Ask a student at John Abbott College about the young woman the Anne-Marie Edward science and technologies building was named for, and many will shrug.
“I don't know she was.”
“Who was she, was she someone important or something?”
“I thought it was somebody that did a big donation to the school.”
…All responses from current students.
That’s all changed in events ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Polytechnique Massacre.
Students at John Abbott learned about one of the 14 victims – a former John Abbott student – from a very personal perspective Wednesday, when her brother visited the CEGEP to speak about his sister’s short life.
“Anne-Marie Edward – AME in French, that means soul, ame – and Anne Marie had tonnes of it,” said Jim Edward.
His sister was murdered at the Ecole Polytechnique. Before pursuing engineering studies at Universite de Montreal, however, she was a very active and involved John Abbott student.
“Nothing was beyond her reach,” said Edward.
After students recited the names of each of the 14 victims, Edward spoke of his sister’s endless zest for life.
“Her passions ranged from rock climbing to chess and soccer to piano,” he said, adding that she was only 21 when she died.
Anne-Marie walked the John Abbott hallways between 1985 and 88, before most of the students who attend the school now were born.
“A lot of these students in CEGEP today are born in 1995 to 97 so they were anywhere from six to eight years after Polytechnique, so it's important to remind them that it was an important event,” said Edward.
And now – students can speak about the young woman who walked the halls before them before her life was cut short:
“She was really a symbol for us because, exactly the student she was is who we are now and it's just very powerful.”
“It makes me feel happy to know that she had a good experience here at John Abbott. I don't think I should feel sad walking these halls. I think she would probably like everybody to be happy like she was happy here.”
