Staff
Meet Our Team!
​
Glengarry Broadsword has a fantastic team of well trained instructors and volunteer club officers who deliver outstanding classes and other support, enabling our fencers to develop to a high standard in a safe and family friendly environment, with a excellent quality training equipment.
Head Instructor
James Drummond Fraser - Founder, Head Instructor
Drummond has been teaching Historical Fencing since 2015, primarily focussed on Single Stick, Highland Broadsword and Small Sword, and recently qualified the first instructional level of the Antrim Bata system of Irish Stick. Drummond's original martial disciplines are Judo, Aikido and Boxing. He is also an avid instructor in a number of outdoor education activities, team and individual sports. Drummond retired from the Canadian Armed forces in 2017 following a 30 year career, including deployments overseas.
Instructors
Keshava Archibald - Instructor
Keshava Archibald first began training in Martial Arts in 2008, at the age of 5, in Boquete Panama where he trained in Taekwondo for 4 years, getting his red belt at 9 years old. Then in 2013 when he was 11 he began training in kickboxing and jiu-jitsu. He got his blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu in 2018 and he continues to actively compete at local grappling tournaments. Keshava always had an interest in historical fighting, especially in archery and swordfighting . So he and his brothers jumped on the oppurtinity to participate in the annual Ann' Crudiachadn fencing workshop at the Glengarry Highland Games in 2022 where he also competed in the Singlestick tournament. Having thoroughly enjoyed the experience, he continued to train seriously in singlestick, smallsword and highland broadsword under head instructor Drummond Fraser, and is currently enrolled in the instructor developement program.
Bhima Archibald - Instructor
Bhima Archibald first began training in Martial Arts in 2009, at the age of 3, in Boquete Panama where he trained in Taekwondo for 3 years, getting his green belt at 6 years old. Then in 2017 when he was 11 he began training in kickboxing and jiu-jitsu. He got his blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu in 2021 and he continues to actively compete at local grappling tournaments. Bhima and his brothers always had an interest in historical fighting, especially in archery and swordfighting. So he and his brothers jumped on the opportunity to participate in the annual Ann' Crudiachadn fencing workshop at the Glengarry Highland Games in 2022 where he also competed in the Singlestick tournament. Having thoroughly enjoyed the experience, he continues to train seriously in singlestick, smallsword and highland broadsword under head instructor Drummond Fraser, and is also currently enrolled in the instructor developement program.
Pearson Fraser - Instructor
Pearson entered the junior sport fencing program at the RA Centre (Ottawa) at age 5, achieving his Yellow Badge by age 6, competing with a peer group who were age 8 to 12. He decided that he preferred to study historical fencing, and has been helping to demonstrate and instruct since 2016, and competing since 2022. Pearson has medalled at An Cruinneachadh in 2022 and 2023 in Single Stick and Small Sword, and is looking forward to competing further afield. He is also a Highland Dancer (MacCullough Dancers since 2015), and an avid athlete and outdoorsman.
Meredith Fraser - Instructor
Meredith has been fencing since 2018 and competing since 2021. At the 2019 Highland Games she was a crowd favorite, demonstrating incredible assertiveness in the ring, even against the almost entirely older and taller opponents. Meredith is a passionate Highland dancer who has trained with the MacCullough Dancers since 2014, and her dance skills have translated into remarkable footwork. She particularly enjoys teaching fencing to young children, and also leads our club practices in Highland dancing, used to sharpen up the footwork of our fencers.
Club Officers
Cheryl Fast - Club and tournament Registrar
Cheryl Fast balances a large family with community leadership in a number of capacities. She has two wonderful children in the club fencing program, and has become the resident expert in managing the administration of tournaments, from registration to organizing competition pools. Cheryl may have missed her calling as an air traffic controller, and is extremely adept at making managing the complexity of a tournament look easy.
Jonathan Gaumont - Head Referee
Jonathan Gaumont followed his son and wife into fencing with Glengarry Broadsword in 2023, progressing very quickly in Small Sword, as well as volunteering in a variety of capacities to the great benefit of the club. He qualified with the Canadian Fencing Federation as a Judge in the Fall of 2024, and passed his Level 1 Instructor certification with the Italian Sports Federation (US ACLI) in July 2025. Jonathan leads, trains and coordinates the competition ring staff during our club tournaments. He is now also 'Chef de Salle' (supervising training) and providing individual instruction Small Sword on Saturday evenings
Melanie Boekhoff
Melanie (Min) Boekhoff has two talented sons in our club children and youth fencing program and has taken up the responsibilities as the Volunteer Coordinator, helping to recruit and coordinate volunteer staff that help to run the club and our tournaments. These include high school students working towards completing their forty (40) hours of volunteer work, family members of fencers in the club, comunity volunteers and even members of other fencing clubs.
Benoit Mallet - Club Armourer
Benoit has been fencing with Glengarry Broadsword since 2023, acquitting himself well when competing in his first tournament at An Cruinneachadh 2023. Ben is an extremely gifted fabricator, and has enthusiastically embraced his role as Armourer, ensuring our training equipment is kept in top shape.
Instructor Development Program
Glengarry Broadsword runs an instructor development program that involves two years of study in order to be fully qualified. A select number of intermediate to advanced fencers are invited to participate, based on their demonstration of a solid technical foundation, leadership potential, good character, and strong interpersonal skills. Participants in the program undergo a combination of in-house training, external certification, and study. Instructors in training are expected to certify in first aid, learn method of instruction and elements of the psychology of learning, study and demonstrate an understanding of the treatises of historical masters, and help to run classes. All this while continue to develop their own fencing skills. All instructors are qualified under the Italian Sports Federation (US ACLI) historical fencing instructor program, and some pursue certification under other accrediting organizations as well
Past Instructors
We'd like to thank our past instructors
James Cowan
James came to Glengarry Broadsword with a background in German Longsword from several years of training at Ottawa Swordplay. He competed well in An Cruinneachadh 2023, his first HEMA and first Broadsword Tournament, and in subsequent years. He has performed well in a number of notable tournaments, including a Silver place finish at the 2025 Moncton Highland Games in Broadsword. James recently qualified as a commercial diver and has started his professional career, and remains a fencer and competitor with Glengarry
MeghanRain Willis
Rainy willis is the 18 year old second oldest daughter of Dan and Amy Willis. She first started fencing in 2019 at age 11 at the Glengarry Highland Games where she developed a growing interest in Highland Broadsword. Over the course of 2019 and 2020 she continued training with local families under the instruction of Drummond Fraser. She and her siblings regularly went to classes throughout the summer of 2021. Training continued until the 2022 Highland games where at age 14 Rainy won bronze medal in Singlestick and silver medal in Small Sword. In January of 2023 she became a part of the instructor development program. She has been a fierce competitor, performing well at the Femme Fatale 2025 Tournament in Rapier and Single Stick, Montreal (QC) and the Spring Steel Tournament in Small Sword, Rapier and Dagger in Barrie (ON), and earning a gold medal at our own Tartan Day Charitable Singel Stick Tournament. MeghanRain runs a successful company (Rainy Day Farm Sitting)
Pillar Willis - Instructor
Pillar is an extremely talented and dedicated dancer in multiple styles, including years of study with MacCullough School of Dance. She has competed in fencing since 2022, and instructing since 2023. Unsurprisingly, given her dance background, Pillar demonstrated remarkable footwork and is a very fast study of technique. Pillar is now training five or six days weekly in multiple dance disciplines, as well as teaching dance.