For the love of a son

"Since 2016, Canada has seen more than 40,000 deaths from opioid overdoses. When veteran Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster Scott Oake first held his infant son, Bruce, in his arms, he could have never imagined that just 25 years later, Bruce would become part of those staggering numbers. In those early days, Scott, a new father, watched Bruce with awe, marveling at the potential of his funny, charismatic boy. As Bruce got older, though, he struggled to fit in at school and began showing signs of having ADHD, including a streak of impulsiveness that often got him into trouble. Scott and his wife, Anne, did their best to support him, and for a time, he found community and belonging in boxing and local rap battles, but when Bruce was pulled into a world of drugs and gangs, Scott and Anne got a crash course in the reality of loving someone battling substance use disorder. Then one quiet day, Scott got the phone call that haunts everyone: Bruce had accidentally overdosed. At just twenty-five, Scott's vibrant, creative, first-born son was gone forever. It was a loss that could have broken a man, a marriage, a family -- but Scott, Anne, and their younger son Darcy instead turned the worst day of their lives into a way to help the thousands of Canadians struggling with addiction. After nearly a decade of fundraising and battling red tape and political machinations they launched the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre, a free, revolutionary treatment centre staffed by addicts and alcoholics in recovery. For the Love of a Son is the story of a father's unconditional love for his son. It's also a tale of a broken country's failing response to the opioid crisis -- what has been called a national epidemic. Above all, it's the story of a young man who never got to finish growing up and a family who would do anything to give others every possible chance to find their way home"--