HNIC host Scott Oake remembers late son in new memoir

Hockey Night in Canada’s Scott Oake shares his late son’s story in his memoir For the Love of a Son: A Memoir of Addiction, Loss and Hope.

Hockey Night in Canada’s Scott Oake can’t help but remember his late son, Bruce, when he visits Calgary.

Bruce died of a heroin overdose here in 2011.

“I think of him every time I am there because that’s where he had his best shot at recovery and that’s where he died,” the Winnipeg-based broadcaster told CTV News.

Scott Oake shares his story in For the Love of a Son: A Memoir of Addiction, Loss and Hope.

Bruce Oake died only a few days after he was kicked out of Simon House, a drug treatment facility in the northwest community of Bowness.

“Bruce knew the rules going into Simon House, so did we. So, no acrimony over what happened,” Scott Oake says.

Oake also shared his opinion on the movement toward involuntary treatment, in which addicts are forced to undergo care.

“What you will find, I’m sure, is that it doesn’t work because if those suffering from addiction are suffering from substance abuse (and) don’t want to be there, they’re not going to get the best out of it,” Oake says.

-Watch the full interview with Scott Oake in the video player above

He also acknowledges he’s no expert in the field of recovery, although his efforts to honour his son and help others stand in the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre in Winnipeg.