9 of the most interesting people we met in 2024 and 1 dog named Minnie

Every year, CBC Hamilton reporters meet some of the most interesting people in the Hamilton, Burlington and the Niagara regions and tell you their stories. 

It was another great year for finding stories about remarkable people doing remarkable things.

Here's a look back at just a few of Hamilton's most interesting people in 2024. 

The Judo master and Olympian who delivers mail

Be nice to your mail carrier. He might be a judo master who competed for Canada at the 1976 Olympics. Mitchell Kawasaki began represented Canada in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. In November, the Japanese government awarded him for promoting Japanese culture in Canada, as well as friendship and goodwill between both countries. As a judo coach in Hamilton, he has trained more than 50 Canadian champions and over 150 black-belts at Kawasaki Rendokan Judo Academy.

Kawasaki's parents came to Ontario from British Columbia after being interned during the Second World War. They were forced to live in tents in a prison camp and eventually told they could choose to move east or "go back" to Japan, despite being born in Canada.

"Anyone who was of Japanese-Canadian descent couldn't get work" back then, even in Toronto, he said.

"They heard that in Hamilton some people were allowing Japanese Canadians to work, so my dad got a job here as an auto mechanic and car-body man. He started a judo club here in 1955 or 1956."

Hamilton's harbour master

When Vicki Gruber was a kid growing up in Stoney Creek, she loved to watch the cargo ships pass from Lake Ontario to the Hamilton Harbour through the Burlington Canal. Now, as Hamilton's harbour master, she's in charge of making sure such vessels transit safely — and as one of only two women in Canada to hold that title, she's also paving the way for other women in the marine industry.

Gruber, who has worked at the Hamilton port for 18 years, started out as a port patrol officer. She was the first woman in that role at the port as well, and recalls that her presence came as a shock to a few people.

"A co-worker was talking to one of the ship captains and they asked if the new [person] had started.… They responded, 'She's right beside me,' and the captain was like, 'A she?'"

The former snowplow driver who is now a hockey star

Hamilton's Kayla Vespa didn't waste any time making her name known in the new Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). The PWHL New York forward scored in the league's first-ever game on Jan. 1, 2024, a win over Toronto. 

Before she was crashing the net in the PWHL, she was clearing the roads in Hamilton, where she worked as an overnight snowplow driver.

"The loudness in the rink was crazy," Vespa told CBC Hamilton, speaking on Zoom from her practice venue in January. "I was just looking around and I'm like, 'This is awesome.' And it was a great feeling and definitely a little emotional as well." 

The Hamilton surgeon who went to Gaza

Dr. Anas Al-Kassem, a Hamilton trauma surgeon says that for every child he saved in the hospital in southern Gaza, another would die of their injuries.

"We lost many children before our eyes," said Al-Kassem, chief surgeon at Norfolk General Hospital and West Haldimand General Hospital. Al-Kassem travelled to Gaza in December 2023 as part of a medical convoy to help Palestinians injured in the Israel-Hamas war, and suffering from what the World Health Organization has called "catastrophic" health conditions. 

Al-Kassem, a father of five, returned to his Ancaster, Ont., home in January after the two-week mission, but said his "heart and soul" stayed behind. "The children of Gaza, they took my heart," Al-Kassem said. "When you look into their eyes, you can see that they're telling us, 'Don't leave us alone.'"

Mike and his dog Minnie, together again after Mike's 2-year cancer battle

Fort Erie, Ont., resident Mike Nayler never thought he'd see his "four-legged daughter" Minnie again after surrendering her to a shelter two years ago. Back then, Nayler was diagnosed with terminal cancer and "gave up" on life, he told CBC Hamilton. 

After he was diagnosed with cancer in 2021, his life changed. At first, he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. Nayler said that as his health deteriorated, Minnie became harder to manage.

Then he discovered the doctor's got that wrong — instead he had a rare intestinal cancer, with a greater chance of surviving. Meanwhile, Minnie was placed with the Humane Society of Greater Niagara (HSGN) and adopted by another family. Minnie was surrendered back again to the HSGN, this time by her new owners. 

Mike knew he had to try to get her back and that drove him to keep fighting the cancer. "She's saved me more than once," he said.

Hamilton's horror movie makers

The director of the cult classic film My Bloody Valentine says Hamilton is "just so beautifully apocalyptic."

If you're looking to explode a human head or make blood and guts from scratch, there are people in Hamilton who know how to do it just right. The city has a community of filmmakers, producers and special effects artists who specialize in the art of horror storytelling — including veteran director George Mihalka and his wife Susan Curran.  

Back in February, Hamilton's Playhouse Cinema screened Mihalka's 1981 Canadian cult-classic slasher film My Bloody Valentine. That's when Mihalka as well as local special effects artists Brian Rowe and Desirée Van De Laar sat down with CBC Hamilton to peel back the bloody curtain.

Mihalka said "You can put the camera just about anywhere [in Hamilton] and it looks cool."

Rohan, the Hamilton dance floor legend

DJ Julie Fazooli was drained. It was "hot as hell" in mid-June and she was getting ready to close out an eight-hour set at the Sidewalk Sounds outdoor music event on Hamilton's Concession Street.

Then Rohan Jayasekera showed up, a man she calls "the light" of the city's dance scene. "The light" got the party started again. Jayasekera became a part of the Hamilton party scene since he moved to the city five years ago. He's got a high-energy solo style and says he's not who people expect him to be.

"I'm old," he told CBC Hamilton, but wouldn't say how old. "I'm usually the oldest person on the dance floor." Sometimes young people will come up to him and tell them they love his energy. 

"He's a great dancer," Fazooli said. "He shines brighter than other people on the dance floor for me."