Operation Remembrance: Ottawa high school students create documentary honouring local veteran

Grade 10 students from Sacred Heart Catholic High School created a documentary about the life of a local Second World War veteran. CTV’s Leah Larocque reports.

Students at Sacred Heart Catholic High School in Stittsville are making sure the life and story of one Second World War veteran is remembered.

Five Grade 10 students participated in Operation Remembrance by creating a documentary about air commodore John Fauquier; considered to be one of Canada’s greatest bomber pilots.

Operation Remembrance is supported by the Royal Canadian Legion and by Veterans Affairs Canada.

Each day from Nov. 1 to Nov. 11, a video created by students from participating schools across the country is released. The topics vary from individual veterans to subjects relating to war.

One of the Sacred Heart students who worked on the project is Aryan Angirus who says it surprised him to learn that Fauquier was born and raised in Ottawa.

“He attended Ashbury College. And not only was he really good at academics, but he was also the captain of the cricket team,” says Angirus.

“I want people to understand that people were living their lives, but then, out of nowhere, a world war sparks. It’s hard to believe that kids had to leave their lives, leave their families or leave education… leave their entire livelihood to go fight for their country.”

Their eight-minute documentary highlights the early life of Fauquier and then tells of his war experience and legacy as a decorated bomber pilot.

Ella Sul says the project was personal. “The brutality of the First World War and war in general was really, really difficult,” she says. “That was probably the most difficult part for me because I come from a military family. My dad’s in the military, so learning about that was very difficult.”

Dania Al-Kayat says she was interested in participating in the project to connect with other students. “John Fauquier was born and raised in Ottawa. It’s important to recognize the fact that there were people in your area who were breaking their backs, fighting for you.”

The students met before and after school and on lunch breaks to make the documentary. They did all the research, creation, and editing themselves.

Danielle Tandu says, “He showed incredible bravery and courage throughout all the bombing missions that he did. And I wanted the opportunity to learn more about that.”

Making sure the lives of veterans are remembered was very important for Nina Valenzuela. She says, “I just I really wanted to be able to recognize all those soldiers who died and fought for us. And the reason that we’re here today and get to do all the things that we do in our lives.”

Megan Valois was the supervising teacher for the project. “I truly mean when I say that they did every aspect of this project. They researched, they wrote, they got the images, they did the captions. They put it all together from start to finish. This was a student-driven initiative to build bridges in an authentic way, from the past to the present, so that students could really understand the true meaning of remembrance.”

All documentaries that are part of Operation Remembrance will be shown during a special ceremony at the Chateau Laurier on Tuesday before the National Ceremony takes place downtown.

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