Humber Et Cetera Vol.64 No.10 / Dec.2 2022

Ukrainians receive temporary residency status

More than 100,000 Ukrainians arrived in Canada to escape the war in Ukraine according to sta tistics given by the Canada Border Services Agency. All of them received temporary residency without claiming refugee status.

“I need to work hard every day to survive in Canada,” said Inna Onishchenko, a Ukrainian who came to Canada in July.

Onishchenko told Humber’s Et Cetera that since her arrival to Canada, she feels “vulnerable” and “unprotected” as a temporary res ident.

When she came to Canada, she started her life from scratch without knowing anyone and being proficient in English.

“I just wanted to escape the horror I faced back in Ukraine,” Onishchenko said.

“I’m grateful for everything the government of Canada has given me as support,” she said. “But I don’t feel stability being a tempo rary migrant.”

To help Ukrainians, the federal government announced a spe cial program to help them leave Ukraine and move to Canada.

The Canada-Ukraine Autho rization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) is the only efficient way for Ukrainians and their families to come to Canada, as this new measure streamlines current visa and travel requirements, elimi nating most application and pro cessing fees while offering acceler ated, prioritized processing.

The Department of Immigra tion, Refugees, and Citizenship (IRCC) said in an email to Hum ber’s Et Cetera, the CUAET is a measure for Ukrainians and their family members who want to come

to Canada as temporary residents while the war in Ukraine unfolds and then return home.

“It is not a refugee program,” the IRCC said in its email. “Ukrainians wishing to immigrate to Canada permanently can apply for perma nent residence under a variety of different immigration programs and streams.”

The IRCC said there are often similarities in how people may be fleeing persecution of some sort, but the immigration response may differ.

However, some Ukrainians don’t understand why they can’t receive refugee status automati cally as other refugees from other countries such as Afghanistan and Syria.

“We serve 1,000 people per month, so there are definitely questions about getting refugee

status when the war began,” said Ludmila Kolesnichenko, the exec utive director at CUIAS Immigrant Services, which helps Ukrainians settle in Canada.

Kolesnichenko said refugee status would help Ukrainians avoid some difficult situations.

“If [Ukrainians] had refugee status, they would be eligible for more financial assistance from the government,” she said.

The top challenges faced by Ukrainian newcomers are finding a place to stay and a job.

“Without any job experience in Canada, it’s hard to find [work]. You need to send a hundred appli cations to receive at least one invi tation for a job interview,” Onish chenko said.

She also said there were some instances in which landlords in Canada tried to raise the rent

knowing the demand for housing was high among Ukrainians.

“Some landlords started to raise the rent price when more Ukrai nians came to Canada,” Onish chenko said. “I heard some bad stories from Ukrainians when landlords said one price in the beginning and when their agree ment ended, they demanded a higher rent.”

She said she met some people from Afghanistan who are refu gees and have more opportunities than she has.

“From what they told me, they have more stability in their lives in Canada because they have finan cial support per month so it’s easier for them to pay the rent,” she said.

“I feel that Ukrainians are per ceived more as a labor force than people who fled the war,” Inna Onishchenko said

Humber Et Cetera is the Humber College journalism program laboratory newspaper. It is created by second and third year journalism students. Et Cetera serves to inform the Humber community and give its readers well rounded coverage on the things that matter to them.

Applications for child dental plan now open

The hybrid Liberal and NDP dental plan is now open for applications, securing a supply-and-confidence agreement granting Prime Min ister Justin Trudeau’s minority government NDP support until 2025.

Trudeau said getting the pro gram is an essential priority for helping families. He said that it’s part of helping everyone have the best chance to succeed and that his government will continue to sup

port Canadians.

“Starting today, many parents can get their kids the proper dental care they need without worrying about the bill,” Trudeau said on Dec. 1. “We will keep working to deliver much-needed relief now, as we build an economy that works for all Canadians.”

Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said more than 3,000 appli cations had been logged by the afternoon of Dec. 1.

Duclos said it was a good sign and the plan should help many families across the country. Duclos

said the plan would give confi dence to families in an uncertain economic climate.

“As of today, nearly 500,000 children will be able to access the Canada Dental Benefit and start caring for their smiles,” he said. “The benefit empowers eligible families with the confidence of being able to afford their kid’s oral health care.”

Dr. Lynn Tomkins, president of the Canadian Dental Association, praised the program and said it was the next step in caring for kids.

“Oral health is an essential compo nent of overall health,” Tomkins

said.

“Thanks to the Canada Dental Benefit, more children across Canada will get access to the dental care they need to have healthy teeth, mouths, and smiles,” she said. “The Canadian Dental Asso ciation applauds the federal gov ernment’s historic commitment to enhance access to dental care.”

The plan, however, was not without its opponents. The official Conservative opposition voted against the bill. They argue that it’s simply not enough for what Cana dians are facing with inflation and

economic uncertainty.

Under the current program, families with a household income of less than $90,000, who don’t have insurance, can apply for up to $650 per child under the age of 12 each year.

It’s attached to the Canada Child Benefit, so families must already be recipients to apply for the dental plan. Along with these terms, family members in the same household must have all filed their 2021 tax returns to apply.

As of Dec. 1, applications can be found on the federal website.

Rising food costs creating insecurity for students

Post-secondary students are often dependent on cheap, filling, quickto-prepare staples like ramen noodles and boxed macaroni and cheese to survive.

Student grocery budgets are often drained after tuition, rent and other expenses are paid.

Many students experience poor academic performance as a result. Food insecurity adversely affects both mental and physical health.

Jacqui Gingras, associate pro fessor at Toronto Metropolitan University who specializes in food insecurity and its impact on stu dents, said food insecurity has a noticeable effect.

“It’s not only the physiological consequences and distractions of being unable to focus on aca demics when you’re not nourished, it’s also the mental fatigue that results from thinking about food,” Gingras said.

“Thinking about where food is

going to come from, thinking about where the money is going to come from to get the food,” she said.

Gringras said students are often told they can only afford things like soup or mac and cheese from a box in order to get by and save some cash and that’s part of the problem.

“It really does reinforce this idea that it’s an individual issue, which it’s not. It’s a collective social issue, a political issue,” Gingras said.

Many Canadian post-secondary students have been vocal about their concerns regarding the fact they can’t afford housing or rent.

Naomi Hiesl, a student at Western University, said it’s become difficult to deal with costs related to living.

“As a university student living away from home, it’s already dif ficult to budget increased rent costs, tuition fees and textbooks, let alone food,” Hiesl said. “Much of our diet has to consist of frozen unhealthy foods, as the cost of pro duce is far too expensive and has a

short shelf life.

“A student should not have to worry about being able to put food on the table, especially produce, but the rise in food costs makes this increasingly difficult,” Hiesl said.

Most students earn money in summer jobs or through part-time work in order to pay for school. After paying tuition and rent, they aren’t left with a lot of disposable income and are just trying to make ends meet.

As inflation continues to rise, many students don’t have enough money to make ends meet. Many students also struggle with bal ancing the demands of their aca demic and part-time employment workloads.

Queens University student Natalee Shores said price increases are making it harder to survive these hard economic times.

“The increased prices are making it hard to come out of the grocery store with everything that we still need,” Shores said.

“At work, we are only paid 50

cents more than last year, yet my weekly grocery bill is $10-15 more. The inflation has made it espe cially hard to eat healthy as these foods are even more expensive now, forcing us to buy cheaper, unhealthy food instead,” she said.

Gingras said hunger has a huge effect on mental health.

“How does hunger affect a stu dent’s mental health? It’s incredibly damaging,” Gingras said.

“It causes folks to believe that they’re the reason there’s some thing inherently wrong with the way they are doing things and that’s causing this problem,” she said. “We can’t just wait for stu dents to rise up and revolt around it. In this fight for food.

“Sovereign campus students and their co-conspirators can work together to resolve the issue and that helps to promote mental well ness and positive relationships, and supports and collective wisdom, collective action,” Gingras said.

The 2021 National Student Food Insecurity Report found that

approximately 56.8 per cent of post-secondary students who were surveyed were food insecure.

“Post-secondary students across Canada are significantly and uniquely more vulnerable to food insecurity due to factors including reduced income, limited educa tion on food insecurity, and lim ited awareness of and access to resources,” the report said.

Laurier University student

Katrina Wood said the price of food has made it hard to buy ade quate sources of protein.

“I have been affected for the past year by the price of food,” she said. “I often can’t afford to buy the proper protein I need, such as fresh chicken or other sources of meat.

“I also love fruit but the price has completely skyrocketed,” Wood said.

“With my busy lifestyle as a student, I haven’t been able to go grocery shopping, I have been ordering out about three days a week and it has been cheaper than grocery shopping,” she said.

Social media campaigning gains traction among candidates

Social media has become a signif icant part of people’s daily lives. Almost anyone with a phone has social media, whether it be Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok.

Increasingly, politicians are using social media in order to attract a younger audience of voters. This was no different for Toronto’s municipal elections in October.

Many local politicians have used social media platforms to promote their intention to run for office and to inform Toronto citizens about what they hope to achieve, when they are elected as mayor or coun cillors.

Annette Borger-Snel, a public relations program coordinator at Humber College, said there are many benefits to using social media, particularly in political

campaigns.

“It’s kind of [a] fundraising aspect and you can reach an audi ence that you may not reach in other ways,” she said.

Elections Canada reported that in the 2021 federal election, 42 per cent of voters were targeted by election advertisements on at least one social media platform.

Part of the lure of using social media is the rising number of young voters who have been exposed to social platforms most of their lives.

The other was practical. COVID-19 placed restrictions in campaigning face-to-face, including the 2021 federal elec tion.

Social media campaigns — first used successfully by President Barack Obama — allow candidates to keep advertising costs down and converse directly with constit uents.

Blake Acton, who ran for mayor

of Toronto, used multiple forms of social media to let people know he was running for office.

It was initially an alternate strategy devised by his campaign manager, Jane Dempsey.

“So we used Reddit, we used Twitter, we used Facebook and various other things, ways to add avenues to get to the population in general,” Dempsey said.

Along with using social media and a digital media management site called Hootsuite, the cam paign became largely successful in gaining followers in a short period of time.

“We ended up with over 7,000 people following,” Dempsey said.

Another Toronto mayoral can didate, Gil Penalosa, used social media to introduce himself to voters and raise awareness about his campaign.

Penalosa said different platforms were used to target people of cer tain age groups.

Penalosa said Twitter was used to target older voters, while Tik-Tok and Instagram were used to reach younger voters.

Penalosa said social media was so successful because of its reach, particularly for younger voters, compared to mainstream radio and television.

Borger-Snel said it’s hard to pre dict how votes are going to turn out.

“What social [media] will give you though, is a sense of what the voting public is thinking,” she said.

Although many of the local municipal election candidates utilized social media, there wasn’t much public awareness sur rounding advertisements for the 2022 municipal election itself, especially among some of the younger generation of Toronto nians.

The reality of social media and being smart when using it is understanding it comes down to

demographics and algorithms.

“So, Facebook maybe goes for one demographic?

How many people are [on] Twitter these days?” Borger-Snel asked.

Older generations generally are less apathetic than their younger counterparts, and Borger-Snel said she was seeing lots of public aware ness for the municipal election.

“I did see a lot of ads, but they were tied to some sort of blog post on LinkedIn,” Borger-Snel said.

Paul McLean, a Toronto resi dent, was informed about the elec tion happening from the time it began.

Although he said he does not use social media regularly, he does believe that there should be more awareness about the election digi tally.

“That’s a good way to reach out to the younger generation. People are always tapping into it,” McLean said.

EDITORIAL: Ford government must focus on workers, not saving money

The Ford government hasn’t exactly endeared itself to the general public of late.

After invoking the notwith standing clause when the Cana dian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) threatened to strike and announced that they plan to strip parts of the Greenbelt in order to develop homes, Ford and his government struck lighting again. They intend on appealing an Ontario Superior Court ruling that made one of its key economic planksunconstitutional.

The Ontario government intro duced legislation, Bill 124, in 2019 which aimed to limit wage increases by one per cent per year for Ontario public service employees as well as broader public sector workers.

However, earlier this week, Ontario Superior Court Judge Markus Koehnen struck down the legislation after it deemed it unconstitutional, much to the dismay of Ford and his disciples.

A spokesperson for the Attorney General confirmed the province’s plan to appeal the decision.

But should they?

It doesn’t exactly bode well for a

TALES

government that has come under fire for using the notwithstanding clause to infringe on citizens’ rights twice. Now, they’re looking to fight a court ruling that deemed another piece of legislation they introduced to be unconstitutional.

It seems as though this gov ernment continues to spread the message that they champion hardworking Ontarians and yet, here we are. The rights of these hardworking Ontarians are threatening to be infringed upon once again. An Ontario court has come to

the aid of the people, but given that the Ford government is set to appeal the decision is truly trou bling.

Justice Koehnen said in a deci sion that was released on Tuesday that the law infringes on the appli cants’ rights to freedom of associa tion and collective bargaining.

“The Charter protects not just the right to associate but also the right to a meaningful process in which unions can put on the table those issues that are of concern to workers and have them discussed

in good faith,” Koehnen said.

“Legislation that takes issues off the table interferes with collective bargaining,” he ruled.

The Ontario government argued to the court that it was under severe financial strain when it implemented the new law and the decision was a short-term solu tion in an effort to help reduce the deficit.

But Justice Koehnen disagreed.

“On my view of the evidence, Ontario was not facing a situation in 2019 that justified an infringe ment of Charter rights,” he said in his ruling.

“In addition, unlike other cases that have upheld wage restraint legislation, Bill 124 sets the wage cap at a rate below that which employees were obtaining in free collective bargaining negotiations.”

Mike Schreiner, leader of the Ontario Green Party, took to Twitter after the decision was released to urge Ford and the gov ernment to stop fighting the court’s decision.

“Doug Ford must not waste any more taxpayer money fighting for #Bill124. I call on the govern ment to admit that this terrible

piece of legislation is unjust and promise not to appeal this deci sion. #onpoli,” his tweet said.

The Ford government needs to stop wasting money on these endeavours that not only show Ontarians that they can’t be trusted but that they are also motivated to do seemingly whatever it takes to get their way.

Monte McNaughton, the Ontario labour minister, was at Queen’s Park on Nov. 30 and said the Ford government will continue “working for workers.”

But Justice Koehnen doesn’t agree with that, as he said in a para graph of his decision: “Ontario has not, however, explained why it was necessary to infringe on constitu tional rights to impose wage con straints at the same time as it was providing tax cuts or license plate sticker refunds that were more than 10 times larger than the sav ings obtained from wage restraint measures.”

Through the Ford government’s four years in power, it seems as though the only thing they are interested in fighting for is to save a few bucks and not support workers.

FROM HUMBER: Christianity was all around me until God wasn’t

bothered to examine what I was being taught in church until much later in my life.

God was always just part of the background, I accepted that He existed, without much question. I thought everyone had some kind of belief in God.

Non-belief was shunned in church, I was “taught” in Sunday school that what scientists said was little more than a joke, it was ridi culed more than analyzed.

As a boy I’d always looked around and had seen God.

My family was among the more than 19 million Canadians who identify as Christian, making up roughly 53 per cent of the popu lation according to Statistics Canada.

We used to be a textbook reli gious household. We went to church every few days, went to Sunday school and I was even homeschooled until the fifth grade.

I remember some of the verses we cited, the stories we read, even fragments of the hymns we sang in church. The question of why we took part in the traditions never really dawned on me until much later in my life. I never questioned the existence of a God. I never

One thing I vividly remember was when I was less than 10 years old. I never felt what many would call the “fear of God” until that moment in church.

During the service one day the pastor was talking about Revela tions, he went on about how even the smallest sin would be judged when you died — no matter what it was.

He spoke about how the sinners would be taken by men with the faces of men and the bodies of scor pions, then taken to hell for even the smallest slight against God.

I cried into my father’s arms after the service. I was remem bering everything I’d done that could be considered a sin. All of these things were running through my mind as the pastor spoke.

I don’t remember much about

the church after that.

The religious significance of marriage is discussed in Christian households. I never considered the institution of marriage to be based on religion. I just assumed it was just something everyone would experience eventually.

Most of the denominations of Christianity believe marriage to be a sacred and holy ritual that hon ours God. To break this ritual was a sin backed by several verses from the bible.

A conversation with my father about divorce shocked me. From all the discussions about marriage,

I thought the marriage of my own parents would last forever. Divorce could never happen to me.

Then I overheard the verbal fights between my parents. Several of them. I even attempted to inter vene, all in vain of course. I couldn’t comprehend what had gone wrong, I was far too young to understand it. Eventually, it happened, and my family was split in two.

My family was among the 40 per cent of families who are divorced in Canada, according to the Mer chant Law Group in Toronto, a firm that specializes in family law.

At the time I didn’t realize we

were part of a statistic that signifi cant, I figured there was just some thing wrong with our family.

As I grew older, though, I began to question more things, including my faith, and I looked into sources outside of Sunday school and holy men. I also began to accept my parent’s split, not paying much attention to the religious side of marriage anymore.

I love my family and I hold no ill will towards anyone who has faith, however my experience has left me a non-believer with admittedly unrea sonable resentment at times towards religion. I doubt it’ll ever go away.

OPINION: Toronto needs to take stronger action to prevent homelessness

Toronto’s homelessness rates continue to surge just as the cold weather settles in for another winter. What is the city doing to prevent leaving people abandoned to live in the streets?

Not enough.

People are being left in the cold to freeze, starve and stay in unsafe environments overnight because shelters are overcrowded.

In a study from Statistics Canada, three per cent of people in Canada who make housing decisions for their household have experienced unsheltered homelessness.

Meanwhile, about 15 per cent of Canadians have experienced hidden homelessness, which encompasses those who live tem porarily with others, but have no guarantee of having a place to stay or get permanent housing.

Within the city of Toron to’s Housing and Homeless ness report, as of 2020 there are more than 8,000 people suffering from homelessness in Toronto. The city claims it will have the majority of new housing opportu nities for the homeless created by the end of 2022.

With funding from the federal government, the city is hoping to exceed its goal of having more than 2,000 homes to help assist the homeless, with more than 1,000 receiving Canada-Ontario Housing Benefits (COHB) to help with living costs.

According to the city of Toronto website, the Canada Ontario Housing Benefit (COHB) program provides households with a por table housing benefit to assist with rental costs in the private housing market. The benefit is tied to the household and can be used to help pay rent anywhere in Ontario.

However, in 2020 the city of Toronto began using hotels to pro vide homeless people with shelter during the pandemic because there was a surge of those fleeing shelters in fear of contracting COVID-19.

These hotels provided an alter nate experience for the homeless

where they were sheltered, snug and relatively safe.

The shelter formerly known as the Novotel Hotel Centre, located in downtown Toronto, was among a number of hotels leased by the city as the pandemic took a toll. But the owner of the Novotel hotel plans to revert the property back to a hotel within a year, the city said.

The issue is that not all individ uals will be able to find shelter by the deadline of Dec. 6.

What will the city do if there aren’t enough homes or shelters for these people to stay in and now aren’t allowed to stay in hotels?

On Nov. 27, Toronto Police responded to reports of a homeless encampment located under the Fort York bridge on Bathurst Street on fire because of multiple pro pane tanks exploding under the bridge. The explosion was heard and seen by multiple Torontonians and shared widely on social media.

The safety of the homeless people living within that encamp ment has been largely ignored, and despite multiple explosions and fires happening at these encamp ments over the past year, the issue persists.

Not only is this a huge risk to safety for the homeless, but explo sions happening under a major bridge used by drivers within the city also raise safety concerns for residents living within the area.

An inquest conducted by Ontar io’s Chief Coroner, who inves tigated into cold-related deaths found within Toronto’s homeless population, found there were 79 hypothermic injuries, including severe frostbite and 18 deaths due to the cold in Toronto from 2005 to 2015.

That number skyrocketed as Toronto is forcing people back onto the streets without any support.

In 2021, there were atotal of 221 deaths in Toronto within the homeless community, averaging 4.3 deaths per week. In 2022, there were 92 deaths, averaging 3.5 per week from January to June 2022.

The homeless are forced to live on the street with no food, warmth, shelter, or cleanliness just because the city continues to build multi-million dollar residential buildings, while not providing the homeless with the support they need.

Toronto’s current shelter system is housing approximately 1,600 more people a night compared to 2021 when it was housing about 18,500 people within the shelter system.

The current population expe riencing homelessness within the city is estimated to be around 8,200 people per night.

Toronto needs to do more to support the homeless and prevent homeless rates from rising as they continue to surge.

Toronto can improve on this by relocating its budget plans to deal with crises, including building shelters and focusing on programs that permanently house the home less and support them to be able to get back on their feet.

Humber women’s volleyball team defeats Sheridan Bruins, remains in first

The Humber Hawks women’s vol leyball team defeated the Sheridan Bruins at home on Thursday night.

Humber convincingly won the first set with a score of 25-12. But the game took a very different turn after that.

The second set was much closer. The Bruins pulled ahead and, at one point, were tied at 25-25, but Humber edged past the finish line 27-25.

“Sheridan played real well in the second set,” Humber women’s vol leyball coach Chris Wilkins said.

“They should be proud of that set, they made us work for it. They’re a young team over there, but they didn’t give up.

“We played one-dimensional, we were banging balls, we needed to be able to move them around a bit better,” he said.

The third set was just as fierce, with the score remaining close throughout the set. Humber won this set with a score of 26-24, winning the match 3-0.

“We tried to kill every ball, they played real hard against us. This was the last game of the semester and I was trying to give some kids a chance to play,” Wilkins said.

“We know we’re thinking about Christmas and I know this is a trap

game where we’re kind of thinking ahead, but we found a way to get through the game,” he said.

At their practice Tuesday night, Wilkins expressed praise and opti mism for his team.

Wilkins has been involved with Humber for more than 20 years and tThe team has won 16 OCAA championships, including last year.

“Right now, we’re number one in Ontario and number two in Canada,” Wilkins said.

“We’re doing quite well. We’ve got a lot of really good vet erans, we’ve got some really nice rookies, and we’re pretty excited about our opportunities,” he said at the practice.

The team is also headed across

the border in December.

“We’re off on Dec. 26 to San Diego to play some of the top teams in Canada. The number one, two, four and eight teams in Canada,” he said.

The team’s players also expressed their enthusiasm at Tuesday’s prac tice.

Leah Serlin, the left side in her

first year on the team, credits the team’s success to their hard work.

“We take practices and games so seriously, it’s a very highly com petitive environment. We work for every game that we win and I take a lot of pride in that,” Serlin said.

Keyome Ellis, the team’s middle blocker, feels very connected to her team.

“I love everyone here, everyone has good personalities, and we come together on the court,” Ellis said.

Ellis was very optimistic not only about the game, but about the future of the team in general.

“I’m just excited for the future,” she said. “I expect, hopefully, to win that nationals gold because I feel that when we come together, we are stronger than everyone else.”

Erika Dodd, a left side in her second year on the team, was ner vous in her rookie year, but she said the team came together strong.

“I had a great time last year,” Dodd said.

“I achieved a lot personally and as a team we made it on to nationals and came fifth,” she said.

“You can’t really go wrong with that. We have a new team this year, lots of rookies, and we’re hoping to make it to that next step at nationals.”

Women’s basketball grab another win on the road

Hawks women’s basketball has the best record in the Western Confer ence in the OCAA.

It’s no secret that coach Ajay Sharma has a role in shaping the team into a powerhouse.

The Hawks defeated the Knights 76-65 at Niagara on Thursday night.

Sharma said his coaching suc cess came from learning and respecting others after winning his 201st career game.

“You must be open to consid ering a perspective that might have been in your blind spot. I learned that from different experiences,” he said

Marley Bonnick, a shooting guard, said she was honoured to be coached by Sharma.

“I feel great to be a part of such an accomplishment. He is a legend in basketball, and I’m glad to be a part of his journey,” Bonnick said.

As the team rides its 8-0 win ning streak, she said having team chemistry helps each player grow on and off the floor and is key to

their success.

“We talk on and off the floor and help each other,” Bonnick said.

She also highlighted that no matter how strong or weak the team, they must be ready to play hard.

“It’s never going to be perfect, even after a win, things can be frustrating, but I’ve learned not to hang my head for too long and focus on what I need to change to be better,” she said.

Sarah Baptie, a guard, said they have to work extra hard this season because they have a championship to defend.

“We need to keep winning; the main thing is recognizing that due to last season, we have a big target on our back,” she said.

“Each team will come in to beat the reigning champs. Therefore we have to keep our intensity up with our foot on the gas for the season,” she said.

Baptie said pushing through setbacks like injuries and recog nizing that things won’t always go the right way is the best way to improve.

“We must go into every game

wanting to improve by learning from our weak areas and focusing on improving them,” she said

Sharma said there is a lot of talent here and players that are coachable who work hard to improve daily.

“Everyone is committed to giving it their all, whether that’s in practice, team lifting, or in the classroom academically,” he said. “Commitment is what makes us strong,”

Sharma said veterans share their leadership knowledge with rookies and hand over the keys.

“A couple years before vet erans make their way out into the world and start their lives after being a Hawk, there is a transfer of leadership that is shared to the next up-andcoming veteran,” he said.

“Our leaders start grooming the future leaders as a succession plan for when they leave the nest.

As new players join our family, we hope this cycle continues,” Sharma said.

The team will play Conestoga next on Jan. 11 at the Humber North campus.

Argos’ Grey Cup party continues, prep for next season begins

Argonauts defensive lineman Deionte Knight tried to keep things professional when talking about the team’s wild night when they won.

“I think the first night when we won the game we were just up the whole night and didn’t go to bed and in the city of Regina you can always find something so we went out and in the most professional way I can say it we had the time of our lives,” he said.

A week after the Toronto Argo nauts won the Grey Cup, players on the team are telling tales of their celebrations and what the future holds for this team.

Knight said the key to the team’s success was performing to the best of their ability in all aspects of the game.

“The biggest thing is that we had to be sound in all three phases of the ball. We knew we were going to have to play our most physical game,” Knight said.

“We knew we had to establish and stop the run and that was going to be the key ingredient...to just create opportunities for both sides of the ball to get good field position and set up good scoring drives,” he said.

The Argos were successful in executing their game plan as they ran for 100 total team yards but found more success through the air with quarterbacks McLeod Bethel-Thompson and Chad Kelly combining for 246 passing yards.

Offensive lineman Justin Law rence said his offence’s game plan was to make sure his guys didn’t turnover the ball.

“We really knew [what] we had to do was play sound and not turnover the ball, and that was the biggest thing, especially against a team like Winnipeg who is very sound,” he said.

Lawrence recalled the legendary final moments of this year’s Grey Cup, when Toronto came back with Kelly, the backup quarter back, leading them on a game-win ning drive.

He said the team had utilized Kelly’s running ability throughout the season and when he came into the game and the team ran a quick no-huddle offence.

He didn’t know Beth el-Thompson had dislocated his thumb on his throwing hand.

“I didn’t even realize till the

second drive that Chad was in for sure,” Lawrence said.

“He did such an unbelievable job [on] that second and 15 where he took off on the long run and burned it on that and it was probably one of the best plays of the game.

“For him to step up on the big gest stage and do what he did, I think that speaks to how well he prepares each week,” he said.

The Argos may lose Beth el-Thompson as he’s a free agent this offseason.

Lawrence credits the fifth-year quarterback for being a big part of the team’s success and was respon sible for keeping the team together.

“He is a very good leader so he played such a pivotal role in this whole season,” he said. “We were a team full of firecrackers with a lot of character in our room and he balanced us out cause he is so cool, calm and collected.”

The Argos are looking ahead to next season and linebacker Johna thon Jones credits management for the defensive additions near the end of the season and thinks they can build another championship team next season.

“Upper management knows how to pick guys and and it’s crazy, almost anyone who steps through here is either, they are here and they’ve got nothing or [they’re] capitalizing and running on all cylinders,” he said.

The former Toledo Rocket looks to spend his offseason resting and cheering on his alma mater as they have their own champi onship game tomorrow night as they play Ohio University in the NCAA Mid-American Conference (MAC).

“I’m going to be there watching so hopefully they bring it out,” he said.

Lawrence and his teammates are already back in the weight room looking to hopefully win another Grey Cup as the team tries to con tinue to build a winning culture.

“The vibe I got from the locker room is guys were going into this offseason, obviously we spent the week celebrating after the Grey Cup, but guys we were thinking we’ll enjoy it while we can, lets look forward to next season as well and I took that same mantra going into this offseason,” he said.

“This season was great but let’s see what we can improve on to make it even better next season,” Lawrence said.

Welsh MMA fighter defied his life expectancy twice

Being locked in a cage with nothing but four ounce gloves is enough of a challenge for many, yet for Aaron Aby, a battle in the cage is nowhere near his toughest challenge.

The 32-year-old Welsh-born MMA fighter currently goes headto-head with talented fighters under Cage Warriors Fighting Championship and holds an overall career record of 13-6-1.

Cage Warriors is known as the biggest MMA promotion in Europe, and has produced global superstars such as Conor McGregor, Michael Bisping and Paddy Pimblett.

Aby’s physical challenges began when he was two-weeks-old, when he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a disorder that damages the lungs, digestive tract and other organs.

Doctors told his parents that his chances of living past his teenage years were very low and he would live a very difficult life.

Aby says although he was con suming tablets, going to physio and having regular hospital checkups, he never realized how different his

life was until he reached secondary school.

“I remember we had biology class and we were studying genetics and the teachers were talking about cystic fibrosis,” he told Humber Et Cetera.

“They said most kids don’t live past 16 with cystic fibrosis. I remember being shocked by that information because it’s stuff I had barely known about.”

The persistence of Aby’s parents to give their son a normal life paid off as he quickly grew as a talented footballer in Wales, representing their under 13-to-17 international team where he played alongside one of the greatest wingers of all time, Gareth Bale.

Bale is a Welsh hero who carried the country on his back to qualify for the 2022 World Cup, where he scored their first goal in the tour nament in 64 years.

Aby says he never took into con sideration how great achievements such as these were until he faced death at close quarters.

“After basically being told I was going to die, that’s when I realized the things I’ve achieved. Some times it takes something bad to

happen to really look back and appreciate what I’ve done,” Aby said.

He eventually went on to sign a part-time deal with his local club Wrexham, now famously known worldwide for being owned by Ryan Reynolds.

Once Aby began training in MMA, he said the thought of being able to control his own future and make his own decisions swayed him away from football.

Aby said once he began fighting, things changed for the good.

Instead of hiding his condition, he began proudly wearing t-shirts during his walkouts promoting cystic fibrosis to raise awareness and money.

“I wanted to raise awareness and put cystic fibrosis in a positive limelight,” Aby said.

“A lot of negativity surrounds my condition and I’d love to give people with it a positive hope, and I’d like to think I’ve done it already with my MMA career,” he said.

Unfortunately, Aby faced his greatest challenge yet when he was diagnosed with terminal testicular cancer in 2017.

He said once he read his diag

nosis, he refused to believe that after all he’d been through in life, cancer was his next opponent.

He went as far as paying for pri vate scans to be certain of the diag nosis.

This time the doctors told Aby he had three-to-six months to live.

He said he decided he was going to face cancer head on and use his past struggles as motivation.

“If I wouldn’t have gone through the challenges of cystic fibrosis and if I wouldn’t have been an MMA athlete and gone through lessons in that, then I probably wouldn’t have gotten out the other side of cancer,” Aby said.

After eight rounds of chemo therapy and two major surgeries, including the removal of a tes tical and a 15-centimetre stomach tumour, Aby proved the doctors wrong once again.

Despite beating cancer, the doc tors were sure that he would never be able to fight again because the chemotherapy weakened his lungs and bones.

He said one doctor said he wouldn’t be able to take part in any physical training for 12 to 18 months.

Aby refused to keep his head down.

Just eight months later, Aby returned to Cage Warriors and did what he loved most, competing.

“Completing my operations and getting the all clear wasn’t me cured of cancer. The day I was cured of cancer was the day I com peted again,” he said.

For Aby, belts and money were never a real priority.

He loves competing and above all he just wants to be the global voice for people with cystic fibrosis and other illnesses.

Aby said his ultimate goal is to sign for the UFC where he will have the biggest stage to tell his story and give people hope.

“I get messages from people saying I’m their favourite fighter because I’ve changed the way they look at life and I helped them make it out the other end. That’s more important to me than any win or loss,” Aby said.

“You’ve got to understand that life is tough, so you need that commitment and that grit to find the toughness and hope to make it past whatever life throws at you,” he said.

Black Girl Hockey Club opens in Toronto

The Black Girl Hockey Club (BGHC) opened up a location on Nov. 20 in Toronto to mark the launch of Black Girl Hockey Club Canada.

According to the mission state ment posted on their website, BGHC aims to “inspire and sustain a passion for the game of hockey within the Black community, spe cifically with our mothers, sisters, daughters and friends.”

The Black Girl Hockey Club (BGHC) is creating a more inclusive space for Black women and girls in the sport. It’s a non-profit organiza tion founded in October 2018.

“The whole point of the organi zation is to unify Black girl hockey players all over the world. So many Black girl fans, players and execs are the only ones on the ice, on their team, in the stands or in the office,” said Renee Hess, a co-founder of BGHC, freelance writer, commu nity organizer, and a Penguins fan.

“BGHC reminds these women of all ages that they can have other Black women supporting them, even when it feels like they’re all alone in this very white sport,” she said.

The organization supports women

and girls in the Black community who are interested in the sport by offering scholarship opportunities.

Girls between the ages of nine and 18 around the world are able to apply. These scholarships can be used to help cover the cost of playing in tournaments, buying equipment or attending summer camp for hockey. This allows players who may not have the same financial stability as others to find alternative ways to be able to get involved with the sport.

Saroya Tinker, who plays defence

for the Toronto Six as well as co-founder and executive director of BGHC Canada, believes there are many different ways allies can show their support for the organization.

“I think our allies can show their support by coming out and showing their support in our com munity events and donate to our programs to show that they are willing to make hockey a more inclusive spaces,” Tinker said.

“Additionally, by making them selves accountable and continuing to educate themselves we can see

a better space in hockey being formed but we still have a lot of work to do,” she said.

Aside from monetary aspects such as scholarships and dona tions, BGHC leans into creating a community through their mentor ship program.

The mentorship program is open to all adults interested in var ious industries. This includes mar keting, photography, journalism, social media, operations player personnel, coaching and play-byplay broadcasting.

Chanel Keenan, who has worked as an intersectionality consultant for the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, said she encouraged people to donate to the organization.

“Their inclusion in this game is paramount to its success,” she said.

“Representation is so important so not only does BGHC provide opportunities for Black female ath letes, they provide a warm and safe place for fans, the hockey commu nity has grown because of this, and it further eliminates stereotypes within the fanbase,” Keenan said.