Sarah Polley – Filmmaker, Actor and Author

Sarah shares a beautiful piece she had written around her experience in Grade 2. Her story highlights the importance of what it feels like to have someone believe in your passions so early in your age and how, for some of us, those people are our elementary school teachers.

Matt Murray – Actor

Matt walks us through how he learned to heal and express himself with the arts. Through his own experience, he highlights just how much of an integral part the arts can be for students like himself. He says, “The arts saved my life. It gave me purpose.”

Joel Plaskett – Musician

Joel stopped by our virtual event to recall his experiences in public education and how it served him well to this day. He tells us how public education “helps the fabric of society; it holds it together in some fashion.”

Sadie Laflamme-Snow – Actor

On top of her beautiful voice and performance, you can find it below under Artist Performances, Sadie gave us a few words on public education and the arts. She tells us her first-hand experience of having encouragement from the arts programs led her to pursuing her passions at the post-secondary level and onward into her career.

Emma Kwong

Mason Jeffrey

Layla Isabella – Student DJ

Layla, our wonderful student DJ, played a set to kick off and close out our Telling Tales benefit.

Lindsey Buckingham – Student Artist

Lindsey shares her digital art piece of our host this year, Mary Walsh.

Canterbury Highschool – Student Performers

The students from Canterbury Highschool based in Ottawa gave us a taste of their many talents in music, dance, and song.

Jim Cuddy & Sons – Award-winning Canadian Musician

Before he performs a song with his two sons, Sam Polley and Devin Cuddy, Jim gives us a reminder on the significance of the arts in public education. He tells us that not every student speaks the language of reading, writing, or arithmetic and how some, including himself, use the languages of the arts to express themselves in a beautiful and meaningful way.

Luke Reece – Spoken-word Poet

Luke shares his piece called, “Special K” about hurt feelings and comforting yourself through cereal. In addition to his clever and pun-filled piece, he shares with us .that through his teachers and school festivals, he was able to hone and nurture his writing skills through theatre which eventually led him to where he is now in spoken-word.

Camie – Musician

Multi-disciplinary musician and PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, Camille Inston, musically known as, “camie,” shares her gratitude towards the public education system. From her experiences she has been able to nurture her personal and professional development.

Humberly Gonzalez – Actor

Humberly shows off her acting chops through an emotional delivery of a monologue from the theatre play, “Scorched” by Wajdi Mouawad and translated to English by Linda Gaboriau. After her moving piece, she goes on to say how the arts has been an outlet for her to grow self-confidence and self-awareness. She tells us that “the arts should have the same weight as academics” in the public education system.

Sadie Laflamme-Snow – Actor

Sadie demonstrates her beautiful and powerful vocals in her rendition of “See I’m Smiling” from the musical “The Last Five Years” written by Jason Robert Brown.

Craig Cardiff – Singer-songwriter

Craig gives us a beautiful acoustic rendition of Dawes’ song, “A Little Bit of Everything.”

Michael MacMillan & Cathy Spoel