Julie Ireton
speaker
251 appearances
10 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Jan 2025
Julie Ireton’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
This series contains adult content and candid accounts of sexual abuse. Take care in listening.
There's a bittersweet history between Anne-Marie Robinson and the French horn. It goes back to her days in high school band. After I left school, I just put it down and never touched it again. In 2014, Anne-Marie's daughter was in her high school band. I probably had to have mentioned to her a few times that I played French horn in high school.
Her daughter was 15, smart, innocent, exactly how a teen girl should be.
She was in a good place in 2014 in a top job in the Canadian federal government. President of the Public Service Commission. And she had a shiny new French horn. It came back to me quickly and I got, you know, reasonably good fast. Anne-Marie decided to join a community band. They practiced in a church basement. She arrived at the first rehearsal nervous.
About 60 folding chairs encircled the conductor.
Almost believed that he wasn't really there. The band teacher. I'm Julie Ireton. This is season two of The Band Played On. It's a new series and a different investigation. Anne-Marie Robinson is haunted, tormented by something that happened to her when she was in high school. She alleges rape. He says it was consensual sex. I never resisted because I was like, I was under his control.
Our story unfolds in Toronto, Canada's biggest city. But this journey will take us across the country and well beyond this one woman. I knew she existed. I knew someone existed. There's more of us. Something happened to me too. Wow. Me too. I just get angry that what brought us together was him. Just that somebody could be this diabolical and that other people let it happen.
Questions will be raised. Many will be answered. How many girls at how many schools? Who knew? Why didn't those in positions of power prevent this man from getting too close and having sex with teen girls? And what's the recourse for women who are victims of historical sexual abuse?
Anne-Marie Robinson wants to regain control and fix systemic flaws. And she's just the kind of person who can pull it off.
Along the way, she'll gather a posse to help her.
Tell me your name. Tell me, you know, what city we're in and I'll get a level on your voice.
It's October 2021. And we're sitting in my backyard. My dog is being taunted by the neighborhood squirrels. You can edit all this, right? Archie the Aussie Doodle is actually a good distraction, an unofficial therapy dog. Anne-Marie is a bit nervous. Her shoulders are hunched. Her dark brown bangs hide the top of her eyes, like a shield. She's in her early 60s, but looks younger.
Anne Marie sought me out. And we've spoken several times since she first reached out to me in 2020. We took our time to build trust. I didn't want to rush Anne Marie into telling her story. So this is a first for the microphone. She's ready.
She tracked down Peter Hamer. I told his story in the last season of The Band Played On. In that series, I discovered more than 50 victims of sexual abuse. Three teachers from one school preyed on those teens over decades. Peter is one of those survivors. I found answers. He found closure. Anne-Marie comes from another school in a different city, but she wants to take that journey.
Peter has words of warning.
And while this season will touch on similar themes, I'm already surprised at how different the attitudes, responses, and excuses are in cases involving girls rather than boys. I envision different bumps and larger craters along this road with Anne-Marie.
I've done my homework too. Googled Anne-Marie's name right after her first call. I found government reports, photos, media clippings, plenty of information about her, and videos.
Anne-Marie Robinson was a big deal in the Canadian government, a top bureaucrat. She often presented to politicians in parliamentary committees.
The commission oversees the federal workforce. It's not a union. It's part of the government. So it's kind of like an auditor general because it's basically a regulator of the staffing authority. And she was in charge. Watching these videos, it's almost like looking at a different person. She wears confidence with her fitted business suits.
In fluent bureaucraties, she rattles off stats, methods and protocols in two official languages. But at some point that policy wonk was overtaken by dark painful memories. Now she's ready to talk about what brought her here. So on my deck wrangling the dog and the microphone I start asking questions. I need to know everything. But I know we'll need to take it slowly. Tell me where you grew up.
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