LCBO employees represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) rallied in 11 cities in Ontario on March 12 to send a message to the provincial government to stop the sell-off of the LCBO.
They rallied with a giant banner consisting of the signatures of almost 7,000 LCBO workers to stop the sell-off and keep the LCBO public.
The Streetsville rally was held on Queen Street by Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Nina Tangri’s office.
At this location, Frank Gullace, the vice president for the local 288 Liquor Board Employee Division (LBED), led the rally with a speech.
“Cases have been taken out of our warehouses and have been put into private warehouses for distribution, that’s shameful. We should keep all of our distribution within the LCBO,” Gullace said.
“We need you to send a clear message to Ford that we will not accept the sell-off of this important Ontario asset,” he said.
Before the rally, Gullace told Humber News if the LCBO becomes privatized, a huge concern is if any government regulations will still occur.
The LCBO has a social responsibility and tests all its products twice a year to ensure they meet standards.
“We, as an LCBO employee, are trained to pick those measures like the social responsibility of checking ID and if you’re not
serving anybody that’s under the influence or intoxicated,” he said.
“We don’t know what the government will do when they sell it to a private retailer,” Gullace said. “Are they going to still be involved in a certain way?
“We just don’t know, but right now we give around $2.5 billion in dividends of taxes to the government to spend on healthcare, infrastructure, social services, so that could be lost as well,” he said.
Premier Doug Ford announced in December 2023 that beer, wine, cider and ready-to-drink, low-alcohol cocktails will be allowed in participating convenience stores, grocery and big box stores, starting no later than Jan. 1, 2026.
He denied that he intended to sell off the LCBO a day after the demonstrations.
However, OPSEU president J.P. Hornick said Thursday the government is shedding the agency.
“Tuesday’s LCBO Day of Action
was organized by LCBO workers who are first-hand witnesses to the sell-off of the LCBO, piece by piece, every day,” Hornick said. “LCBO members know exactly how the Ford government is selling off the work of the LCBO to private warehouses, off-site companies, and shifting alcohol sales from the LCBO to private retailers.”
The 2022-2023 LCBO Annual Report said in addition to hitting a record dividend of $2.58 billion to the Ontario government to support healthcare, education and infrastructure, more than $14.6 million was raised in charitable donations to support the health and well-being of Ontario’s diverse communities.
President for the Local 288 LBED, James Ciufo, said the rally was to inform MPPs about what is going on, how serious everyone is and how they stand for good quality jobs in Ontario.
“We make enough money to
Humber Et Cetera is the Humber College journalism program laboratory newspaper. It is created by journalism students in the Advanced Diploma and Post Graduate Certificate programs. Et Cetera serves to inform the Humber community and give its readers well rounded coverage on the things that matter to them.
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Liv Chug
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Brandon Harris
keep this province going and it is time to give us some respect. We are the ones doing the front running for them,” Ciufo said.
OPSEU Executive Board Member for Region 2, Chad Oldfield, said the rally was all about building worker power by standing up and saying it is not okay to sell the LCBO.
“I think we’re here to send a message to Doug Ford’s government that it’s not okay for them to sell off the LCBO,” Oldfield said.
“We want to keep the services public and we also want a fair contract. We want the government to fairly negotiate with the LBED bargaining team in order to get a fair contract in place,” he said.
Store 183 shop steward Richard Messer said employees they do not want the LCBO privatized and want to ensure that the legacy of the LCBO lasts forever.
“Frank (Gullace) indicated earlier today that this is not just about the here and now. This is about the future. This is about how people are going to grow within the LCBO,” Messer said.
“There are employees that have been here for 45 years,” he said.
“We certainly don’t want to see it privatized.
“We don’t want to see it go into a situation where it’s handed off to grocery stores and people who cannot take good care of how the LCBO operates in terms of its safety and programming,” Messer said.
The LBED Bargaining Team will keep the public informed as they learn about new bargaining dates.
CULTURE
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Max Presement is planning the release of his first short film in April.
“It’s called Maybe I Am The Villian. A villain was pushed to therapy after he took a super fight too far. It’s a fantasy action drama,” said Presement, who’s been working on it since December 2022.
“I didn’t know it took that long to make a film and I didn’t know it would be half an hour,” Presement said.
He said he came a long way from making flash animations on Microsoft Paint in his bedroom when he was seven to make a half-hour film.
“It is going to be sent to film festivals at the end of this school year, which is crazy. I love film school,” Presement said.
He said the best part of making the film was the people he got to work with.
“I don’t think of myself as a director. I think me and my friends made a film,” Presement said.
He said the thought that his friends, Farhan, Nolan, Mathias and others chose to be in the scorching sun for eight to nine hours each day for his movie warms his heart.
“People are just very kind and people are very understanding, especially when you’re making films,” he said.
Presement said he is excited about the movie and has learned a lot in the process.
“I thought I knew a lot. I did not. I really knew nothing, now I know more,” Presement said.
This report is by Anusha Siddiqui, Senior Reporter.
Humber College students encountered an unusual sight while getting off the bus last Tuesday.
In the distance between the bus stop and the college entrance, about a dozen anti-abortionists stood with graphic posters of aborted fetuses and distributed pamphlets to passersby.
Keturah Dumaine, the coordinator of the Canadian Centre for Bio-ethical Reform anti-abortion group, smiled warmly while wearing an olive-green sweater and carrying a camera.
“We are advocating for human rights for all human beings from the moment that human life begins, which, according to science, is at the moment of fertilization,” Dumaine said.
The anti-abortion group defines itself on its website as an “educational human rights organization dedicated to speaking out on behalf of the youngest and most vulnerable members of the human family.”
Dumaine said the unborn are being “decapitated, dismembered and disembowelled” every day in Canada.
“Showing these pictures is the only way that these children can speak for themselves,” she said.
“They have no voice, but we can see their broken bodies that have been destroyed through abortion.”
Behind Dumaine, three Humber students got into a loud verbal altercation with the volunteers of the group.
One student in the altercation, Isabelle Silva, said the anti-abortion group only cares about the fetus while it is inside the womb.
“They don’t care about $10 a day daycare or the kids in foster care or that the mother does not have the
Silva said her friends were not arguing for everyone to have an abortion but to be able to make their own choice about whether they want to go ahead with a pregnancy.
“The whole point is that I need
to be able to make my own decisions,” Silva said.
She said being born in unfavourable circumstances will “traumatize a child.”
Julia Piane, another student in the altercation, said she felt disgusted by the posters she saw when she got out of the bus.
“They’re taking the life away from real, living, breathing women and putting it on something that’s growing inside them,” Piane said.
She said the issue at hand is about having bodily autonomy and freedom to make one’s own decisions.
“The group is targeting this population (at college) specifically because there are vulnerable kids straight out of high school here,” she said.
Near the volunteers of the Reform group, some students sat along the wall with small placards supporting abortion.
One placard read, “Abortion saves lives.”
The designer of the placards, a Funeral Services student Eleanor Drobet, said when she found out the anti-abortion group was going to be there, she decided to be there,
too.
“We’re all just trying to get to class and they purposely stood here where they knew they would get a lot of foot traffic,” Drobet said.
She said she likes to be peaceful, so instead of yelling, she just brought her placards and some friends.
Drobet said she has heard some “bizarre” things from the Reform group.
“They are preaching that victims of sexual assault should keep their child because why would the victims make another victim by aborting the fetus,” Drobet said.
She said they’re trying to control women’s bodies.
“This isn’t just about the baby or the fetus or whatever they want to call it. It is about women’s bodies and the fact that they are trying to control our bodies,” she said.
Drobet said the Reform group had come last semester also, and she decided to be prepared this time.
Humber College sent an email on March 12 stating the group had the right to assemble on college property under the Charter of Rights and Freedom.
Dumaine said a child in the fetus is a separate human from the woman and not a part of the woman’s body.
“People bring up body autonomy because they care about women, which is amazing, and I agree with it. However, her rights end where her child’s rights begin,” Dumaine said.
Most of Canada transitioned into Daylight Saving Time (DST) which began at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 10.
Rudraksha Kalia, a public relations student at York University, said the concept of DST is a “bit absurd,” especially because he comes from India where it is not recognized.
“It’s a minor inconvenience but other than that it doesn’t have much of an impact on day-to-day life,” he said.
However, he said the first week after the transiting into DST often causes “little annoyance.”
Kalia came to Canada from India two years ago and to prepare for DST, he said he would “just sleep early” on Sunday, March 10.
Except for parts of Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Ontario and Nunavut, which remain on Standard Time year-round, the rest of the country moved clocks one hour ahead.
Ontario passed a bill in 2020 to remain on DST permanently, but there is a caveat as Quebec and New York state must also remain on DST.
And so once again, this weekend, people went into “spring forward” mode.
However, the official spring season begins on March 20.
Everyone will lose an hour of sleep bringing with it longer daylight hours in the spring and summer months, which are just around the corner.
The lost hour of sleep this month is offset by the hour gained on the first Sunday in November.
Port Arthur, Ont., was the first place to use DST in 1908, and other Canadian cities, including Hamilton, Regina and Winnipeg, followed suit about a decade later.
However, Germany was the first country to implement it in 1916.
DST was first implemented in Canada and the U.S. in 1918.
In the U.S., it was called the Standard Time Act of 1918 and was used as a wartime measure for seven months during the First World War to add more daylight hours to conserve energy resources.
However, studies have revealed troubling trends in how the human body responds during the transition between Standard Time and DST, especially in March.
The issues range from an increase in mood changes and sleep disorders that can lead to motor vehicle collisions and heart complications.
This year more than 79,000 Canadians signed an online petition to stop DST in Canada.
Brampton resident Irene Shone, who started the petition on March
9 demanding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to stop DST in the country, cited studies that show a detrimental effect on people.
“Changing clocks twice a year is hazardous to your health,” she said.
“I ask the Canadian Government to finally stop Daylight Saving Time and enact Permanent Standard Time,” she said in a statement on her petition on change.org. “Even if one person is
saved from having a stroke or heart attack or is saved from a car accident, it’s worth it.”
A study published by Taylor and Francis Online said that after DST started, students who are neither early nor late sleepers went to bed later and slept longer. The study found all the students woke up later.
The time between sunset and bedtime got shorter for everyone, but only late sleepers tended to
wake up closer to sunrise.
Another study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found DST negatively affects high school students’ sleep and alertness.
The article said after DST started, students slept about 32 minutes less each night, leading to a total sleep loss of nearly three hours a week.
The study found their alertness also got worse, with slower reaction times and more mistakes on tests.
Parneet Kaur, a student at Centennial College, said she has no issue with DST because it ensures extra daylight time. However, she said, there is often a little lethargy after breaking the sleep cycle in the initial days.
“It’s easy but you get the hang of it. I will sleep early on Sunday for sure,” she said.
While it is still practiced in some nations, in a position statement published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) is advocating the “elimination of daylight saving time.”
The “current evidence best supports the adoption of year-round standard time, which aligns best with human circadian biology and provides distinct benefits for public health and safety,” the statement said.
Humber students can find tax support with CRA tips and tricks this year, easing another stressful task to be completed.
Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) commenced its tax season operations on Feb. 19, inviting Canadians to begin filing their 2023 income taxes.
IGNITE, the student-led organization at Humber, said it has launched a comprehensive tax assistance program named Tax Clinic. Humber said this initiative aims to simplify the tax filing process and provides access to trained student volunteers who offer expert guidance and support throughout the process.
Ada Ozonwanji, Career Success Manager at IGNITE said almost half the students don’t file taxes in their first year.
“Around 30 to 50 per cent of the newcomer students don’t file taxes in their first year,” Ozonwanji said. She said the reason is a lack of
awareness and they don’t know how to do it.
“In the IGNITE Tax Clinic, we offer students and low-income earners support to file simple taxes for free. If they were to seek external assistance for tax filing, it cost them charges ranging from $70 to $150, often without
receiving adequate returns,” she said.
She said that they make students do it by themselves and guide them throughout the process so that they can learn.
In the 2023 tax filing season, Canadians submitted more than 32 million tax returns, with more
than 92 per cent of them done online. Canada said there were 18 million refunds last year, averaging $2,262 each.
The agency said taxpayers must mark their calendars as the deadline for filing taxes this year is April 30, as failing to submit a tax return by the deadline can result in substantial penalties. It said that this penalty amounts to five per cent of the outstanding balance, plus an additional one per cent per month for up to 12 months. Consequently, the agency said taxpayers could incur a maximum late filing penalty of 17 per cent.
The federal government said for self-employed individuals, along with their spouse or common-law partner, the deadline to file tax returns is June 15. Since this date falls on a Saturday, returns will be considered filed on time if received by or postmarked on or before June 17.
Paul N. Murphy, Senior Communications Advisor at CRA said in an interview with Humber
News there are many key aspects of the 2024 tax season.
Murphy said several new tax measures were introduced for the 2024 tax season, including the Multi-Generational Home Renovation Tax Credit, First Home Savings Account and the Advanced Canada Workers Benefit.
“These measures aim to provide support to families, first-time homebuyers and individuals in the workforce,” Murphy said. He said that filing taxes is not only about paying taxes but also about accessing various credits and benefits tied to tax filings, such as the Canada Child Benefit and GST/ HST credit.
Ontario is witnessing cases of measles with five confirmed cases, following Quebec with 12 cases so far, according to Public Health Ontario.
The Public Health Officer of York Region, Dr. Barry Pakes, in an interview with Humber News has confirmed a case of measles in the region. Pakes said the infected man is in his 30s and does not have a recent travel history.
“He was vaccinated. He had a fever, cough, a rash and white spots called Koplik spots around the mouth,” Pakes said.
He said the person was in contact with people at a high school. The people who had exposure to the infected person were given vaccinations within 72 hours.
“We had clinic over the weekend at the high school to catch people up and almost everyone there had exposure. Over 98 per cent of the people were able to give us their records that they were vaccinated,” Pakes said. Public Health Ontario said measles cases have been reported in Toronto, York, Peel, Brant and Windsor. Four cases have travel history while one case has an unknown source of exposure, the office of Public Health
Ontario told Humber News. “All measles cases in Ontario are thoroughly investigated to identify the likely source of infection,” PHO said.
Dr Jesse Papenburg, an infectious diseases specialist at McGill University, called the spread “quite concerning”, particularly in Quebec. “There is community transmission and until now we weren’t aware of this,” Papenburg said. He said that there is a possibility that there are other cases that
have not been detected. “The cases we’ve picked up might only be the tip of the iceberg.”
Some regions in Canada have suboptimal vaccination and are at high risk of severe outbreaks however because of nearly 95 per cent overall vaccination rates, there should not be forward transmission, Papenburg said. The two doses of vaccination provide nearly complete protection against measles, he said.
“There’s been a politicization of
vaccine opinions that has not been driven by science, which has been quite harmful. We have a decreased vaccine coverage of childhood vaccinations compared to before the pandemic such as measles, which is so important,” he said. Pakes said that it’s rare for vaccinated people to get measles and even if they get the infection like the case in York region, it is very mild.
“We are expecting it to get potentially worse because we know how many people are going to be travel-
ling around March break time and that’s why we’re making sure people are getting vaccinated,” Pakes said. Public Health Ontario said people who have not had measles or who have not been vaccinated are at greatest risk of infection. “This includes infants who are under the age of one, too young to be vaccinated,” PHO said.
Pakes said people with compromised immune systems are also at a higher risk of contracting the infection, however, community spread is preventable if most people take the vaccine.
“If it’s 95 per cent vaccine coverage of the population, the cases will continue to be imported because people travel. But we’re not going to have it spread locally,” Pakes said.
Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Theresa Tam said in a statement that measles cases have continued to rise in 2024 because of a decline in measles vaccination especially among school-aged children after the COVID-19 pandemic. “This could lead to an increase in imported measles cases, potentially resulting in transmission in communities in Canada,” she said.
“I strongly advise everyone in Canada to be vaccinated with two doses of a measles vaccine,” Tam said.
Humber partnered with VIBE Arts and hosted a two-day event for high school students to participate in a creative writing workshop called YouthINK.
Sarah Feldbloom is a professor in the Liberal Arts and Sciences and one of the people who pitched YouthINK to Humber.
“The idea was to create this program to offer this opportunity to youth who come from neighbourhood improvement areas in under-resourced communities, and also, folks who might be the first in their family to attend postsecondary,” said Feldbloom.
VIBE Arts is a charity dedicated to teaching the arts in the GTA.
Mirka Loiselle is a teacher and one of the creatives with VIBE arts who came and guided students through one of the workshops.
“This is not an age group that I get to work with all that frequently,” Mirka said, “so, I was excited to get the chance to work with slightly older youth as opposed to elementary school-age kids who I usually work with,” she said.
Mirka primarily focuses on visual art, but she said that she was excited to stretch herself out as an educator to incorporate that into the activity and says the students have done well.
“I’ve been impressed with this group in particular. They’ve been super engaged. I’m really
impressed with how brave they are in terms of sharing their writing,” she said.
“It gives me a lot of hope for the future.” Feldbloom said it’s challenging becoming an artist and that this program will offer them practical experience in getting one of their works published and being
paid a small stipend.
Eufemia Fantetti is another professor in the Liberal Arts and Sciences with Humber, and she was the one who initially came up with the idea for the event.
“The arts are often underrepresented or undervalued in society,” she said. “Often when people are
thinking that they want to get into the arts, like writing or visual arts, they get discouraged,” said Fantetti. She says many have concerns about how someone would make a living in the arts and this can discourage people from pursuing the arts. She hopes this event will help dissuade those stigmas from stopping people’s creativity.
“The idea behind this was to show young people that they don’t need to be discouraged,” she said.
“They can be surrounded by people in an educational institution that also appreciate the arts,” Fantetti said.
Fantetti had gone to a similar event when she was in high school which focused on coming to a Humber for a more drama-based workshop and she says that it was a great help to her in her journey.
“I’m so thrilled. It’s really emotional to see them participating, engaging with each other, talking to each other because they all came from different high schools. The fact that they took two days off of their March break to come to school tells you how much they value the arts already,” Fantetti said.
Ontario government has unveiled a transformative funding plan totalling nearly $1.3 billion aimed at stabilizing colleges and universities across the province.
The announcement made by Jill Dunlop, minister of colleges and universities, outlines a suite of measures aimed at stabilizing post-secondary institutions while keeping tuition fees frozen to alleviate financial burdens on students and parents.
This move comes as a relief to students and families, who the government said saved about $1,600 per year on average for university and $350 per year on average for college since the freeze was first introduced.
Nigmendra Narain, president of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA), said in an interview with Humber News that students need much more than what schools are supplying.
“We need sustained, long-term increases in per-student funding in Ontario, not short-term injections that don’t solve the problem of underfunding, much less ensure the sustainability and growth of our public universities,” Narain said.
“Faculty, students, administrators, and staff groups are all telling the government the same thing: We need more funding for universities and we need it right now,” he said.
Narain said he expected the government to listen to real experts and academics who research, teach and learn on the campuses every
day. It is a way to develop a path forward to implement sustainable solutions.
“The government’s chronic underfunding creates scarcity conditions on campus which negatively affect student learning and faculty working conditions,” he said.
“Per-student funding for universities goes towards things like hiring and retaining full-time professors, staffing libraries, and providing student services, but when the government doesn’t provide enough funding for these vital elements, everyone on campus feels their effects,” Narain said.
The Ontario government said it intends to support colleges in
offering applied master’s degrees in key areas such as advanced manufacturing, AI, and animation.
Sankarnath Suresh, a student specializing in Mobile Application Development at George Brown College, said he looked forward to these changes.
“AI helps me to code faster. I can fix errors faster with it and focus on implementing my idea instead of grappling with syntax. I feel AI will reduce plagiarism and improve learning,” Sankarnath said.
Liz Tuomi, the media secretary and senior communications advisor for Jill Dunlop said that allowing publicly assisted colleges to offer master’s degrees in applied areas has the potential to expand
credentials in specialized programs such as cybersecurity and robotics.
She said this will provide pathways for college graduates pursuing graduate studies in the college system and create opportunities for applied research and commercialization.
“As these programs get introduced, we look forward to seeing our postsecondary partners promote them to prospective students across Ontario,” Tuomi said.
This strategic move aligns graduate education with industry demands, providing students with the skills and expertise needed to excel in the workforce, she said.
Tuomi said the implementa-
tion of applied master’s degrees in colleges reflects the Ontario government’s strategy to cultivate a proficient workforce and endorse ongoing educational opportunities.
“This initiative supports our goal of creating responsive master’s level programming that is relevant to the province’s needs, advancing new learner pathways that benefit students, employers, and the economy,” Tuomi said.
Dunlop said in a media release the province is set to introduce legislation that sheds light on ancillary fees and other student costs.
This is to ensure that students and parents have a clearer understanding of financial costs.
“We’re taking action to make fees more transparent. We’re supporting student mental health, fostering safer campuses and preparing students for rewarding careers,” Dunlop said.
“Ford has been fully aware of how decades of chronic underfunding by Liberal and Conservative governments and five years of Ford cuts, have pushed our postsecondary institutions to the brink,” she said.
“Instead of taking serious action, Ford has encouraged unrestrained international student recruitment, enabled bad actors, rewarded PC party donors, and left everyone else out in the cold. We should never have gotten to this level of crisis in our colleges and university sector. We need serious solutions to get us out,” Sattler said.
Ontario is extending its tuition fee freeze for publicly assisted colleges and universities for at least three more years.
The legislation, known as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, passed the U.S. House on a bipartisan 352-65 vote on Wednesday morning.
The measure requires TikTok to part ways with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, within six months or face a ban in American app stores and web-hosting services.
The lawmakers are concerned about the potential leak of users’ data on the app to the Chinese government, noting that the country’s national security laws require organizations to cooperate with intelligence gathering.
Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher and Democratic ranking member Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi put forward the legislation on Tuesday.
“This is my message to TikTok: break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users,” Gallagher said in a news release.
“TikTok’s time in the United States is over unless it ends its
relationship with CCP-controlled ByteDance.”
Both of them are members of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.
The bill also notes that among over 170 million American users on TikTok, no one would see enforcement against them for having the app on their mobile devices.
“Americans need to ask themselves whether they want to give the Chinese government the ability to control access to their data, whether they want to give the Chinese government the ability to control the information they get through the recommendation algorithm,” FBI Director Christopher Wray told House Intelligence Committee members on Tuesday, mentioning that the Chinese government could compromise Americans’ devices through the software.
Jinghao Sun, a first-year Humber student from China, said that there are two versions of TikTok - domestic and international. As for the Chinese ver-
sion, users have to provide their IDs issued by the government to create an account on the app.
“When I came to Canada, I started to use an international version of TikTok and was surprised to see how open it was.
People can say whatever they want,” he said.
“In China, people are wary of what they’re posting because the government might think you can cause a chaotic situation and get people to protest about something.”
Sun added that some Chinese social media platforms have relations with the government by sharing some data.
One of the examples is WeChat, a Chinese version of Instagram and the most popular app in the country.
While Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, denies that the app can share its users’ data with the government of China, Sun recommends being aware of what information is shared on the platform.
“I don’t think people should put too much personal information online. It’s better to keep it to yourself.”
In his official statement, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, accused the U.S. of spreading disinformation.
The U.S. “has not been able to give hard evidence to prove the so-called threats from TikTok to U.S. national security,” he said, calling on the U.S. government to “provide an open, fair, equal and non-discriminatory business environment to companies of all countries operating in the U.S.”
Another Humber student said he agrees with a ban spotlighting other potential issues with the app.
Tejveel Singh, a final-year student in the business administra-
tion program, told Humber News that he is ‘against’ using TikTok calling the app a ‘distraction’ and ‘generation problem’.
“I don’t use TikTok because it’s a big distraction for me with a lot of advertisements and fake activities,” he said.
“It is creating a generation problem when people will stop exploring life because they already have started to live mostly in the social media world.”
Singh also added that he’s ‘sure’ that some social media platforms can leak information about users to the government.
So far, Canadian officials haven’t commented on the issue yet after its ban of the app on federal employees’ devices last year.
Amid TikTok influencers’ protests on Capitol Hill during the House’s voting, the legislation is heading to the Senate.
“We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy, 7 million small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our service,” said Alex Haurek, a TikTok spokesperson, in the statement.
Despite the small decline in Toronto rent prices, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) continues to see an overall rise in rent.
Canada needs expanded rent control to decrease prices and allow more low-income individuals and families to find affordable shelters.
A single policy for the entire province would stop the rise of prices outside of core downtown areas like Toronto.
A report from Rental.ca said as of March 2024 rent has increased up to 15 per cent in townships outside of the core of Toronto.
The report said Etobicoke’s average rent for a single-bedroom apartment rose by 1.9 per cent to $2,255, and Mississauga’s rose 5.2 per cent to $2,249.
The report also said Waterloo’s rent rose by 14.2 per cent and is
OPINIONnow above $2,000 a month.
One of the few areas in the GTA where rent decreased was in Toronto, where it fell by 0.2 per cent from the previous year, the report said.
Despite the fall, a single-bedroom apartment in Toronto costs $2,495 a month.
Ontario Premier Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are desperately throwing money at the problem, but they do not understand the key issue.
No amount of federal and provincial funding can make up for tangible policy intervention.
Rent control is the only solution when 55 per cent of the average Canadian income is spent on rent in Toronto.
Statistics Canada reports the average Canadian income is around $54,000 per year, while the reported average rent total for
a single-bedroom apartment in Toronto is $29,940 per year.
The Canadian government released a statement on Jan. 29, 2024, announcing reforms to the Apartment Construction Loan Program to incentivize building student housing.
This change may alleviate student rent in Toronto and increase school enrolment, but it does not do enough to help alleviate sub-
urban prices.
Currently, rent control in Ontario restricts the rent increase as long as the tenant stays, however, as soon as a tenant leaves a shelter, the Residential Tenancies Act allows landowners to have the right to ask for any price the market will accept.
This loophole allows landowners to evict tenants, creating these high rents and hurting people looking
to rent in the GTA.
Ford presented Milton, Ont., with $8.4 million on March 8 to add more housing.
Ford said Milton built 1,952 new homes in 2023 with the Building Faster Fund, but he did not mention how many were rentals nor how much rent was for the rentals.
The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board’s (TRREB) Jan. 31, 2024 report said rent in Milton averages $2,311 for a one-bedroom apartment, about 51 per cent of the average Canadian income.
If we return to a strong rent control policy, tenants would not have to pay half their income to have a roof over their heads.
Canadian politicians need to do more to find solutions to address the real problem instead of just throwing money at contractors in the hopes that building more homes will lower the rent.
Ankur Gupta News Editor
The Canadian government is studying a bill for the implementation of Universal Basic Income (UBI), which if implemented, might prove disastrous for the country.
Under the bill, all people above the age of 17 years will be eligible to get a guaranteed liveable basic income, which is around $2,000 each month.
Rather than giving “no strings attached” money to all, the government should give it to those in need — targeted income guarantees — and save tax money.
Another option is to increase the minimum wage in the country, as it could help people earn a livable basic income.
Instead of experimenting with a new bill, it could prove beneficial to reform the schemes that already exist in the country.
Economists across the world stand divided on the concept of UBI.
In 2016, almost 80 per cent of voters in Switzerland rejected the proposal of guaranteed monthly income, believing it would eliminate the motivation to work.
After the rejection in Switzerland, Charles Wyplosz, a professor of international economics at the Graduate Institute in Geneva said, “If we pay people, unconditionally, to do nothing, they will do nothing.”
Another concern about the
implementation of UBI is its high cost.
A report by Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated the cost of guaranteed basic income would be $91 billion and $93 billion in the years 2024-25 and 202526, respectively.
Some argue that UBI does have some positive effects on the economy and people.
It can help reduce poverty, improve the mental and physical health of people, reduce highschool dropout rates and can also be beneficial to new mothers by
giving them financial stability.
But the concern is, what will motivate people to work if they are paid $2,000 every month?
Canada ran a pilot project in Manitoba called the “Mincome” from 1974-79, but no official report was issued on its successes or failures.
Ontario implemented a pilot project in 2017 with 4,000 people, which was supposed to last for three years but was dropped early after the government changed in 2018, saying it was too expensive.
Lisa MacLeod, former min-
ister for children, community and social services, said on July 31, 2018, that the project was expensive, and “clearly not the answer for Ontario families.”
An IPSOS survey of about 1,000 people in 2017 indicated 60 per cent of Canadians believed a guaranteed basic income would make people reliant on the state and 54 per cent believed that UBI would discourage people from seeking employment.
IPSOS reported 52 per cent of Canadians believed that basic income would increase taxes to unaffordable levels.
While 44 per cent of Canadians agreed with the idea of providing unconditional money to people, 31 per cent disagreed with the idea and 24 per cent neither agreed nor disagreed.
Ontario Senator Kim Pate tabled Bill S-233 in the Senate that would establish a framework for UBI and is currently before the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance after two readings. Once the study in the committee is complete, it will be put forward for a Senate vote.
If adopted it will be sent to the House of Commons where it could become law.
Let’s focus on increasing the minimum wage instead of placing our hopes in controversial UBI experiments.
Liv Chug Page 1 Editor
While the Canadian music scene continues to expand, women playing brass instruments still face sexist barriers to success.
This is largely due to how different instruments are connected to outdated feminine and masculine ideologies.
A study from the University of Windsor found that instruments associated with femininity, such as
the flute or harp, were associated with a lack of leadership in the orchestra.
“Moreover, musicians of feminine instruments were perceived as more caring, warm, sensitive, and better adjusted; but less dominant and prone to leadership than musicians of masculine instruments,” the study said.
Dewi Minden, the Humber College music operations manager and a professional trumpeter, said it remains challenging for women to break into the male-dominated world of brass.
“It is pretty unheard of for women to be successful in the classical music scene, but it is really unheard of to see female trumpeters in those places,” Minden said.
Humber Lakeshore’s music programs recently hosted a concert with Canadian trumpeter Ingrid Jensen at the end of a week-long residency for students in jazz
ensembles.
“These are hardworking students, and it has been a lot of fun working with them,” Jensen said.
Jensen is one of the few successful female musicians playing an instrument like the trumpet at a professional level.
The Forward Motion Ensemble, who performed with Jensen at the helm, was still a male-dominated orchestra, with one of the few female musicians singing centre stage beside Jensen.
There is representation for women in music, particularly in jazz, but certain sections of orchestras and big bands still tend towards men.
This was even more common in the concert’s second half, which featured performances from Humber’s Big Band, with mainly male musicians dominating the stage.
The more I attend concerts at Humber’s Lakeshore campus, the more recognizable this trend has
become in our schools.
Male musicians commonly take on leading roles in the band or orchestra, such as percussion or lead melodic roles, like lead guitar.
Female musicians are seen less on the stage and when they are, they are more commonly seen in roles with instruments that the University of Windsor study associates with feminine identity and lack leadership qualities.
So yes, women can be in the band and women take up important parts of the orchestra,
but there is still an emphasis on where women should be within those spaces.
Artists like Jensen and Minden are proof the restrictive industry has begun to accommodate female brass musicians, but there are still far too few women represented on the big stage.
I hope future generations of Humber musicians can finally erase the outdated associations attached to various instruments, regardless of what female musicians choose to play.
Leshae Barrett General Reporter
February has come and gone, and with it, the cultural acknowledgement that should have been highlighted.
Black History Month and its meaning have diminished over the years and people do not seem to care why.
As a Black woman, I have learned about Black history through the teachings from my family during my life.
But when it comes to being taught through the education system, Black history appeared to be another subject only covered briefly.
Schools tend to fall short in terms of retelling history in general, it is told dully with no expressed interest other than just being a topic in the curriculum.
Events of incidents of Black
oppression and the trials and tribulations that Black people have gone through are told by teachers to students.
Having been regaled with the stories of the challenges Black people face, our people still face the same issues to this day.
Although they may not surmount problems faced in the past, Black people of today still face animosity. It all just goes underappreciated, and as unfortunate as it is to say, there is not enough being done to change that.
Every time there is a moment that brings attention to people of
colour, it gets discussed only in passing before being brushed away like yesterday’s news.
Wilfrid Laurier professor Dalon Taylor, an expert in community justice, is researching issues involving race, racism, and antiBlack racism.
“I’ve cut back from doing most anything in Black History Month because it’s emotional...it’s filled with disappointment for me,” she said.
“It almost feels like Black History Month is for Black people rather than the rest of society coming to terms to realize our contributions,”
Taylor said. “Our blood, sweat, and tears have been a part of these different societies.”
She said Black people have the potential to come together to bring about recognition and that effective advocacy is a step in the right direction.
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement started in 2013 and was a stance that has fluctuated through mainstream media over the years.
This movement, too, has faced challenges with “All Lives Matter” becoming a slogan, which was taken to X, formerly known as
Twitter, in 2014.
American writer and activist Tim Wise prides himself on being among prominent anti-racist educators.
He posted about the slogan that belittled the reasoning for BLM about how ignorant and crass the people who pushed it were.
“For those who say stupid and obvious shit like ‘all lives matter...’ Tell ya what, when a racist bursts into a church and targets folks just because they are ‘All people’ rather than black people, you are allowed to speak,” he said in his Facebook post on June 18, 2015.
“Until then, STFU forever...”
BLM is a stance to highlight the oppression Black people face and to have others come to change the meaning was very disrespectful.
Yet “All Lives Matter” continues to be used. It’s not necessarily wrong in meaning.
Of course, all lives matter, but the issue is that many who use the phrase twist the meaning towards being oppressive.
“Why is it that just when we are raising our voices, it becomes about all lives and yet we are the ones being oppressed the most?” Taylor asked.
Yes, all lives should matter, but Black lives matter, too. There is no exception or outlier when talking about human life.
Daniela Gonzalez Vega, a senior Peer Mentor at Humber, celebrated her first International Women’s Day.
She was in charge of a refreshments table at the Lakeshore campus event on March 7, but the event was momentous for her.
“Where I’m from we don’t celebrate International Women’s Day because for us it’s more of a day to commemorate,” said Vega, a 22-year-old creative writing undergraduate and poet from Mexico.
“I think for Humber, it inspires inclusion and that we are all the
same and that there’s always a place for women,” the marketing communications student said.
First-Year Experience (FYE) hosted the International Women’s Day celebration in the G Building of the Lakeshore campus.
It included various activities, such as aroma therapy, nail painting and button-making, and a table where students could borrow books and enjoy refreshments.
Emily Ellazar, another Senior Peer Mentor at Humber, was in attendance and was in charge of the nail painting table.
“For me, International Women’s Day is about empowering women around the world and showcasing that we have talent and just appreciating women,” Ellazar said.
“For the Humber community and students, it’s a great way to showcase fun things, like self-care, learn about the history of why there is an International Women’s Day,” she said.
Ellazar said the message this event is trying to send is to love yourself and remember why women are important.
“As a Senior Peer Mentor, I’m constantly helping students and while doing that, I’m also empow-
ering them with a message at the end of the day that if I can do it, you can do it as well,” Ellazar said. “It’s just positive vibes I’d say.”
Mary Goral, a Library Technician at the Lakeshore campus library, was in charge of the book table, which displayed books written by women that students could borrow.
“Being a woman, knowing that it’s difficult to make equivalent to a man, not that it’s absolutely necessary but it’s becoming more and more so in our society today,” Goral said.
“Education is important so, it’s equally important for men and women and I think it’s good for women to strive, dream big, follow those dreams, be ambitious and go places,” she said.
Goral said women should have a voice, women can write and should keep writing when asked about how important women are in writing books.
“It plays a big role here,” Goral said. “It’s very important to the whole community.”
Alongside fun activities, a panel with both First-Year Experience (FYE) coordinators and other Humber faculty answered Wom-
en’s Day-related questions.
Among those, Maria Mendoza Camba, the Lead Strategist for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at EY Canada, a financial services firm, gave a keynote speech about the significance of IWD and joined a panel discussion.
“International Women’s Day is very important to me because I’m a very big advocate for gender equity,” Camba said.
“My intent is always to kind of break those barriers and pave the way for other women to have spaces for themselves so that they can thrive and feel empowered.”
Camba said she is a mother of a seven-year-old daughter, which forms the way she advocates for
other women.
“For me, it’s very important to create spaces that celebrate the accomplishments and achievements of women,” Camba said.
“This should not be siloed into International Women’s Day, this should always be every day,”
Camba said moments like this remind people of the types of contributions that are provided by women.
“But it also brings together women and reminds them that they have to lean in each other in order to kind of move the needle into the equitable space,” Camba said.
“Be kind [to yourself]...and lean on each other,” she said.
“Make an intentional practice of creating space for other women to feel empowered.”
Camba said the way one talks to oneself impacts the way one moves.
“If you’re telling yourself you’re not good enough, it’s going to [bleed] into anything you’re doing,” Camba said.
The North campus is set to hold an International Women’s Day celebration event on Wednesday.
As an undergraduate at McGill University, the co-founder and CEO of Alstari, Sue Abu-Hakima, was asked by a male classmate why she was in an electrical engineering class.
“And I said, ‘What do you mean? Why am I here?’ I’m sitting, he goes, ‘You’re just going to go and get married and leave the field. You’re taking up the space of a man,’” Abu-Hakima said.
She said when she started working, male co-workers at one job were sticking up pictures of naked women on the wall while at another job, naked women were used as computer screensavers.
“Later on, when I was trying to raise money for our company, also on Bay Street, I was asked if I was married and what my husband thinks of my venture,” AbuHakima said.
Tamara Franz-Odendaal, a biology professor at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, described another obstacle for women in the workplace to be getting challenged more than male colleagues in a conference.
“We don’t get the same oppor-
tunities to get invited to speak at different places,” Franz-Odendaal said. “Sometimes, I’ve had to turn down some when my child was young because there were no accommodations for the fact that I had a young child and there was no support for my spouse to join me or for childcare or anything.”
She said launching a career in science is very competitive as one needs to be publishing and producing on top of trying to get grants which can become even more challenging to balance if one is also a new mother.
Meseret Haileyesus, the CEO of the Canadian Centre for Women’s Empowerment (CCFWE), emphasized the social and gender norms
for women are a huge barrier.
“There’s a lot of barriers, especially for women. We are shaping for future women, but we’re rejected by the man,” Haileyesus said. “We’re rejected by the system. It’s not that easy. So the journey is uneasy.”
“You have to be out there and show yourself and then make sure also, the stories of real women get heard,” she said.
Haileyesus said COVID-19 left women in a precarious situation because of inflation and the cost of living.
“So, women, already they are highly impacted. They are the first caregiver. Some women, they want to go back to the workforce, they
maybe can’t afford child care and a lot of things,” Haileyesus said.
She said there is a need to invest in women’s economic empowerment.
“That’s my call to action. So women have to go to school, they have to go to the workforce, they have to make money,” Haileyesus said. “That’s it. Not investment in social services, welfare and everything, or transitions. That’s good, but that doesn’t change a women’s economy.”
Shannon Pestun, co-founder of The Finance Cafe in Calgary, said she was always told she was bad with numbers growing up which influenced her career although she became one of the first leaders in the country to lead a women’s banking strategy.
“Women have been given wrong money messages for a long time, and girls are taught that it’s rude to talk about money,” Pestun said. “We’ve been socialized to think that we’re bad with numbers.”
“We are from a young age often discouraged from going into math and into STEM, and so these have like knock-on effects as we go through our careers,” she said. “I think when we talk about women
as role models, it’s really important because we’re having conversations that we might not have ever had before.”
But for some like Humber College student and goalkeeper for its soccer team, Ezequiel Carrasco, the day reminds him to reflect on the two women he admires most, his mother and grandmother.
“My mom, when she was, I must say, 21, 22, got into a huge car accident that she was lucky to survive, she was recovering for a long time. So just kind of perseverance with that,” Carrasco said.
“My grandma, she’s gone through a crazy couple of years getting diagnosed with cancer and getting sick and she’s been fighting through it which is definitely a big inspiration for me and my family,” he said.
Carrasco has dealt with recovery from knee surgery which took him off the field from playing soccer which was hard as he was doing everything to get on the field and recover but his body was not keeping up with him.
However, this was one of those moments where his mother’s and grandmother’s teachings and perseverance helped him push through.
Students watched in awe as drag performers The Virgo Queen, Manny Dingo and Naomi Leone, all Humber College alumni, gave them an unforgettable show.
“I love what I do,” drag king Manny Dingo said.
“It makes me happy and proud of who I am.”
For many in the LGBTQ+ community, drag is not only a showcase of their talent but a method of self-expression.
Humber College North held its second annual drag show to close out Black History Month on Feb. 23, 2024, in the Student Centre.
LGBTQ+ Resource Centre, IGNITE, and Black Student Support and Engagement put on the BLAQ Collective Drag Show, highlighting black, queer talent.
While the art of drag is ever prominent in society now, this has not always been the case.
The art of drag performance has been around since ancient Greece but gained prominence in black, queer spaces in the 20th Century.
Unfortunately, with that prominence came prejudice.
Outside of the LGBTQ+ community, Drag and ballroom culture was often disapproved of and seen as immoral by those with traditional heteronormative views.
Thaddeus Morgan explained how ballroom drag shows gained
popularity in the 1800s in their article entitled How 19th-Century Drag Balls Evolved into House Balls, Birthplace of Vogueing.
As drag balls grew in popularity in the early 20th century, the shows were deemed illegal and quickly pushed underground, they wrote.
As the shows were pushed into hiding, Black culture was on the rise, allowing for Black creatives to explore gender, sex, and sexuality, stated Morgan.
These underground spaces offered a safe space to the Black and Latinx queer community, allowing for gender expression instead of ridicule.
Drag performers continued to fight for their rights even as RuPaul’s Drag Race and its several spinoffs rose in popularity in recent years.
The debate surrounding whether or not drag performers should be allowed to read to children has caused an uproar, placing the safety of the performers at risk.
American states Texas, Montana, and Tennessee have all passed laws that made it illegal for drag artists to perform in certain public spaces.
“I know the last few months have been hard for a lot of drag performers and queer, trans people,” Dingo said.
“But we are here because we want people to know that this is
important to us.”
While the drag community has continued to be criminalized, that did not stop their need to show why drag matters.
“Remember to always choose love and be kind to one another,” Leone told the audience.
“It’s the love that you guys give me that allows me to do what I love.”
The performers’ love for their craft was palpable and exposed drag to many students for the first time.
International student Shivani Patel said the show was a new experience for her.
“I’m from Kenya and in Kenya I wouldn’t see all of this,” Patel said.
“Seeing my own people supporting one another makes me want to go to another show.
“I’m happy to see people comfortable in their bodies who can motivate other people to be themselves,” Patel said.
As three performers made their final bows, Leone left the audience emphasizing her message of being kind to one another.
While riding on the TTC, one may hear the sweet sounds of a flute, a bad-ass bass, or the strum of a guitar.
It’s all thanks to the TTC Underground Sounds Subway Musicians Program and the individuals who play for commuters.
Mel Harrietha, 76, has been playing on the TTC for more than 20 years and said he chooses to play because he still can, even though he is in a wheelchair.
“It’s the best form of physiotherapy I have ever had,” Harrietha said.
He said he could receive another
licence from the TTC this year.
The TTC holds auditions for a musician’s licence every three years. This year, musicians have to submit their audition tape by March 31.
Harrietha said he suffered a stroke six years ago yet brings himself and his wheelchair to accessible stations throughout Toronto. He said it keeps him young and happy.
Not only is Harrietha a TTC musician. He has a bachelor’s degree in computer network engineering from Ryerson, now Toronto Metropolitan University.
“Overcoming disability or accommodating disability is essen-
tially a function of engineering,” he said.
Harrietha plays the guitar, bass, harmonica, and tambourine using his feet. He said he has always loved music, and that his passion is found in sound.
TTC musicians have 29 designated spots along the subway where they can play. They can opt to self-advertise and play their music, or cover loved bands and artists.
The TTC Musicians program began in 1980, but that doesn’t mean musicians weren’t playing on the subway before.
Harrietha said the subway was a free-for-all before the TTC made it a requirement to have a licence to play on the subway.
He said Subway Elvis was the biggest act, playing for commuters on the subway cars. Elvis made hundreds of dollars a day, Harrietha said.
“I don’t care how much people give me, they give what they can,” he said.
“One day, this young man gave me a tinker toy, because it’s all he had, and I still have it today.”
The TTC said they will give 90 new musicians a licence to perform from April 29, 2024, to April 28, 2027.
Harrietha said he hopes to be
chosen again with his partner Natalie Wong, who plays the violin.
The two create a musical masterpiece with their marriage of strings, Harrietha on the guitar and Wong on the violin.
Wong currently works a nineto-five job and has an ARCT performance diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music majoring in violin performance at the University of Toronto.
Harrietha said he’s good, but with Wong, he’s great.
Rick Leary, TTC CEO, said in a statement that the TTC is psyched for the continuation and growth of the musicians program.
“The TTC is a proud champion of local artists because, like them, the TTC is an integral part
of Toronto’s cultural lifeblood,” he said.
“The Underground Sounds Subway Musicians Program sets a gold standard for public transit engagement and brings a little magic to the daily commute.”
The TTC said the program allows musicians to find their groove and perfect their craft.
“TTC Underground Sounds Subway Musicians have been involved in projects to celebrate special events happening in Toronto, and they’re often approached to play private functions or give music lessons,” it said.
The TTC said their musicians consist of Royal Conservatory of Music graduates, Juno award winners, and symphony performers.
The Humber Hawks men’s basketball team found itself victorious once again. The eighth-seeded Hawks did a number on George Brown, defeating them by 32 points in the OCAA final to capture gold on March 3.
And the team’s quest for national gold began Wednesday in New Brunswick with an explosive 104-57 whooping against Mount Saint Vincent University Mystics. The Hawks play the Keyano Huskies on Thursday.
The provincial gold medal is the 16th provincial championship in Humber men’s basketball history. The game was a dominant performance from start to finish, with the Hawks gaining a lead in the first quarter that they never relinquished.
Head coach Omar Miles said a large part of the win was carried by the team’s defensive play.
“I just thought we rebounded the ball really well, we covered for each other’s mistakes, and we took lots of charges,” he said.
Miles said the team’s stifling defence has been integral to every playoff win so far.
He said it became apparent that by the final games of the regular season, the team had the best defence in the province and could match up against anyone.
The team was led by Jalen Menzies, who put up 19 points and was awarded the MVP.
Menzies took plenty of shots all night, leading the team in threepoint and field goal attempts.
Miles said this came as no surprise to him, given how Menzies has always risen to the occasion.
“His leadership and his ability to rally the troops when needed was very apparent when we were getting into the crunch of every tough game,” he said.
Miles said this quiet style of leadership came from Menzies’ previous experience playing at the national level with his former team, Holland College.
He said this has rubbed off on the current squad, and they are better off for it.
Kameron David, a fourth-year
point guard, said the team’s bond off the court has been the catalyst for great success on it.
“We hang out all the time outside of school, so when it comes to communicating, whether we’re talking or not, we tend to have great chemistry,” he said.
David said the sky is the limit for the team given the talent they possess and how tight-knit they are.
He said if they stay disciplined in their play and remain consistent with that, no team should be able
to beat them.
“The only way that we could really lose is by beating ourselves and going off of what we’re doing. That got us here in the first place,” he said.
The team is currently on a 10-day layoff between games.
While this may derail momentum for some teams, Miles said he is determined to make sure that doesn’t happen by keeping things light.
“We’re beginning to practice by doing less five-on-five drills and more five-on-0s,” he said.
Miles said it is key to stay loose and have fun during this downtime in the schedule and to save the intensity for their opponents.
Isaiah Brady-Clarke, a first-year point guard, said the preparation process for the game wasn’t any different than at any other time of the year.
“We just stayed mentally focused and applied all of the knowledge that our coaches gave us,” he said.
Brady-Clarke said staying in a good mental headspace and blocking out all negative thoughts was a key to their success in the game.
Humber Hawks women’s volleyball head coach Chris Wilkins first aspired to coach in high school when he realized he couldn’t jump that high.
He realized that playing longer was unrealistic and moved his focus to coaching.
“I realized that I was short and I couldn’t really jump very high,” Wilkins said. “So if I wanted to stay in the sport, I better coach instead of play.”
Wilkins did play college volleyball at Humber for two seasons. The highest medal he reached as a player was the Ontario Collegiate Athletic Association (OCAA) bronze.
But since taking over the head coaching position in 2003, Wilkins has brought a culture of winning to the team. And a whole lot of medals.
He has won 16 OCAA championships, including this season.
And Wilkins hasn’t just won Ontario championships.
He has also won two Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) bronze medals and they have a chance for a third CCAA
bronze this season.
Sydney Ferguson, a fourth-year co-captain, said she has learned much from Wilkins, as she has developed during her four years as a player.
“I just take all of the feedback and input he gives me and put it to use and really remind myself of those things when I’m in practice
and in games,” she said.
In addition to his impact on the court, Ferguson said Wilkins has also taught the players important life lessons.
“Even going forward in life, he’s taught me a lot of valuable lessons and taught me a lot of skills,” she said.
But the impact goes the other
way too. Wilkins said players became a big part of his life.
“We talk about being a family, and we’re a family,” he said. “And, they’re going to be greatly missed for sure.”
Wilkins’ impact is also felt by the other coaches on his staff, some of whom are former players.
Taylor Robertson, in her sixth
year as an assistant, said she has been constantly developing in her coaching under him.
“He’s a great friend, he’s a mentor,” she said. “Always learning so much from him and providing lots of laughs along the way.”
Having coached for so long, Wilkins has seen lots of teams come through.
And for him, every iteration is different than the last.
“I think every year it feels different, it’s one of those things where each team is different,” Wilkins said. “Every year there’s different personalities that come in and different people that become a part of it.”
Even though he has been doing this for over two decades, Wilkins said that an end isn’t imminent.
But he does know when he will end his coaching career.
“I always make the joke that I’ll be done when I stop enjoying it,” Wilkins said. “And every year I get new people in here that make me enjoy the program.”
The Hawks lost in the bronze medal match, finishing in fourth place in the CCAA tournament.
Humber College won its 16th OCAA men’s indoor soccer title against Conestoga last Friday.
After losing to Conestoga 3-0 in the outdoor final in October, head coach Michael Aquino had only one mission going into the final and that was bringing home the gold.
“Just considering what happened in the fall, the team was ready to play, and they wanted to prove that they could achieve something against this particular team,” Aquino said.
The Hawks managed to go undefeated in the tournament with a record of four wins and one draw.
Attacking midfielder Danny Medeiros won MVP after scoring many key goals in the tournament and being one of the reasons that Humber was able to win the whole thing.
Medeiros is a second-year player and is considered the team’s most valuable asset by players and coaches.
“He’s always very consistent and always a threat,” team captain Ryan Lindsay said. “He’s very good technically and effective. He scored
quite a few big goals for us this past tournament.”
This time, Humber dominated in the final against Conestoga, contrary to what happened in the outdoor final.
“I think this tournament we worked a lot better together as a team and more organized working for each other,” Lindsay said.
“Overall, I think it was a good performance from the team as a whole.”
Aquino said this was one of their
best tournaments in recent times, and he is grateful to have a full lineup.
“For a couple of years now, we’ve been unfortunate with players getting injured and not being able to participate in these tournaments,” Aquino said.
He said not having that has contributed to the disappointments in the last three seasons.
There have been some new faces on the team following successful tryouts. One players is Mathias
Lozano.
Lozano played very well and was instrumental to the group as a newcomer to the indoor team and the entire soccer program.
“He contributed a lot for us and played very well, so we’re happy with his performance and glad to have him on the team,” Aquino said.
Humber is known for having very successful sports teams and the soccer team is no exception, being one of the best in Ontario.
“What separates Humber from the rest is not just having great players. Our facilities and coaching staff are incredible and they should be given the credit that they deserve,” Lindsay said.
Aquino has done a great job with the team in the 10 years that he has been in charge and has implemented the right mentality and tactics that keep winning titles.
“Michael’s mentality is just to win. It doesn’t matter how and it doesn’t have to be pretty,” thirdyear player Santino De Bartolo said. “He implements a good system at the beginning of the year and all the players buy into it.”
There is also a great sense of togetherness between the players, seen through the chemistry they have on the field.
“We have a great bond as a team. A lot of times, like we like to spend time with each other. I think it’s not something that we necessarily try to do, it just happens naturally,” De Bartolo said.
With this title, the Humber soccer team wraps up another victorious season. The players will be returning in August for training camp to prepare for the start of the 2024 outdoor season.
The MLS season is underway and Toronto FC is off to a great start, better than some may have expected.
After three games played, Toronto has picked up two wins and one tie.
This exceptional start might surprise fans because last season was a season to forget. Toronto finished dead last in the MLS with just 22 points.
To put it into perspective, they picked up just four total wins in all of last season. They’re already halfway to that achievement this season and played 31 fewer games.
Ryan Dos Santos has been a Toronto FC fan “Since day one.” Dos Santos began supporting the club when they were founded in 2007.
He described last season as, “abysmal, sad, depressing. I don’t think you can use any positive word to really describe last year’s season.”
Andrew Nieva, another big fan of Toronto FC, also expressed disappointment with the way last season went down.
“It goes down to the players,” he
said. “You can tell they didn’t want it. There was no passion behind any of their games.”
Their opening game of the season was a goalless draw against Cincinnati. They went on to win their next two games with a score of 1-0 against New England and Charlotte in their home opener last weekend.
Italian star Lorenzo Insigne scored both goals for Toronto in both its wins.
At home, against Charlotte, he found the back of the net with just
10 minutes remaining in the match with a curled shot from outside the box.
Insigne and fellow Italian Federico Bernardeschi both signed for Toronto back in 2022 to help bolster the squad. For some, they’ve become fan favourites.
“They put us more on the map,” Dos Santos said.
He said that there was some drama within the team and that they wanted to leave last year because of poor results.
However, he added he’s hopeful
they will change their minds now that it seems that things have turned around. “Fingers crossed that they continue to do well this season,” he said.
One major change that Toronto seems to be benefiting from this year is their new head coach, John Herdman.
Herdman has an excellent coaching track record. Before taking the job to manage Toronto FC, he was the manager of the Canadian Men’s National Team. Under his management, Canada
qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 36 years.
Prior to that, he coached the Canadian Women’s National Team, where he led them to two bronze medals in the Olympics and one gold in the Pan American games.
“The work he did with Canada, I don’t think any coach could’ve done the same job he did,” Dos Santos said.
Nieva was enthusiastic about the Herdman hire and said, “hopefully he has a better approach for TFC (this year).”
Fans will be hopeful that this start is a sign of things to come for the duration of the season. If this success continues, they could earn themselves a ticket to the playoffs, something they haven’t competed in since 2019.
Toronto FC competed in the MLS Cup final three times between 2016 - 2019. They were crowned champions in 2017 for the first time in their history.
“If they keep it up, I’m confident they can have a playoff spot, but ultimately it comes down to the players.” Nieva said.
Toronto FC will play New York City FC away in their next match on Saturday.
When Joe Carter hit his walk-off home run against the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1993 World Series, it became a day that would live in the memories of Toronto sports fans.
This included then 10-year-old Mimico native and now 40-year-old veteran big leaguer, Joey Votto.
Votto said as a Blue Jays fan growing up, he remembers the Blue Jays back-to-back World Series wins in 1992 and 1993 fondly.
“Those were the most exciting moments of my childhood,” Votto said in a media conference on March 10.
Votto now has a chance to potentially create memories for the next generation of Blue Jays fans, as the team signed the former National League MVP first baseman to a minor league contract.
Votto said he is excited to be part of the organization and take on the challenge of competing for a spot at the major league level.
While Votto said he is confident in his ability, he understands the situation he is in, as a nonroster invitee to big-league spring training on a minor-league contract.
“As far as expectations I have none,” he said.
“The idea that I’m going to come in and presume anything is a disconnect from reality,” he said.
Before signing with the Blue Jays, Votto had an illustrious 17-year career with the Cincin-
nati Reds that saw him take home NL MVP honours in 2010, along with a Golden Glove in 2011 and making six all-star appearances.
Votto has struggled in recent years to stay on the field because of health issues.
The past two seasons also saw Votto produce the lowest batting averages of his career, .205 and .202 respectively.
Votto said his goal is to rebound from the poor output the past few
seasons now that he is healthy and has had a full offseason to prepare.
“I’m trying to prove I’m still a capable player and that the last couple seasons were not real,” he said.
“And I have confidence that will be the case,” Votto said.
Blue Jays Manager John Schnieder said in a media conference he is excited to have someone with a previous track record of success, like Votto, in the clubhouse.
Schneider said signing Votto can have a two-fold effect.
“You look at the effect [Votto] could have around the community…even the effect that he could have on our team with his experiences,” Schneider said.
“It’s really cool to have a borderline hall-of-famer come to his hometown team that he grew up cheering for,” he said.
Jays fan Nick Lucyshyn shares the excitement that Schneider had
when speaking to Humber News about Votto’s potential homecoming.
Lucyshyn, a Burlington native, said if Votto were to make the Jays’ major league roster it would be pretty special to the locals to have a hometown guy play for the hometown team.
While he said this type of signing would have had more of an impact on the organization during the prime years of his career, he said Votto could still have an effect.
“I mean [it’s] still exciting, I think he’ll help draw crowds and everything at first especially,” Lucyshyn said.
Growing up playing baseball in the GTA and surrounding regions, Lucyshyn said Votto inspired young players like himself.
“It’s more inspirational to see that someone in the same position you were made it,” he said.
“Growing up, our age group was kind of in [Votto’s] prime… if you’re looking at a Canadian baseball player as a role model or anything like that, he would be the guy,” he said.
Votto said he’s excited about this opportunity but also said “if” a lot in his first media availability as Blue Jay.
He said he is fully aware of the work required and some factors are beyond his control to make this potential homecoming a reality.
“I believe in myself, but I’m only one part of the equation,” Votto said.
Lance Armstrong held back tears when he said he took performance-enhancing drugs when he won seven straight Tour de France titles from 1999 to 2005, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2013.
Track athlete Marion Jones couldn’t suppress tears in a press conference in 2007 where she said she used doping methods when she won five medals in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
The history of doping in sports is full of dramatic stories showcasing the double lives of athletes who smiled and succeeded while they knowingly stretched the truth.
Ultimately, interviews and press conferences like these end up being a public confessional where athletes who broke the rules beg for forgiveness.
However, none of that would happen with the Enhanced Games and its different norms and moral expectations for athletes.
The Enhanced Games intends to shake up the sports picture by hosting Olympic-style competitions that allow athletes to dope.
The project was created in June 2023 and an event is expected to be hosted at some point in 2025.
Christina Smith, a former Canadian Olympic bobsleigh athlete and two-time World Cup medalist, is part of the Athletes Advisory Commission of the Enhanced Games.
She said that she was not in favour of doping as an athlete but said she feels that this project’s con-
cerns go beyond simply doping.
“The format of the Enhanced Games doesn’t have rules per se,” she said.
“They are more concerned about transparency,” Smith said.
“We are a science-based games, very open-minded and we are embracing science,” she said.“There are athletes eager to push the limits of science in their bodies,”
“I believe in the body autonomy,
in your ability of whatever you want to do with your body. It’s your business, your own privacy,” said the former athlete, who prefers using the term “enhancing methods” instead of “doping”.
In terms of concerns about health risks, Smith said athletes are to resort to performance-enhancing methods clinically approved by the medical commission of the Enhanced Games.
She said the organization is not
going to conduct drug tests.
“We are not looking for cheaters, we are not going to control adults. Everybody knows what happens if you don’t do certain things properly,” she said.
“People take aspirin for headaches and when you open up the content packaging there is a list of side effects if you take too much.”
Smith said the games are already receiving support from athletes.
The games already have their first committed athlete, former three-time gold medalist swimmer James Magnussen.
Another former successful swimmer, Roland Schoeman, is part of the Athletes Advisory Commission.
Smith said more star athletes have shown interest in being part of the competition, along with sponsors and broadcasters.
However, she said can’t reveal their identity yet but said their inbox is overflowing with interest.
The Enhanced Games have ruffled some feathers among main sports bodies like the International Olympic Committee (IOC), with its transgressor approach.
“The idea of the Enhanced Games does not merit any comment. If you want to destroy any concept of fair play and fair competition in sport, this would be a good way to do it,” the IOC said in a media statement on Feb. 14.
Despite the IOC’s criticism, Enhanced Games Founder Aron
D’Souza said regular Olympics and the Enhanced Games can co-exist.
But Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, said any athlete who participates in the new-born event will be banned from being part of the Olympics.
Smith said the Enhanced Games also looks to open the door for amateur athletes, transgender athletes and even retired ones.
She said science will allow for the minimization of these differences.
“We also encourage people retired to come out because science is amazing and there is so much available there for aging,” she said. “We could see 70-year-old athletes competing against 20-year-old ones.”
Smith said the Enhanced Games want to get involved with athletes linked to famous doping cases such as Lance Armstrong as well as controversial doctors at the helm of doping scandals.
Smith said that for now, the event wants to focus on individual sports, such as track and field, swimming, diving, gymnastics, combat sports and wrestling, rather than team sports.
The organization convened its First Conference on Human Enhancement at the House of Lords in London on Feb. 29 and wants to hold more events like this in more countries.
“We want to open a discussion around the world,” Smith said.
