INNOVATION November-December 2021

F E A T U R E

The late Brian Nadjiwon. P hoto submitted by C ynthia S imonis

tutor Brian. Once Brian completed his sentence, Lorna and her family fostered Brian and supported him in his pursuits. He studied computer science at the University of Waterloo and Carleton University, but struggled with drugs and alcohol, leading to another incarceration. After leaving jail for the last time, he later continued his studies at Carleton University and was offered a job with the federal government in Ottawa in 1992. LEAVING THE PAST BEHIND Brian moved to the West Coast for a fresh start, where he was reunited with his twin brother in Vancouver. He found work at IBM, continued his schooling in computer science, and landed his dream job at Microsoft, commuting

challenging upbringing than I did,” Brent said. At the age of nine, Brian and Brent received visitation rights, but were only able to see each other a few times a year. The visits lasted for a few years until Brian found himself in trouble with the law. At the age of 14, Brian was sentenced to a Catholic juvenile correctional institution. Over the next few years, he was released and returned to the institution, finding it difficult to break the cycle, and eventually ending up in a juvenile maximum-security facility. While he served his sentence, Brian turned inward and began studying physics and math. His aptitude for these subjects attracted the attention of Lorna Safe, a professor at the University of Guelph, who was called to the facility to

BRIAN NADJIWON’S EARLY YEARS Brian grew up in Ontario in the 1960s with his twin brother Brent. Brian and Brent’s mother was a First Nation residential school survivor, and they never met their father. After a series of incidents at home, Brian and Brent were placed in foster care at the age of four. “Brian was a rambunctious kid—he liked to stir the pot. At one of the first foster homes we were at he brought a hornet’s nest into the kitchen,” Brent said. After a few failed attempts to place the brothers in a home together, it was decided to send them to separate foster care. Brian went to a home near downtown Toronto, and Brent went to the suburbs. “Maybe that was a chance to start over. I went to a middle-class family with structure, but Brian had a much more

across the border to Washington from his apartment in Richmond.

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