Steve Hnatiuk JCM Teacher + Coach

Steve Hnatiuk: James Cardinal McGuigan Business teacher and coach-

Steve Hnatiuk with some of his many JCM colleagues and friends. Steve is in the centre.


I can't say I knew Steve very well but I passed him constantly in the hallways at our school and we always said hello. He was invariably very polite and friendly with a smile on his face. He always called me "Sir". He certainly didn't need to but that was Steve. If this all sounds rather mundane please bear with me. What struck me most about Steve's demeanour was that he was always impeccably polite and respectful, to everyone, be they a colleague, visitor or our students.


Steve always dressed like a teacher from back in the day, with business like slacks and shirt. His hair was always army cut short. I remember he was once asked why in the staffroom. He said he did so because he thought that is the way he should dress as a Business teacher. I know when I started out in the 1980's we all pretty much had to dress like that. School is often a lot more informal now. Still Steve had his standards and he stuck to them, which is something I really respect.


He was very popular as the student's coach, and I understand a very fine young Business teacher too. Quite frankly, I've been at McGuigan twenty years now, and am slowly turning my mind to consider retirement. I've felt a whole lot better about the prospect over the past few years Steve has been at JCM because we now have so many keen, excellent young teachers like him entering our teaching profession. Their numbers at my school alone have soared. I believe it is very invigorating and continues the renewal process of our profession for the years ahead.


Teaching is very much a commitment to service, even a vocation for many of us. One of my portfolios as your TSU 3rd VP is executive liaison for our Beginning Teachers Committee. I consider this a great honour because new teachers are the future of our teaching profession, and the prospects at McGuigan and across our board, as with Steve, are so exceptionally promising.


It is not for me to go on at great length about Steve. Our younger teachers knew him a lot better. They will have all the really great stories to share. Still I know Steve was an integral part of his generation of new teachers at my school. His passing must be especially heartfelt by them. Most of us fondly recall the new teachers we started out with. Usually we continue to work with them in various capacities at the TCDSB for the rest of our careers.


I recall coming to JCM 20 years ago from SJMP. I was only a few years older than Steve. I was so excited that my career was taking off. Like many of my peers I was busy buying a home and starting a family of my own. There have been many trials and triumphs since then. God willing I can now consider a good pension in my middle age to do as I please, still enjoying my relative wealth, health, family and friends. Steve will not have these opportunities. This is what makes his death especially hard for me to take.


These are very difficult days at McGuigan. Our staff and admin has been especially good at keeping everyone advised on Steve's rapidly deteriorating cancer condition, and in planning how we would announce and deal with his passing as a Catholic school community. You might imagine how it feels to happily return to school feeling recharged from the Christmas holidays only to be greeted with this news right away.


As a Catholic school community we prayed together that Steve might pull through against all odds, on our first day back. Next day we were told by those who knew him best that he put up a valiant fight right to the very end. Steve had lived and died by his own advice to our students, "Always try your best". Steve was not about to give up the good fight, and if he could've had his druthers, he never would have either. He had hoped to fight and beat his cancer right up to the very end, but it was not to be.


Our faith teaches us that Steve is with his creator now. This is actually a very good reason to rejoice for Steve as awkward as that might seem. Of course it is very difficult for the rest of us, whose hour has not yet come, to gladly suffer his passing in our own lives be we family, colleagues, students or good friends. It's a pretty grim reminder of our own mortality, and a sad fact. He was a good man with such promise who was cut down in his prime through no fault of his own. However the only pain that exists now is in our hearts and soul as we remain to carry on with our own lives, and teaching vocations.


Grief counselling is being provided at JCM by staff and the various resource people from our board. We seek solstice in prayer for Steve, and for all of us who so deeply feel his loss. We've learnt the family has asked their privacy be respected for now, but we look forward to being able to celebrate Steve's life and death in the presence of Christ at his funeral on Saturday, or even at his visitation today and tomorrow. Many of our TSU members who can't attend will hopefully still be there with Steve and us in your prayers. Here's to you Steve! God bless!

Archbishop Tom Collins Appointed Cardinal!

It's official, Toronto Archbishop Tom Collins is going to Rome next month to be invested as a Cardinal. It's quite an honour. Not only are the Cardinals the popes closest advisers, but they also choose the next pope from among their ranks. So someday will we have our own Toronto Pope?


No matter. Like many of you I have enjoyed the privilege of meeting personally with his Excellency on his rounds of the archdiocese, meeting the faithful. After he was appointed to Toronto, he wished to meet with all the partners of Catholic education. That of course included, the parishes, the trustees, the board, and in his Excellency's case, the teacher's too! He gladly accepted our TSU invitation to join us for lunch at one of our executive meetings. I think we were all surprised when he came bounding up the steps, concerned he might be late, after his driver had some trouble finding our office in the condo complex on Wilson Ave.


In my opinion, his everyday charm and direct, personal concern for his flock, is what makes him so delightful for me. He doesn't have to enter with trumpets and great fanfare, far from it. Over lunch he turned out to be quite an amicable fellow equally able to discuss deep ecclesiastic issues, or show us his blackberry and enjoy some informal chatter and good cheer. Tom Collins doesn't have to act like he is an Archbishop, with all the trappings, by his very presence he just is the Archbishop. I got the sense power and responsibility rest quite comfortable on his shoulders. He didn't have to prove anything, he is the real McCoy, and on top of that he's just a regular guy too.


His visit was quite interesting. Over a glass of wine, I enquired as to what he was listening to lately on his Ipod. Without missing a beat he noted he had a few cyber books; the New Testament of course, and Dante's Inferno. He likes classical music and Broadway show tunes. If pressed he will even belt one out for you. How could you not help like the guy?


More importantly, Archbishop Tom Collins let us know that he quite certainly supports our publicly funded Catholic school system, and appreciated the work we do as teachers, on the front lines. I was telling him about my school, James Cardinal McGuigan [JCM] in a perhaps particularly challenging part of the city, in which he expressed great interest. I asked him if he could come visit our students. He gave me his card, told me to call the office and book an appointment. Well,  I figured that was the end of that but a few months later there he was in our school gym meeting the students. They are not an easy crowd to win over or please regardless of who you might be. Out in the streets it's all often the same to them. A title alone does not guarantee anybody credibility.


However, the Archbishop spoke in a very direct and engaging manner, answering some pretty heady religious questions from our more advanced students, and yes, when asked, he belted out a show tune at the close. The students flocked around him to talk Blackberry's on his way out and show him there's. Maybe that's nothing particularly high falootin', but in my estimation he is just what we need, an Excellency for our times. Listen, if the kids in the Jane Finch Keele triangle really like him, like they did, that's no small feat.


On another occasion his excellency accepted our TSU invitation to a reception where we also invited our new board trustees. This was after the Ministry of Education returned control of our board, and perhaps like now, we were very concerned about where this might lead. His excellency was there, and so where some of the trustees. We were of course very honoured and touched he could show up, after all he was getting ready to go to Rome, but nonetheless Archbishop Tom Collins still managed to fit us in his hectic schedule.


Certainly, with the future of our publicly funded Catholic schools facing so many increasing challenges, it's reassuring to have an Excellency like him at the helm. We have the largest public Catholic board in Canada, if not one of the biggest in the world. As we proceed into a new century, I strongly sense the Archbishop is a man of his times and will serve us well, here, and in Rome.


So welcome Archbishop Cardinal Tom Collins to your new position as our Cardinal too! I'm sure we will all , as Catholic teachers, remember him in our prayers, and can rest assured we will be in his. As our experiences at TSU and my school suggest, he is not one to hesitate rolling up the foot of his gown and treading straight into the rough waters of Catholic education in our province, our schools, our city, union, and board. I'm sure like the rest of our TSU members I certainly look most forward to both his very inspiring spiritual and human guidance as our new Cardinal in the years ahead.

Archbishop Tom Collins visits with the staff at JCM.

The students check out the Archbishop's Blackberry. He was a big hit with the kids.