Anne-Marie Robinson
speaker
409 appearances
10 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Jan 2025
Anne-Marie Robinson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Maybe JM just doesn't want to talk. But I have this nagging feeling Anne-Marie's emails simply haven't reached her. The one thing we know, this woman, JM, is brave. She reported Walker to the regulator. She did that all on her own, as an adult. And as a result, disturbing details of her teenage life are in a public report available online, even if her name is blacked out.
Wouldn't she want to talk to Anne-Marie to know someone who shares her story?
I cold call others who were in the Royals in the early 1980s. One is now a lawyer. He doesn't want to be interviewed, but he knows JM. In fact, he heard from her recently. I pass along my contacts and Anne-Marie's so he can share them with JM. Within hours, we both get messages. Her first message to Anne-Marie still gives me chills.
I was really shocked to see that message. Tell me, how did you get in touch with you? What happened? Anne-Marie and I meet up the next day. We're almost giddy. It's winter 2022 and COVID is a threat, so we're both masked. But I can still see she's beaming. In fact, I've never seen her looking so happy, so relieved. She's clutching her phone, eager for the next ping of a text.
Anne-Marie and JM text daily for weeks. I'm eager for her to be ready to chat with me. While we wait, we continue our search. Anne-Marie and I both wonder if there are others who went to authorities over the years. So I file freedom of information requests to school boards to see if they have any complaint files to share.
I write to all Walker's former employers, the Toronto District School Board, the Peel District School Board, and the York Region District School Board. But each board writes back, no files exist, or if they do, they can't share. Before he taught at Anne Marie's school, Walker taught just west of the city of Toronto. His first job was at Port Credit Secondary School.
The music teacher was at Port Credit in 1974-75, so long ago. Even the young teachers back then would be in their 70s now. Parents would be even older. Would anyone remember a story about a father punching a teacher? This could just take me down some more rabbit holes. I also contact the licensing body, the Ontario College of Teachers.
I ask for any public documents collected during its investigation of the teacher. The college does provide a few files, including Doug Walker's resume. It shows he taught at seven different schools, sometimes only staying a year or two, and then moving on to the next. But something is puzzling, something missing from that CV.
There's no mention of the decades he spent with the prestigious military reserve band, the Royal Regiment of Canada. He was paid to play in that band and he rose through the ranks to master warrant officer and assistant conductor. And we now know from JM, he also introduced her to the Royals band.
I've contacted Doug Walker. He doesn't want to answer my questions about his involvement with the Royal Regiment of Canada. A band rehearsal at Fort York in the 1980s posted to YouTube by a former band member. Walker appears in the video. He's tall, mustached. Barry Hodgins played in that band with Walker many years ago. He also taught with him at Anne-Marie's school, Eastern Commerce.
We first heard from Barry in episode two. I've seen Barry Hodgins in yearbook photos. He wore a suit, held a trumpet. Barry suspected something inappropriate was going on between the other music teacher and Anne-Marie, but he never reported it.
He tells me Walker brought several students to the Royals' band practices.
He says Walker was in his element there.
And as far as Hodgins is concerned, the whole band was a big deal.
Walker must have been well-liked. He lasted. I requested and received Walker's official military records from the Canadian government. The document details his ranks. He was in the reserve from 1966 to 1990, 24 years. Several other former students tell me he introduced them to the band too. They carry great memories from that time. Some went on to military careers.
Walker ran summer band programs for young reservists across the country for years.
The Royal Regiment of Canada Band played a key role in Anne-Marie's own history with the former teacher.
Even in the summertime, she says it gave him access to her. Anne-Marie and I decide it's time to head to the home of the Royals.
It's a chilly winter day in Toronto. We're bundled up. There's a sharp wind coming off Lake Ontario and we leave our masks on after getting out of the cab. An archway marks the entrance to this historic Canadian Forces facility. Inside is a large drill hall. I've seen the videos of the band practicing here.
It's a weekday yet it's eerily quiet. Lights are on inside but no one seems to be around this entire facility.
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