIOVANNA APELABI
Instructor Jay Rosal hyping partcipants in the LRC.
Participants cycling on exercise bikes at the Frost and Forward event.
HUMBERETC/GIOVANNA APELABI
Humber’s hidden talents shine
sage that she is trying to share through her song of choice.
Humber’s Talent showcased many diverse performers who have worked hard to share their talents at the fundraising event to fight student food insecurity.
The event happened in the LinX Lounge on the North campus on Dec. 2.
Tuba Chishti, who works in student success engagement as a senior administrator, said the fundraising is to help students with food insecurity.
‘’All the talent donated their talents, so they didn’t get paid anything. It’s all to raise money for students struggling with food and security,’’ she said.
‘’I don’t know the exact amount, it was just under $5,000,’’ Chishti said about the amount raised. ‘’I think it might be over $5,000 by the end.’’ Chishti said the event was timed for Giving Tuesday.
‘’Today is Giving Tuesday, students will be on campus, as well, so we want to do it while students are still here, but also because today we get donations doubled,’’ she said.
All performers contributed to the students who struggle with food insecurity.
Ramandeep Kaur, who works in the HR department, performed a Punjabi dance.
‘’I specifically chose a Punjabi dance, and this is basically my way of telling people that humans are the most beautiful creatures God has created,’’’ Kaur said.
Kaur talked more about the mes-
‘’You don’t need jewellery, you don’t need expensive clothes, you don’t need any fancy stuff like the way you love, the way you give to society, and the way you love and respect other people and support other people, that’s the best way,’’ she said. ‘’ And if you can do that, you are such an angel.’’
Kaur said she was excited to be able to help others.
‘’I’m so excited, and I’ve been so happy that I was able to contribute my way to this event in the aspect of supporting Humber’s students for their food and security,’’ she said.
Kaur said her parents’ lesson on giving back to society inspired her to participate in this year’s talent showcase. Medical issues prevented Kaur from participating in the past.
She said her parents taught her to donate and give back to society “as a human being, and since the last three years, I was not able to do much towards society,’’ Kaur said.
Kaur said being able to dance brought her happiness, and she enjoyed herself.
Eric Landry, who said he has been drumming for 38 years, performed in a drum solo at 90 beats per minute.
‘’I grabbed a whole bunch of beats from different drummers over the years that I knew, and then I put some solo drumming on the end of it,’’ he said.
Landry said he wanted to try something new and the talent show was the perfect opportunity to do it.
‘’Like a drum solo. I’ve never done it. I
always just sat in the back, and the band played. I could hide behind the band, and I never did the solo, and I thought, ‘Okay, let me see if I can put something together here,’’’ he said. ‘’It was kind of a personal creative challenge.’’
Landry had a motivational message for all the performers.
‘’Persistent and keep trying. I think the other thing that really helps me is I have a very inspirational teacher,’’ he said.
Chishti talks about how she was inspired by the performances.
‘’It’s just so inspiring and wonderful because we get to see people like in one small part of them, so getting to see this huge part of them is wonderful,’’ she said.
Zakir Mohammed, who works in
the Information Technology Services department as an event coordinator and is part of the organizing committee, said the experience was enjoyable.
‘’I love it. It brings everybody together, it’s for a good cause, and we raised some money, and people had fun,’’ he said.
Mohammed believes the event brought many people to see the performers, and he’s encouraging more students to see the next talent show.
‘’There were a lot of students here today, but I recommend for the next year more students come in and enjoy the show. And see what the Humber staff has to offer in terms of talent,’’ Mohammed said.
Etay Beaton is a second-year marketing student at Humber Polytechnic was born and raised in Toronto, but he is known in the Humber community as TikTok influencer “Lotion Guy.”
He’s a regular on social media, where he discusses different or various topics or subjects while rubbing lotion on his hands.
Beaton said his career started after reaching 50,000 followers and being banned, but he still wanted to voice his opinions on social media.
“During the summertime, I went to an event called Afrofest, and something tragic happened,” the business marketing student said.
“I think it was a 17-year-old boy that passed away. I wanted to voice my opinion on it and how Toronto has become very dangerous,” Beaton said. “And then I posted about it, and then it blew up. It got like 800,000 views, so I was like, okay, since I have like a voice that’s influencing.” But he wanted a change of pace. He didn’t feel comfortable talking about the bad and the negative of Toronto, so he had a change of plans in content.
“Until I realized, I don’t really want to associate myself with all the bad crime, all the stuff that’s going on with Toronto,” Beaton said.
“So, I was like, why don’t I just post about myself and relatable things that we all go through. And during that time, I would also apply lotion on my hands. It happened one time. My hands were drying in the video, so I was like, let me just kill two stones with two birds with one stone,” he said.
He is also very grateful and happy with the influence that he has in the Humber community.
“Well, I’m humble, so I’m not going to say a lot,” Beaton said. “There’s been a lot of people that have recognized me. Even today, I was as I was walking to this meeting, I’ve had like three people stop me and be like, ‘Hey, you’re the lotion guy.’ But it’s really a privilege.”
This report is by Luca Agostino, HumberETC News.
HUMBERETC/LUCA AGOSTINO
Humber TikTok inluencer Etay Beaton or “Lotion Guy,”talked about one simple action becoming his signature brand.
Olivia Masztalerz HumberETC News Drummer Eric Landry plays a drum solo at an incredible 90 beats per minute during Humber’s got Talent helping fundraise to fight student food insecurity.
HUMBERETC/OLIIVIA MASZTALERZ
Children’s entertainer Mark Pezzelato performs with an audience member.
HUMBERETC/OLIVIA MASZTALERZ
U of GH students seeking toys for shelter
Toy drive organizers need donations for women’s centre
Jo McRae HumberETC News
Jessica Rodrigues smiled as she reminisced about childhood Christmas memories.
“I used to get these kinds of donation boxes when I was a kid, so those used to make my day when they would come and drop it off,” she said. “It would make my mom happy that we would get those presents and, you know, see a smile on our face.”
As an adult, Rodrigues helped organize her Early Childhood Studies program’s second annual toy drive at the University of Guelph-Humber.
She said this year’s toy drive donations will go to Ernestine’s Women’s Shelter.
Samantha Doerksen, a child and youth counsellor at Ernestine’s, said she appreciates toy donations during the holiday season.
Moving into a shelter is “a very vulnerable time,” and donations can help a child’s sense of security, respect, and dignity, she said.
“Often when kids come in, you
see, kind of like, nervous system dysregulation that plays out in a lot of different ways for kids,”
Doerksen said.
Children often work through their experiences through play, she said.
“It can also make you feel
valued in the world and make you feel like people are acknowledging your importance in the world, and that can also bring a sense of, like, confidence,” Doerksen said.
Rodrigues said when she was a child, she was grateful no matter the gift.
“Even just the toothpaste, honestly. It used to be, like, candy-flavoured, and I used to like that,” she said.
“I think that’s something people might not realize, that children will be, like, happy and appreciative for anything that they’re given, especially if they’re usually not given that,” Rodrigues said.
Zoe Collat, also in Early Childhood Studies, said she helped with the first toy drive last year.
She said she remembered some of the donations, like Play-Doh or a Rainbow Loom, from her childhood and how she enjoyed them.
“I can’t wait for a child to open that under the tree one day,” Collat said.
“Squishmallows last year, they donated, which I thought would be a good hit, Lego,” she said.
“Yeah, just like some staples in childhood, I think, every kid deserves to have a chance to play with.
Doerksen said she had the “privilege” of personalizing toy donations to each of the children she works with.
“I think that’s really special,
and I think it makes children feel loved and like they matter,” she said. “I think it makes parents feel cared for, and important, and dignified to see their child receive not just one toy, but multiple toys that really acknowledge who they are as a child.
“It matters more than the physical item,” she said.
Rodrigues said all the donated gifts she received in childhood stood out to her.
“Even the smallest thing would make even a mom, like, having to see her children open a present, like, really happy,” she said.
New toy donations can be dropped off until Dec. 20 at the ECS Resource Centre in Room 318 or the ECS Office in Room 308, Rodrigues said.
Collat said the toy drive is a “great chance to give back.”
She glanced at the toy donation bin on her right.
“I know everyone’s financial situation is different, but a small toy can go a long way,” she said. “Some children don’t get that, and I think every child deserves to have a Christmas.”
Jessica Rodrigues (left) and Zoe Callot (right) hold toys donated to the Early Childhood Studies toy drive. Donations will be sent to Ernestine’s Women’s Shelter in Toronto.
HUMBERETC/JO MCRAE
Jessica Rodrigues holds two toys donated to the Early Childhood Studies toy drive which will be sent to Ernestine’s Women’s Shelter in Toronto.
HUMBERETC/JO MCRAE
Humber’s annual toy drive kicks off holidays
K’Leeanna Marriott HumberETC News
The holidays are starting early at Humber College, officially kicking off this festive season by spreading cheer to local families.
The college’s Department of Public Safety is leading the campus’ Holiday Toy Drive, running until Dec. 11.
The drive wants to motivate students to “strengthen Humber’s culture of care and community involvement,” Cassandra Dias from Humber’s Department of Public Safety said in an email interview.
Drop-off locations at the North campus are at the LRC lobby, LRC sixth floor, the student residence lobby, and the NX101 public desk.
Drop-off boxes at Lakeshore campus are found in the L Building lobby, the WEL Building lobby, student Residence R, student Residence AR, and the University of Guelph-Humber’s drop-off is by the main floor front desk.
Jayse Costales, a student at Guelph-
Humber, said the Toy Drive is a way for people in the community to make others feel welcomed during the holidays.
Something he remembers well from his childhood was being given Hot Wheels, recollecting that “when I came back from the break, I could play with my friends,” Costales said.
Although the pressure of exams has left him short on time this semester, Costales still believes the initiative is important, reminding students that these gestures can make a big difference for families during the holidays.
With a large box wrapped in festive paper on the exterior, the inviting toy drive poster at the front of the package makes it hard to miss.
Dias said some popular gifts to donate are “board games, STEM-oriented kits, creative art sets, and sports equipment.”
She said these common items reflect Humber’s ongoing commitment to help “families and children in need throughout the local community before the holidays.”
The annual drive has provided “hundreds of toys to several local hospitals and families in the GTA” in past years, according to the internal employees’ newsletter Humber Communique.
Besides toys, items like “books, self-care sets, and especially gift cards,” are meaningful for children, families, and teenagers who feel underrepresented throughout the holiday season, Dias said.
Donations are picked up by Toronto Police Services, who distribute them to families and children in need throughout the community before the holidays, Dias said.
She calls contributions a simple yet powerful way for students to give back and build up spirit within the collective.
Jennett Mays, a communWications officer with Barrie Police, said community-driven initiatives like Humber’s toy drive allow officers to “give back to the community that we serve and to help out those that might need it.”
Mays said families value the opportunity
to meet in non-emergency settings. It helps officers and auxiliary volunteers “engage with them on a more personal level that they might not have time to when they’re responding to a call for service,” Mays said.
Officers participate in these drives voluntarily, organizing their efforts because they want to be involved. “It’s all officers who are volunteering their time and volunteering to be a part of it,” she said.
Mays said other initiatives, like Holiday with a Hero, are programs that pair officers with children, chosen by the United Way, which can be a meaningful experience for police.
In this experience, “they shop using donated gift cards, and the officers accompany the kids around the store and help them pick out gifts for their families,” Mays said.
With every donated toy, STEM-oriented kit, or piece of sports equipment, the same feeling of belonging that students like Jayse Costales experienced helps make the season brighter for families across the GTA.
Canada's grocery prices reach an extreme high
Irecently went to buy groceries and walked out with only half of what I needed and a much emptier wallet than I expected. Even though inflation is slowing, grocery prices in Canada keep climbing.
Statistics Canada shows that in Sep tember 2025, food prices were about 4 per cent higher than last year. For many Canadians, that number isn’t just a statistic, it’s a weekly struggle to put fresh, healthy food on the table.
According to the 2025 CFPR, meat prices are expected to rise four to six per cent, vegetables three to five per cent, bakery and dairy two to four per cent, and the overall food price increase for the year is forecast at three to five per cent. Over the past year, many Canadians have changed the way they shop for groceries. According to the 2025 CFPR, 48.2 per cent of people said they looked for more sales and discounts. Others said that buying fewer non-essential items (22 per cent), switching to cheaper brands (21.6 per cent), or shopping at less expensive stores (24.9 per cent).
sive, so does chicken, and even basic items like canned goods are no longer a “safe” option for families trying to stretch their budgets.
This means that even the centre aisles of the store, where people often run to escape inflation, will no longer offer relief.
Food insecurity in Canada is getting worse. The Daily Bread Food Bank’s Who’s Hungry report shows that food-bank visits in Toronto reached 4.1 million in just one year, the highest number ever. Before the pandemic, Daily Bread served about 60,000 people every month. Now, that number has jumped to 330,000.
This is not normal. And it is not sustainable. Healthy food shouldn’t feel like a luxury, but
I know global supply problems, bad weather, and higher labour costs make food more expensive. But Canada’s grocery industry said that when big grocery stores keep raising prices while making big profits, it shows they care more about money than need.
The worst part is that we don’t know why prices keep going up, and everyone has to pay for it.
Food is a basic necessity. Skipping meals or settling for low-quality options affects health, energy, and overall well-being. No one should feel stressed walking into a supermarket. It's time for stronger government oversight. Grocery stores should be required to explain why they raise prices and be more transparent about their costs. This isn’t about punishing businesses, it’s about fairness.
At the same time, more people are relying on food banks. In March 2024, Food Banks Canada recorded 2,059,636 visits a six per cent increase from the year before and almost double the number from five years ago. Many of those visiting food banks are working, with nearly one in five clients employed, showing that even people with jobs are struggling to afford groceries.
Managing a household budget is hard enough without having to make tough choices at the grocery store.
Researchers at Dalhousie University predict that in 2026, food prices could rise another four to six per cent, with meat increasing the most. According to the report from Canada Beef, beef alone could go up seven per cent because of smaller cattle, tariffs, and fewer ranchers. When beef gets more expen
EDITORIAL
School of Clean Energy is what Canada needs
Canada keeps talking about reaching a net-zero future, but without enough trained workers, those goals won’t become a reality. Right now, the country doesn’t have enough people with the skills needed for clean-energy jobs.
That’s why Humber Polytechnic’s new School of Clean Energy is so important. It will train the next generation of workers and help Canada move forward with its clean-energy plans.
Canada has been short on trained workers in renewable energy, electrification, nuclear power, batteries, and smart-grid technology. Reports show the demand for clean-energy talent is growing faster than the training available, which slows progress on climate goals.
Humber’s North Campus, a real-world lab where students interact with solar panels, battery storage, electric-vehicle chargers, and smart-grid systems.
Humber has also signed an agreement with the Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA) to help build the workforce needed for nuclear-energy projects across Canada.
Humber isn’t new to this work. It has been named one of Canada’s Greenest Employers for ten years, and its North Campus already acts as a “living lab” where students use real buildings and systems to solve energy problems.
The new School of Clean Energy builds on this hands-on approach, giving students even more practical, industry-focused learning experiences.
Other countries keep grocery prices reasonable while still supporting the food industry. Canada can do that too.
I want to buy groceries without worrying that healthy food is becoming too expensive. Big grocery chains need to be held accountable because food is a basic need, not something to take advantage of.
OECD Economic Survey of Canada shows that other countries have implemented policies requiring grocery chains to justify price
Humber’s new School of Clean Energy helps close that gap by giving students the skills needed for these fast-growing fields.
The School of Clean Energy is designed for the industries that are growing right now. Students will learn about nuclear energy, wind and solar power, electrical systems, energy storage, modern power grids, and even AI tools that help manage energy in cities. These skills match what the industry needs today.
These aren’t future jobs, they’re jobs that already exist. Companies across Ontario and Canada need trained workers now, and the demand for these skills is expected to grow even more over the next
Humber is collaborating with major industry partners. For example, it has a formal partnership with
This isn’t just good for Humber, it’s good for Canada. To reach climate goals, modernize energy systems, and handle extreme weather, the country needs thousands more skilled workers. Humber is helping train them.
The Canadian government is funding support training and upskilling in clean-energy and low-carbon jobs. For instance, a recent federal announcement pledged millions to retrain thousands of workers in AI and energy sector roles to meet the low-carbon transition.
Parthvi Patel
Canada's zero-emissions goal is more achievable with Humber's School of Clean Energy. HUMBETETC
Comic books thrive in Gen Z’s screen-driven life
Growing up, I was a reader. I liked anything that remotely caught my attention, mermaid books, fairy books and princess books. I read them all, and I loved them.
As I grew older, things changed. Our generation shifted the minute they got their first phone. A 2024 survey of digital well-being by Statistics Canada found that in 2020, around 96 per cent of Canadians aged 15 to 24 had a smartphone. This left no room in our generation for freedom beyond a phone. Everyone my age had one and was glued to the screen, so I wanted to be too and learned very quickly how easy it was. I no longer read a book. I consumed media, whether it was Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat or
OPINION
eventually TikTok. I didn’t have time for reading. This generation has been bred to be
sold at auction for US$9.12 million in November and is the most expensive comic ever sold.
too distracted by their phones, so that everything else is con sidered longform content, including books and even movies.
That required a longer attention span than we had . I forgot how to imagine if I couldn’t have an image in front of me.
That’s when I found comics. They truly possess a whole separate type of value, demonstrated by the way they are held in such high esteem among collectors and general readers alike.
A press release by Heritage Auctions said a copy of a high-grade Superman 1, a 1939 first-edition,
Heritage said a previous Action Comics 1 previously set the record at US$6 million. These numbers show just how much some people are willing to spend for a piece of art and literature that I have heard people call "childish."
My love of comics didn’t last long before I got older and started seeing how people around me reacted to seeing them, usually with distaste. I would hear things like “It’s for boys,” or “comics are a lesser form of fiction.”
But that simply isn’t true.
I believe comics deserve more recognition despite the negativity they face for “being for children,” for the way they blend art and literature into a digestible format for people of any
age.
A 2022 Booknet Canada report called Canadian Leisure and Reading stated that overall, book consumers ages 18 to 29 are the most likely age group to have read comics, manga or graphic novels. Comics are a life form entirely on their own. A piece of art that melds with literature to make something else entirely. They are the perfect form of entertainment to help engage those who don’t read books but love reading, and those who need something visual to be kept entertained.
Scott McCloud's 1993 book, Understanding Comics, explored the idea that the traditional thinking that great works of art and literature are possible only when kept at arm’s length isn’t the reality.
He recognized, as I did too, the older I got, and the less I allowed society and others to define
what I liked and how I liked it, that comics are a beautiful form of entertainment.
“As children, we ‘show and tell’ interchangeably. Words and images combining to transmit a connected series of ideas,” McCloud wrote. “Indeed, words and pictures have great powers to tell stories when creators fully exploit them both.”
Books are great, but they leave so much to the imagination, and movies leave too little. McCloud wrote it best, that “when pictures carry the weight of clarity in a scene, they free words to explore a wider area.”
Technology create barriers to growth, development
Band-posters, Blockbuster VHS tapes, road hockey, and playgrounds – all part of a time that was my childhood and a time that seemed simpler, more hands-on. Then everything sped up. Technology made everything faster, but not for the better.
Children used to play in sandboxes, climb their school playground monkey bars, hockey nets filled neighbourhood streets as players yelled "car" when motorists interrupted their games.
Now it feels as though those
hands grasp cell phones, not sticks and playground monkey bars. Children grow up led by technology, not playing outside with their friends, but "talking" by texting on their devices.
I remember when I was younger, how excited I would get about the Scholastic book fair. I would be anxious to dive into books by Robert Munsch, Dr. Seuss and Eric Carle. My friends and I would be looking at picture books and talking, or playing games like Heads Up, Seven Up or Wax Museum.
Now it seems like enthusiasm for games, books, and engagement with friends is being eroded by a growing reliance and even obsession with screens.
A 2022 Canadian Paediatric Society study on children and screen time described what that looks like from early infancy.
“Nearly all children in Canada are exposed to screens by the age of two, and only 15 per cent of Canadian children ages 3-4 meet screen time requirements of one hour per day," the study said.
The CPS also said that before the Coronavirus 2019, parents reported their children to have an average daily screen time of 1.9 hours per day.
“As an early marker of developmental risk, language delay in preschoolers is a closely studied correlation of screen time. Research examining TV exposure, whether on a big screen or tablet, has consistently correlated greater amounts of early screen exposure with delayed acquisition of language and lower vocabulary and grammar scores,” the study showed.
I have had a difficult time wrapping my head around the takeover screens have had on our youth, and now this has been further complicated by the furious pace of AI.
Just short of its third launch anniversary, ChatGPT has become a fast and easy tool for research.
ChatGPT provides access to answers, ideas, research, and relevant contact information via the web and content summarization as a whole. It is designed to direct users’ questions and prompt responses that seem personalized, organized, and
well thought-out.
However, ChatGPT takes the hard work of critical thought away from us.
I find this quite scary. It can easily hurt one’s cognitive function and adaptation to reality.
ChatGPT could encourage the wrong idea, especially for children.
Young children who have been playing with screens from babyhood will enter the school system knowing how to use AI, how to use ChatGPT for schoolwork and how to find anything about anything, even topics that may be harmful to young minds.
When high school or college rolls around, they are going to continue these same unhealthy patterns and then enter the workforce. Who knows what technological advances will be battering our world then?
A study done by KPMG this past month found that, on average, 73 per cent of Canadian students have gradually become reliant on the use of AI.
But AI is a form of plagiarism. Students can face harsh repercussions if they use AI for assignments.
The reliance on AI can hurt their future job prospects. Who will hire someone who cannot think for themselves but needs to tap into their phone to find the answers?
The pandemic changed the workplace. No longer going to work in an office setting, people were working from home. This became the norm after the pandemic receded. And the influence of AI further affected the workplace as companies started training employees on ChatGPT as another way to streamline working remotely, and to cut hours.
Our over-reliance on devices and AI-generated platforms is mistaking advancement for improvement, and the result is that we are destroying our abilities to think creatively and independently, to problem solve and to exchange ideas.
We need to take a break, put down the phones, close the laptops and open a book, go outside and play and talk to another. Depend on ourselves, not the tech.
Laura Rodgers
HUMBETETC/LAURA RODGERS
Mia Badju
Mia Badju, she/her, is a news reporter at Humber Et Cetera. She covers news and culture.
Laura Rodgers, she/her, is a news reporter at Humber Et Cetera. She covers news and culture.
COPYRIGHT/ DC COMICS
Holiday Helpers fight high poverty rates
Celine Sy Senior Reporter
For some families, Santa’s workshop isn’t in the North Pole.
Rather, it’s in Mississauga’s Square One inside an unused retail space beside a Starbucks, where dozens of volunteers from Holiday Helpers wrap and package items for struggling families, hoping to provide them with some holiday spirit.
“We know this is a really stressful time for parents,” co-founder Sarah Rutka said. “So, when you’re living in a low-income situation. It can be really tough to make ends meet, and we know a lot of these families are already accessing food banks and subsidized housing. And so it’s difficult to buy even the
workshop, Holiday Helpers deal with more than just toys.
Inside every package is a set of winter clothing for each family member, two household items, two toys for each child and two gifts for each adult.
Poverty relief is part of Holiday Helpers’ plan, Rutka says.
“So every kid receives toys, but we also want to make sure that we’re providing poverty relief items,” she said. “So every family will receive winter coats and hats, and mitts, because we think that’s really important. But they also get household items, so things like warm blankets and household items like kitchen items, like kettles and toasters.
“We just want to help them by providing them
might not be able to afford,” Rutka said.
This coming Christmas will be Holiday Helpers’ 21st year of gift giving, and their 2025 goal is to help 1,300 families throughout the GTA and Hamilton.
A number that may continue to increase in the future.
“Every year we have more and more families that ask for help,” Rukta said. “So yes, I think things are, we are seeing the demand get greater and greater. More and more families need help this time of year.”
The Daily Bread Food Bank’s 2025 “Who’s Hungry” report states that food bank visits in Toronto reached 4.1 million, an increase of 500,000 from 2024.
And Social Planning Toronto’s most recent child poverty report shows an increase to 25.3 per cent — one in four children — from 16.8 per cent.
Even a few of the volunteers talked about how economic anx iety has put their volunteer work into a different light.
During a break from wrapping gifts, volunteer Saiyyada Rizvi said the cost of food is becoming difficult for many.
“You know, I think every time someone is going to the grocery store, I think that’s the first time they really see it,” she said. “I mean, doing
weekly groceries, which is like the bare minimum, now comes to an amount which is much larger, which puts it into perspective how challenging it may be for people who may be strapped for financial needs and stuff like that.”
Another volunteer, Tracey Whittall, says her exposure to the program opened her eyes to the struggles people face.
“Like coming here, you really,” and she thought for a few seconds, searching for words. “It’s a humbling experience. It really does make you reflect on the work that they do here and the fact that we can bring a lot of joy to families that may not otherwise have that.”
But while the economic statistics look bleak, Holiday Helpers are focusing on making
receive the packages.
Those packages also have the tendency of coming back to them, just in a different way.
Rutka said volunteers never forget about their time at Holiday Helpers.
“We actually have met volunteers that have come back 10 or 15 years later, and they say to us that we received a Holiday Helpers’ package,” she said. “So, it’s really cool to see it come first circle.
“It’s nice to meet them to know, because they’ll tell us that, like, it made an impact,” Rutka said. “And what’s nice to see, that it made such an impact that they, too, as an adult, they wanted to give back. So that’s a really nice thing to see that when you can help somebody out, it creates a circle of everybody giving back. So it’s really nice
on Oct. 15, 2025.
Toronto film fest breaks glass ceiling
Grace MacInerney
HumberETC Features
Breaking into show business, apparently, is all about who you know, and the Female Eye Film Festival helps women and non-binary people make connections in the industry.
Leslie-Ann Coles and Norma Hoy held a screening event called The Female Eye in Toronto in 2001 after Coles noticed a lack of female directors on the festival circuit.
Coles submitted her debut film, In the Refrigerator: Spirit of a Hunted Dancer to festivals in 2000, which nearly led her to the 73rd Academy Awards.
She said she wanted to know whether there were so few, or if festivals were not programming female-directed films.
The inaugural festival showed 42 films at the Bloor Cinema directed by women or non-binary people. Coles said she never intended for the event to become an annual film festival, but 24 years later, it has become an internationally recognized festival. The festival usually runs in the summer, but this year it was rescheduled for Oct. 14 to Oct. 19.
The festival tries to counter the findings of a 2025 study by Stacy L.
Smith and Katherine Pieper, with USC Annenberg’s Inclusion Centre, who analyzed “the 100 most popular films as listed on Box Office Mojo” over the last 18 years and found only 6.6 per cent of those directors were female.
Nearly four out of five female directors with one top film have not directed another, the study showed.
In the top 100 films in the last 18 years, Tyler Perry has directed 18, Steven Spielberg has directed 12, and Ridley Scott and Clint Eastwood, each directed 11, the study found.
The research showed that in the same category, Anne Fletcher and Lana Wachowski each have four films, Greta Gerwig directed three, and 17 other female directors each have two.
The study concluded Hollywood’s female directors’ employment was “clearly uncoupled” from their success. A standout moment for Coles at the festival was in 2006 when Deborah Kampmeier, a director from New York, called her to consider her film, Virgin, a two-hour feature film denied by film festivals.
the screening, Kampmeier was carrying two massive 35 mm film cartridges down the streets of Toronto.
The film starred an unknown actress at the time, Elisabeth Moss, who would later reach stardom from her roles in Mad Men and The Handmaid’s Tale.
Moss attended FeFF that year. Coles went to a “weird prop shop” to get an honourary best
of script development officer since 2022.
The story editors at the script development workshop give “incredible notes,” where screenwriters make industry connections, Cavasotto said. She said the public is encouraged to attend script readings.
The FeFF schedules are published on their websites and social media platforms.
actress award.
Coles said she knew she was going to be “a huge star.”
Coles watched the film and was “blown away,” and accepted it for FeFF. But Kampmeier was stalled at a border crossing. An hour before
She said Kampmeier has an incredibly successful career and was an honorary director at FeFF in 2020.
Lia Cavasotto joined FeFF as an intern in 2017 and has held the role
Cavasotto said festival programming, which she helps curate at FeFF, is narrative and affects which films are selected.
“It’s a creative art. It’s not like this film is good, this film is bad,” Cavasotto said, adding that festivals are creative pieces in themselves, and denial does not equate to the quality or validity of the work.
Coles said she is most proud of FeFF for curating each film program.
FeFF is known among filmmakers for contextualizing their films thematically, creating a better overall viewing experience.
Chris Hamilton said she has been working with FeFF since 2023. She first came to the festival in 2022 as a director, submitting her film Go on and Bleed.
“The reason why I was really interested in Female Eye is because it has excellent press all over the
world, plus it’s part of the Canadian Screen Guild Awards,” Hamilton said. She is now the festival’s development manager.
This year, FeFF will be launching a new documentary category, Coles said.
There is a “glaring gender disparity” among the invitees to documentary film festivals, she said.
“So hopefully this is kind of going back to our roots where we were trying to address a kind of gender equity in the international film festival world,” Coles said.
Hamilton said her work has been impacted by the festival by recognizing the vitality of industry connections.
“The really big strength of The Female Eye is they’re very good at networking,” she said.
It is a fertile environment for both aspiring and established filmmakers, Hamilton said.
She said FeFF is imperative to sustain female filmmakers and to get women into decision-making positions in the film industry.
Cavasotto said most of her film career has been in female- and non-binary-focused spaces and is thankful for that.
“It’s just always a more collaborative space,” Cavasotto said, “there’s more respect. There’s more space for creativity and space to speak up.”
Excitement builds as audiences look ahead to the Female Eye Film Festival, where three short films and a full-length feature that were screened
COURTESY/MEGAN ROBINSON
Leslie-Ann Coles
Art exhibit showcases creative identity
Joseph Zago
HumberETC Culture
Humber’s administration and management program put together an exhibit with a unique twist.
This year’s exhibit focuses on the Etobicoke community and the beautiful nature in the district, Humber student and project lead Lina Cunningham-Bracht said. The previous exhibits in the annual lineup featured art from across the GTA.
“There’s so much art. There’s so many ways someone can view art,” she said.
The theme of the exhibit derives from the Indigenous meaning of Etobicoke itself, “Where the alders grow,” Cunningham-Bracht said in an email statement. “This exhibit examines how personal identity is shaped by the ecological, ancestral and urban landscapes around us.”
The New Vistas: Alder for the Heart exhibit opened Dec. 3 and runs until Jan. 14 at the Etobicoke Civic Centre at 399 The West Mall.
There will be an opening reception with a spoken word performance by poet Amanna Park and an awards presentation, the press release said.
Attendees will also be able to interact with the artists, have
light refreshments and fill out a questionnaire for what the public would like to see from next year’s exhibit, including the theme, Cunningham-Bracht said.
Arts administration and cultural management program coordinator Michelle Yeung said this collaboration with the city of Toronto will create more opportunities “for artists that are traditionally excluded from many art galleries and exhibits.”
Exhibit Artist Wasifa Noshin said she immigrated to Canada from Bangladesh when she was eight.
She said she wanted to display pieces that related to the Etobicoke theme.
“A lot of it was nature-related, and many of those pieces were created within nature, inspired by nature, in connection and in relation to nature,” Noshin said.
She said she also wanted to showcase the artwork that helps her reconnect with her Bengali culture and personal identity. One of her pieces was of Bengali women. Encapsulating the negative past with the positive future, all utilizing the colours of the Bengali flag.
“Our collective goal is about
programming this month-long gallery for the community,” Yeung said. “The ultimate goal here is about addressing and providing a space for equity-deserved communities.”
Yeung said that some of the artists sell their work through the exhibit, while Humber and the city take zero commissions.
Yeung said usually artists would have to pay a display fee when submitting to a gallery, but Humber partially used its $6,000 budget to pay for the display fee.
“What we’re providing is a barrier-free way for artists to bring themselves forward even in the adjudication process, but also to display their work without needing to provide any financial costs to do that,” Yeung said.
Although the artists are not from Humber, the arts administration and cultural management program created a jury of Humber students who selected the art for the exhibit from more than 40 submissions, Cunningham-Bracht said.
Juror Ellena Sardo said the students collectively outlined the criteria used by the jurors for making their selections.
The five jurors used a score sheet
consisting of four categories, Sardo said.
The categories comprised of first impressions, how closely the art represented the theme, how well they saw the artist in their art and innovation, she said.
“All the works we have put together here, I believe strongly encapsulate what we are doing for Alder for the Heart,” Sardo said.
Fellow juror and marketing lead, Junique Gooden, said that although it was phenomenal to
see all the artwork, it was difficult deciding which art would make the exhibit.
“It was very hard to choose,” she said. “It was all about sticking with the theme.”
From more than 40 submissions, 34 paintings and four sculptures were chosen to display, Cunningham-Bacht said.
After a last-minute “no show,” the number of paintings has dropped to 33, Cunningham-Bacht said in an email.
Students and Civic Centre volunteers collaborated in displaying the art.
HUMBERETC/JOSEPH ZAGO
Students end term with boutique sale
Olivia Masztalerz HumberETC Culture
Humber Cosmetic Management students ended the term with a boutique sale to give them practical experience and their customers great deals on beauty products.
The annual Frost & Found on Nov. 27 had a winter wonderland theme. Students sold products and gift bundles at a 20 per cent discount.
Organizer Isabela Jaimungal, in her final year of the two-year program, explained her inspiration for the event.
“It’s good when people meet people, especially in the building,” she said. “You have people coming in for the makeup (and) the spa (products). Modelling, photography, anybody who would need cosmetics, or maybe they’re just interested.
“It’s a good way to just get holiday shopping started,” Jaimungal
said. “Everybody’s shopping right now. The younger generations are into it.”
She said the holiday care packages students sold were popular.
“The bundles themselves, we just put together care packages like people would get at Sephora, body washes and things like loofas, just anything that people can use or give away as gifts,” Jaimungal said.
Frost & Found made holiday shopping easy for customers. On top of the discount, many care packages came with extra goodies that could make presents, Jaimungal said.
The hair care products were also popular, she said.
“Our hair care section, we have an Olaplex with bundles and Amika bundles. We also have some body care products. We have a FITGLOW Cloud Ceramide body wash. This smells super good,” Jaimungal said.
Special deals included scrubs,
lotions and creams, and everyone who spent a certain amount received a loofa, she said.
Antonietta Perretta, coordinator of the cosmetic management diploma program, said the money from the sale was not for fundraising.
“This is part of our class project,” she said. “We get some budget so we can purchase the products to host our sale. And so, you’ll notice, when you’re in our store today, that many of the prices are deeply discounted,’’ Perretta said. “We’re not like a traditional store which must make a certain profit margin because for us, it’s more about the learning experience.”
Emma Crockett, a second-year student in the program, said she has had a passion for makeup since she was a tween. She said students working in the beauty shop are not getting paid.
“This is our final exam for this course, so it’s our big project,’’ said
Crockett, adding they’re hosting this event. “In the first half, we learn the theory behind it and how to know what it takes to hold an event, and then we actually put it into action.”
Vladimira Steffek, a full-time professor in Humber’s Cosmetic Management, Fashion Arts and Business programs, said she has had many experiences in the fashion industry.
She is pleased that these students work as a team to hold the Frost & Found event, stressing the importance of teamwork.
“That nothing happens without the help of someone else and in order to be able to create a successful event, you have to be a team player because without being part of a group, you are not going to succeed,” Steffek said.
“Theoretical knowledge never surpasses the practical experience,’’ she said.
“So, capsule projects like this
will always expose students to new things. You have to work hard to be seen as a professional, to succeed in this industry,” Steffek said. “Without collaboration, you will never reach your full potential.”
Jaimungal offered a list of her favourite products.
“I’m a glitter person,’’ she said. ‘’I like anything with glitter.”
Crockett was more interested in the hair care products that are her favourite, recommending a few brands.
“We (had) some good, highquality hair care stuff. The Olaplex is one of my favourite hair care brands, and we have a little gift bundle with it, which is really good,” Crockett said. “There’s that additional 20 per cent off, too.”
Sydney Sohan, another cosmetic management student working at Frost & Found, described some of the products that interested her: the Lalicious body butter and body scrubs.
From left, Program Coordinator Antonietta Perretta, organizer Isabela Jaimungal, assistant Emma Crockett, and Professor Vladimira Steffek at the Frost & Found sale on Nov. 27.
HUMBERETC/OLIVIA MASZTALERZ
Humber volleyball teams sweep Fanshawe Falcons
Marco Moretto
HumberETC Sports
Both Humber Hawks volleyball teams swept their games against the Fanshawe Falcons at home on Nov. 27.
The Hawks women’s team won its third sweep in a row against the Falcons, while the men bounced back into the win column.
The women moved to an 8-0 record, just days before losing its first game since 2023, but they kept their OCAA number 1 rank. Fanshawe women dropped to fourth in the Western Conference with a 6-3 record.
Humber women took the first point of the game following an error from the Falcons’ Jillian Lancaster. Then Fanshawe pulled away 20-17, and the Hawks called the first timeout of the match.
After the timeout, Humber brought it to 21-19. Following a kill from Amy Connelly, the Hawks forced the Falcons to take one of their own up 21-20.
The Hawks came out flying, taking the lead back 22-21. The Falcons called a timeout, but it did not help. Humber took the first set 25-22.
The second set began with the Falcons blocking Connelly. The set stayed tight. The first timeout came late when the Falcons fell 21-20.
The Hawks allowed one more point in the set and took the match with a 25-21 win.
Humber held the lead for most
of the final set and won 25-22 with the winning point coming off an error from the Falcons’ Jaime Worsfold.
Hawks coach Chris Wilkins said he was content with the team’s win.
“A win is a win, I thought we played okay. Fanshawe is a decent team, they’re young and athletic, and they pushed us hard,” Wilkins said. “I thought that we were the better team after 20 points. I thought up to 20 points we weren’t great, but after 20 I thought we sort of dug in.”
The men followed with a 3-0 win against Fanshawe, who is the top team in the Western Conference.
The Hawks bounced back after taking a tough 3-2 loss against Mohawk on Nov. 22. Humber improved to 4-3 on the season and moved up to fifth in the conference.
“We hurt ourselves in that match. Practices were energetic, guys worked hard, they understand it’s a long season, nothing is ever won in November, it’s always won in February and March,” men’s coach Wayne Wilkins said.
“For the last five years, we’ve been the game that everyone circled on the calendar. Everyone came hunting for us, this year sitting at 3-3, we’re the team hunting now,” Wilkins said.
The Falcons took the first lead of the set with Hawks middle blocker Dante Sugarman sending the first
Humber Athletics celebrates Bialek
A Humber Hawks legend had his banner raised to the rafters of the North campus gym last week.
serve of the game out of bounds.
Fanshawe seemed to pull away early, going up 8-4, leading to an early Humber timeout. After five straight points for the Hawks, the Falcons called their own timeout, but after the break, Humber never looked back.
The Hawks took the first set with great defence and a firing offence. With an error by Fanshawe left sider Carter Pittuck, the Hawks won set one 25-17.
The second set began with Humber playing catch-up early, which led to a timeout down 6-1. The Hawks fired back and crept back into the game, tying it at 17. Outside hitter Enzo Endres clinched the set 25-19 with a service ace, leaving Humber with a comfortable two-set lead.
The final set remained close with constant back-and-forth action, but the Hawks got the best of Fanshawe with Dante Sugarman getting the final kill of the game, resulting in a 25-22 clean sweep.
After the match, player of the game Teyven Blackmore talked about the significance of the win.
“It’s for sure huge for us, especially getting the momentum going, we were down on energy the past few games,” Blackmore said.
“It for sure got our spirits up, so a lot of the guys are going to be super excited to get back to practice, and honestly, we’re looking forward to going out on a bang,” he said.
For Jim Bialek, who served as the college’s sports information director for 40 years, the emotional moment was all about the team.
“This is the highest level you can attain at this institution,” he said. “It’s more than me if you look up there. I get this, sitting next to my mentor Doug Fox, who’s my best friend, my boss, my coworker, my colleague. My mentor for all that time, and now I get to be next to him for an eternity.”
Fox was the athletic director during Bialek’s time at Humber. They worked as a team with coaches and other athletic staff to change sports at Humber Polytechnic.
“You can’t build a program unless you got great coaching, great support, the financial ability to develop a good schedule, the ability to recruit,” he said. “So, it was stripped down, and at that point, it became a winning culture.
“He [Doug Fox] stripped down all of athletics, we had like 17 teams [he] stripped it down to four teams and then rebuilt the program,” said Bialek, who retired in 2019.
Fox retired in 2013. Unfortunately, bad weather kept Fox from attending the banner ceremony for Bialek on Nov. 27.
Bialek looked back at his career at Humber and said he is forever grateful to his family.
“The whole Humber thing is
family,” he said. “You don’t love, you don’t succeed, you don’t progress, you don’t without family.”
Bialek said he met his wife, Evelyn, at the college, and his son later attended daycare at Humber. His daughter grew up here, and all his friends are here. Humber holds a special place in his heart, and being immortalized in the gym means everything to him.
Brian Lepp, who succeeded Bialek as sports information director, described his impact on Humber’s athletic department.
“Jim had a significant impact on the department. However, his most important impact, in my opinion, was on Humber Athletics’ external perception,” Lepp said.
He said Humber Sports Network, social media and the Humber Hawks website showcased their dominance and brought in more recruits and better fan engagement.
Bialek set the standard for Humber athletics and will be forever remembered as a legend at Humber.
“Jim set the standard for marketing and communications across the country. He was the first to implement a live stream for every sport at Humber. Baseball, soccer, softball, and rugby,” Lepp said.
“Jim, along with former AD (athletic director) Doug Fox, developed a strong family culture within the department, which led to the Hawks Family slogan and the annual Hawks Family Night celebration. His creation of SOAR magazine highlighted the success of many,” he said.
Banner of Jim Bialek, Humber’s former sports information director.
HUMBERETC/MARCO MORETTO
Marco Moretto HumberETC Sports
Humber’s Teyven Blackmore (16) attempting to tip the ball over the net against the Fanshawe Falcons on Nov. 27.
HUMBERETC/MARCO MORETTO
Sceptres fall to Fleet in home opener
Blair Turnbull nets only goal for Toronto at Coca-Cola Coliseum
The Toronto Sceptres took the ice at home for the first time this season Saturday, Nov. 29, at Coca-Cola Coliseum, where they fell short 3-1 to the Boston Fleet.
The Sceptres had played one game before this home opener when they kicked off their season in Minnesota with a 2-1 win against the 2024-2025 Walter Cup champs, the Minnesota Frost.
The Sceptres signed forward Lauren Messier to a 10-day contract after forward Darryl Watts was injured.
The Sceptres had a great start to Saturday’s game, and the arena was buzzing with more than 8,000 fans in attendance.
Captain Blair Turnbull scored the first and the only goal for Toronto in this was a shorthanded one after forward Claire Dalton took a penalty for high-sticking.
“I think we played well. We made improvements since we played Minnesota. We are pretty happy with the game, we know what areas we need to improve on as we head into the next game,” Turnbull said. Defender Ella Shelton, who was traded in
the summer to Toronto from the New York Sirens, had her first experience playing on her new home team’s rink.
“It’s been electric out there. They (the fans) show up, and you feel the energy of them pushing you along the ice. It’s very cool to see a full crowd,” Shelton said.
“Boston’s got pretty good goalies, I think it’s up to us to find different ways to put pucks in the back of the net,” Shelton said
Coach Troy Ryan said he wasn’t too upset with the performance overall, but added he did note what the team needs to change to continue at the top level of the league.
‘I was pretty happy with the play overall for our second game of the year. I just think we didn’t bury them when we could’ve buried them. When you let them linger, they capitalize on a couple of mistakes,” he said.
“We got to be better offensively. We won’t fix it in six or seven games; it’ll probably take a while. A team that generally has a lot of physicality, sometimes the composure to stay off to the weak side and watch things unfold and join in offensively can benefit, and I don’t think we did a great job on that
weak side of the ice tonight,” Ryan said.
With a top defensive player like Watts out, it can be tricky for teams to find their footing.
“As much as you try and get your power play and penalty kill and individual stuff better, you got to work on what type of team you want to be when something bad happens,” Ryan said. “I felt some shoulders drop. I think at times early in the season, you got a building full and young players experiencing it for the first time.
“The biggest thing you can do is just talk about it. We discussed it after the game,”
Ryan said.
The Sceptres play their third game of the season tonight, a home tilt against the Ottawa Charge, giving the team lots of time to change their strategies.
“I’d be quite happy at this point of the year. If this were 10 games in, I’m probably not very happy,” he said.
“Sometimes we come in and win games, and I’m unhappy, but this one we lost and from this point in the season I’ll take it any day,” Ryan said
Boston Fleet head coach Kris Sparre
acknowledged that the Sceptres controlled the first period.
“I think we got better as the game went on. We were caught off guard a little bit by their pressure in the first period,” Sparre said.
Sparre pointed to the excellent goaltending of Aerin Frankel, who allowed only one of Toronto’s 25 shots to get past her. Boston managed only 12 shots on goal, but three goals, albeit one being an empty net goal as Toronto pulled goalie Raygan Kirk out of the net with 2:15 left in the third period.
“We defended well enough to give ourselves a chance to win the game, and our goaltending was outstanding,” Sparre said.
The Fleet is undefeated so far.
Boston forward Laura Kluge, who started her PWHL career in Toronto with the Sceptres, but signed with Boston over the summer, said she was “super excited to be back in Toronto.”
“I don’t think I would be in this league without Toronto giving me the chance last year, so I’m super happy to be here,” she said.
Toronto Sceptres goalie Elaine Chuli (right) makes a save against Sceptres forward Jesse Compher during PWHL training camp action in Toronto on Nov. 14. They lost their home opener.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/NATHAN DENETTE
Women’s VB loses first game since 2023
Denny Luong HumberETC Sports
Humber’s women’s volleyball team were handed its first loss of the season by St. Clair on Nov. 20, ending a 57-game winning streak that had lasted the better part of two years.
The last time the Hawks lost a game was on Feb. 9, 2023, against the Redeemer Royals because of a technicality. Humber beat Redeemer 3-0, but the match was forfeited days later after Humber’s Athletics reported that an ineligible student-athlete participated in the game, a violation of OCAA policy, resulting in three default losses that season.
Saints head coach Julie Ann Milling said her team’s depth would be key to beating Humber’s unbeaten side.
“If it’s not working on the floor, we can trust so many other people,” she said. “Being able to take care of the ball and putting it away is a strength that puts pressure on them.”
Hawks head coach Chris Wilkins said the key to winning is decreasing the number of errors they commit and adding pressure on the Saints.
“It’s a matter of minimizing our errors, maybe forcing them to be out of [their] system and try to make them make errors,” he said. “We’re expecting a tough match today, and we know that they’re a
well-coached team [and] they have a lot of talented players.”
The first set saw both teams keeping the score tight and even, with Humber trailing throughout the early stages. However, they still fought back to tie the game at 18-18 after a successful block, prompting
story, but with Humber in the front seats, leading the match. However, they would suddenly fall behind after St. Clair scored three unanswered points, making the score 15-12, which prompted Wilkins to call a timeout.
The Hawks would slowly come
The third set would see Humber continue its rhythm, with the lead being 8-4, where St. Clair would call a timeout.
The Saints would slowly tie the game and take advantage of the Hawks’ errors, leading to a timeout call by Wilkins as they were
St. Clair to call a timeout.
Despite the timeout call, the Hawks could not take the lead and ultimately lost the set after firstyear player Faith Hughes tipped the ball out of bounds, giving the Saints the win by a score of 25-22.
The second set was the same
back and regain the lead in the late stages of the set. They would win the set 25-23 after a quick dig reaction by fifth-year middle blocker Amy Connelly created a chance for first-year setter Jessie McDonaugh to set up Hughes with the final point.
trailing by three points.
Despite the call by the home side, Humber continued to fall behind and would lose the set 25-21.
The fourth set saw the Hawks fall behind once again as the Saints continued its momentum throughout the match, leading the
score 14-10 before a timeout was called by the home side.
Humber would attempt to close the gap in the late stages of the set, and they managed to cut the deficit to one point.
Unfortunately, the Hawks could not take charge in a possible comeback as they would go on and lose the fourth set 25-23, marking the first loss for the reigning champions.
Milling said the win was all about her side sticking with the game plan throughout the match.
“We felt really comfortable with our block,” she said. “We kind of worked out the kinks of who we wanted to target serving, and it executed our game plan.”
After the game, Wilkins said the loss was down to effort and execution, which his team could not take control of.
“We allowed them to do what they wanted to do, and we never took control of the match,” he said.
Wilkins said the team needs to take the defeat as motivation heading into the second half of the season.
“I think that if we play the way we played tonight, we could be in trouble,” he said.
The Hawks, who remain the number 1 nationally ranked team, return to action in the New Year with a rematch against St. Clair in Windsor, Ont., on Jan. 10, 2026.
Men’s volleyball ends fall term by beating Saints
Humber’s Hawks men’s volleyball team defeated the St. Clair Saints in a five-set thriller on Nov. 30.
Both teams started the season slowly in the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA), with Humber accumulating three losses, more than last season’s two. St Clair has yet to win an away match, going 0-3 so far.
Before the game, Saints head coach Shawn Reaume said both teams were still trying to find their rhythm this season, making this matchup feel balanced.
“I feel like we’re kind of both in the same boat, where we’re hot and cold,” he said. “Today is about worrying about our side and having a lot of fun because we love to play in this gym.”
Reaume praised Humber’s ability to bring their energy and composure to matches, and he said he hopes his team can match
that.
“It’s something that’s really impressive, [Humber] has been that way for a lot of years,” he said. “So generally, we kind of rise to that and do something similar when we play here.”
Humber is coming off a sweep set win against Fanshawe Falcons, who are first in the OCAA Western division, on Nov. 27.
Hawks head coach Wayne Wilkins said he expected the Saints to be a tough opponent despite the team’s away record, and hopes his team can bring their energy from the game on Thursday.
“The boys played really well against Fanshawe, and you know we’re going to be probably riding that high into the game today,” he said. “St. Clair’s a very good team. The fact that they haven’t won a game outside is kind of surprising because they [have] a good squad.”
The first set saw both teams trade the lead, with the highest point gap throughout the set being
only three, making it anyone’s game to grab.
The Hawks reclaimed the lead after tying the game at 16, after trailing. They would also maintain the lead to win the set 25-22 after a Saints player tipped the ball out of bounds.
The second set was much of the same as the first, with both teams keeping the score tight. However, Humber could not secure the set as they lost 25-22 as the game was tied up.
The third set would see the Hawks struggle throughout the game, with service errors committed in the early stages.
A timeout by Humber as they trailed 22-18, hoping to tie the score. This ultimately was successful as the team scored four consecutive points, which brought a timeout call by St. Clair.
However, the Hawks could not complete a quick turnaround as the Saints would win 25-22, scoring three unanswered points.
In a must-win situation, Humber dominated the fourth set with first-year outside hitter Enzo Endres being the star of the show as he provided four straight service aces and accumulated nine points in this set.
The Hawks would comfortably win the set 25-13 as they head into the final set.
The fifth set saw Humber continue its momentum from the previous set, dominating by racking up seven points.
The Saints worked to try to even the score, but it wasn’t enough as Humber won the final set after a successful block by the second-year middle blocker Apolo Bras.
Bras recorded three unanswered service aces in the game, a career high.
He said the team was more energetic and focused heading into the fourth set.
“We got more energy and focus,” Bras said. “We started to serve
better, get more balls in the service [zone], [and] get more side outs.”
Endres was given the Player of the Game for his stellar performance of a career-high of 25 points, 17 kills and six service aces.
He was also named Humber and OCAA Volleyball Athlete of the Week.
Endres said the motivation came from the frustration with his own teammates.
“I was serving the other games, and the guys always pass like a one,” he said. “I was like, ‘When am I going to start getting aces?’ so I just pushed myself.”
After the game, Wilkins said the momentum changed after his team stepped up in the game.
“Once we started serving tough and we sped up the game, they couldn’t keep up, and that was the difference maker,” he said.
The Hawks will be back in action in the new year as they will have a rematch against St. Clair in Windsor, Ont., on Jan. 10, 2026.
Fifth-year right side hitter Hannah Manners (10) jumping in for a spike kill against St. Clair Saints on Nov. 30.
HUMBERETC/DENNY LUONG
Denny Luong
HumberETC Sports
Humber men’s hockey wins gold at home
The Hawks’ extramural hockey men’s team won gold at its first home tournament of the year.
They took top spot after playing four games in a round-robin tournament, beating teams from Laurier and Lakehead Universities, and Centennial and Fanshawe Colleges.
They outscored the opposition 16-2 in four games in the tournament, which began Nov. 20, against the Centennial Wolves.
The Wolves were the first to face the brunt of the Hawks, who eventually scored eight goals in a shutout.
The first goal of the tournament
was scored just 30 seconds into the first game. Shortly after that, with 7:39 left to go in the first, the Hawks made it 2-0, then just 15 seconds after, they made it 3-0, urging Centennial to change goaltenders.
The second period was quiet until there were four minutes left, and Humber made it 4-0, leaving Centennial in a vulnerable situation heading into the third.
Five minutes into the third, Humber sinks a puck to make it 5-0.
Then, with a slapshot with 7:51 left in the third, the Hawks made it 6-0 and left Centennial in an almost impossible comeback position.
To finalize their first game starting the tournament, Humber set it off with 1:15 left with their eighth goal.
Kicking off the second day of the Hawks’ tournament, they played Laurier University bright and early at Westwood Arena, and won that game 3-0 to take them to the second qualifying game against the Lakehead Thunderwolves.
The game against Lakehead University was the third game Humber played in less than 24 hours.
The first period was quiet. Both teams failed to produce a goal in the first period after many attempts and physicality from both sides.
“We had a long break after our
first game. Nothing was really working,” said Connor Grnak, alternate captain and forward for the Hawks.
Humber opened the scoring in the second period with a goal by the Hawks’ captain, Mike McCullough.
“Yeah, we definitely got the ball rolling. Our captain is always someone we can lean on,” Grnak said.
That proved to be true after Humber won 3-1, with the captain getting two of those three.
Humber’s goaltender made some great saves to keep the team going.
“We had a slow first period, we were tired a bit because we
had played a game earlier, but we bounced back. The team played really well,” goaltender Zach Cuvaj said.
The Hawks faced Fanshawe Falcons in the tournament finals, where they won 2-0.
The most valuable player awards went to Zach Cuvaj and forward Daniel Steffi.
The next time the Hawks will take the ice will be a Jan.16, game hosted by Ontario Tech University in Durham. They then play Sir Sanford Fleming on Jan. 23.
The Hawks women team garnered a 1-2 record in the tournament.
They will play an outdoor game in February.
Madison Boynton HumberETC Sports
Humber Hawks men’s extramural hockey team defeated four opponents in their first home tournament of the year in November. They scored 16 and allowed only two, and took the gold.
HUMBERETC/MADISON BOYNTON
