The award-winning broadcaster Scott Oake discusses his memoir For the Love of a Son: A Memoir of Addiction, Loss, and Hope (Simon & Schuster, 2025), with Joseph Planta.
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For the Love of a Son: A Memoir of Addiction, Loss, and Hope by Scott Oake (Simon & Schuster, 2025).
Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: For the Love of a Son |
Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:
I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.
One of the more moving and inspiring books of the year is the Number One bestseller For the Love of a Son: A Memoir of Addiction, Loss, and Hope. It was released to great notices this past spring. In the book, the popular broadcaster Scott Oake writes honestly and candidly about his son Bruce’s struggle with opioid abuse. It’s a battle that Bruce lost in 2011 at the age of twenty-five, but it’s one that has since inspired Scott, his late wife Anne, and their son Darcy, the celebrated illusionist, to do what they can to help others. In the wake of their grief, they launched the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre, where in Winnipeg, they’ve been lauded for their revolutionary treatment facility staffed by peers, addicts and alcoholics in recovery. The book discusses the challenges at finding the land, raising the money, and breaking ground for this facility, challenges that also include political ones. The book does a tremendous job in chronicling the cycles of addiction. What Bruce, as well as Anne and Scott go through as a family is a struggle, one that has successes but also failures. You see how those with addictions struggle with wanting or asking for help, and when you add the epidemic of addiction throughout the country, not to mention the world, very often getting help is a struggle, least of all financially. The lesson in this book is that, Bruce, even with a family where they had the means to get detoxed and treatment, it wasn’t always a guarantee. Throughout the book you get to know Bruce, he’s not a statistic, but he’s somebody who was a funny, charismatic kid, who found community growing up in boxing and rap music. I’ll ask Scott about what all this has been like for his family, and what sustains him today despite the grief of mourning Bruce, and losing the family’s matriarch, Anne, who died in 2021. Scott Oake is the award-winning CBC Sports, Sportsnet, and Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster. His weekly After Hours, after the late hockey game on Saturday night, is a popular must-view show not just for hockey fans, but for folks like me who enjoy a good interview. Scott’s skill at storytelling is great to watch throughout the NHL season. He has covered Canada’s biggest sports moments, including the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games, and the CFL. He is on the Media Roll of Honour of the Manitoba Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association, and is a Member of the Order of Manitoba, and Order of Canada, which he was invested with in Ottawa this past Canada Day. 100% of the after-tax royalties of this book, co-written with Michael Hingston, will be donated to the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre. The book is published by Simon & Schuster. I spoke to Scott in mid-August. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Scott Oake; Mr. Oake, good morning.
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