Edith Cannon was born in New York City and earned her B.A. from McGill in 1948. In the summer of 1947 she participated in the first "Beaver Brigade" organized by the Canadian Committee of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, with the assistance of youth organizations and trade unions. The Brigade toured a number of countries in western and eastern Europe, participated in a youth Festival in Prague, and worked on reconstruction projects in Yugoslavia.

Antonio Cantero was born on November 23, 1903, in Ofena, Italy. He graduated from McGill University with a degree in medicine in 1927, and went on to become a pioneer in gastroenterology. He was a cancer researcher associated with the Notre-Dame Hospital in Montreal.

In 1947, he co-founded the Montreal Cancer Institute with Dr. Louis-Charles Simard, a pathologist from Notre-Dame Hospital. The Institute collaborated with Notre-Dame Hospital and the University of Montreal to carry out its mission.

He was the director of research laboratories at the Montreal Cancer Institute by 1960. His wife, Fernande Kent, was also the VP of the Canadian Cancer Society Quebec Division in 1957.