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Intervention Canada is a Canadian reality TV series based on the A&E show Intervention, and airs on Slice, Sundays at 8 pm. It is now in its second season. Intervention Canada profiles people whose dependence on drugs and alcohol or other compulsive behavior has brought them to a point of personal crisis or estranged them from their friends and loved ones. Each episode ends with a surprise intervention that is staged by the family and friends of the addict, conducted by addiction specialists. On February 9, 2012 Slice had announced on their Facebook that the show is cancelled.
2012
As a child, Tammy, 26, was forced to look after her younger sisters when her parents would disappear for days on drug binges. A daddy’s girl, she has followed in her father’s footsteps, spending her days in crack houses, where she regularly descends into a world of drugs and danger. After protecting her little sisters from the hell that was their life, they have now come together in a heartbreaking attempt to save hers.
An Alberta prairie boy, Kent, 37, watched his father come home every day to a case of beer. Good at hockey, Kent’s life took a turn when a hereditary blood disease stopped him in his tracks. To fill the void, and to block out the untreated trauma of a sexual assault, Kent turned to a 17-beer-a-day habit. Now the home he shares with his girlfriend, Nicki, and their three children is a battleground of verbal abuse and shame. Nicki gives Kent a final ultimatum: clean up or lose your family for good.
Born addicted to opiates, Aimee, 25, is caught in the same cycle of addiction that took her mother’s life when Aimee was a little girl. Suffering through a childhood of neglect and a string of abusive boyfriends, Aimee’s feelings of worthlessness have led her to a serious fentanyl addiction and a life on the street soliciting men to pay for her habit. Her father, who lives in fear that he will have to bury his daughter as he did her mother, makes one final desperate bid to save her life.
A talented dancer, Lyndsay won many awards and was accepted into a prestigious arts school as a child. But in her early teens, her father's suicide triggered a spiral that she is still lost in. After being prescribed oxycontin for anxiety in her late teens, Lyndsay is now injecting over 1000mg of oxy a day. Living at home with her mother, stepfather, and 12-year-old sister, her life is completely run by the constant need for more pills and all her family can do is watch helplessly from the sidelines. Without an intervention, there is tragedy in this family’s future.
Wes and Lise have been together since their teens. Both products of traumatic childhoods, they bonded over a mutual interest in marijuana and other recreational drugs. But they were functional, with Wes earning money as a roofer to keep their two young sons in food and shelter. When, at age 30, Wes discovered crack and brought it home to Lise, their happy home turned to chaos. Hopelessly ensnared by their addictions, the couple’s focus shifted from caring for their children to finding and using that next rock. Deeply concerned for the children’s welfare, Wes’s sister Carrie makes one last attempt to save the family.
With a University degree in science, Katie is an intelligent young woman with a dangerous addiction to opiates. Raised by her mother after her alcoholic father left home, Katie refused to live in poverty and sued both parents for child support at the age of 16. The scars never healed between her and her mother who fight every day. Now 24, Katie is addicted to injecting Dilaudid. To protect her habit, she has burned her bridges with almost everyone she knows. Her mother is all she has left and, without a successful intervention, even she is prepared to walk away.
Jessica is a self-proclaimed party girl with a serious addiction to heroin. Having never dealt with the sexual abuse she suffered as a child, Jessica has been partying since she was 14. Now 22, she spends her days on methadone to stave off withdrawals, and nights injecting heroin, smoking crack and partying with men twice her age. With an alcoholic but well-meaning father who is unable to let his little girl go, and a mother who spoils her rotten, this family needs a serious wake-up call before they lose Jessica forever.
Raised by an alcoholic single mother, Travis, 20, and his sister were moved around the country after their abusive father left the household. When Travis was 15, his sister, with whom he had a strong bond, was gang raped at a party. A year later, he discovered her hanging by the neck in their home. Racked with guilt and devastated by the loss, Travis has spiraled out of control in a ceaseless sea of partying, gambling and alcohol. His mother, several years sober but clearly still suffering from her loss, now fights to save her only remaining child.
The son of an alcoholic father and a mother who suffered from depression, Ziggi grew up ‘odd’ and was alienated in the schoolyard. His sensitive, artistic temperament drew the love of a beautiful woman and they had two children together. But that same tortured soul also led him to a severe addiction to crystal meth and GHB. Unable to give it up, Ziggi has lost the girl and is living couch to couch. Without an intervention, his children will be lost to him forever.
The victim of serial abuse at the hands of a male family friend, Meghan endured a tortured childhood compounded by the fact her mother was too depressed to raise her. When she became too old to stay in the foster home that became her only happy refuge, Meghan found herself on the streets. Now 20, she seeks to ease the pain through her music, poetry and a 4-points-a-day heroin habit. Without an intervention, this artist will die before anyone truly hears her song.
At the age of 16, Holley witnessed her mother cheating on the father she adored. The strain between mother and daughter never eased and Holley, now 28, acted out through raging alcohol and cocaine abuse. An important member of a loving extended family, Holley’s relatives watched in horror as she gave birth to and raised three children in the dangerous fog of addiction. Her family must now act -- to save the children from their mother, and their mother from almost certain death.
Raised by two hard-partying parents, Sarah, 32, began using drugs as a teen. When her parents divorced, her drug use escalated and continued through failed relationships with three different men with whom she had children. Now, she has lost custody of all three and her family must help raise them while Sarah spirals into a dangerous dependence on hyrdromorphone, speed, cocaine and morphine. Without an intervention Sarah’s family fears she is one needle away from an early grave.
The daughter of a professional escort and a serial workaholic, Allisha began to develop body image issues at an early age. A bulimic who didn’t purge, but rather shed calories through compulsive and extreme workouts, Allisha soon found herself displaying her hard body in local strip clubs. Pain from dancing led to severe abuse of alcohol and opiates. Now she is impossibly addicted to injecting Dilaudid and must play multiple men to pay for her habit. For the first time in years, her family has come together in one final effort to save her life.
The death of his best friend sent David into a destructive spiral, which included an addiction to heroin and crystal meth.
2011
With four children, a long career working for a ferry company in British Columbia, and a successful import/export business, John, 50, had it all. Five years ago, exhausted from the stress of a failing marriage and juggling two careers, he smoked crack cocaine for the first time and watched his world begin to fall apart. Now also addicted to heroin, John lives mostly on the street, while his family live in fear of the phone call that will deliver their worst nightmare. Devastated by the loss of the man that was once the lifeblood of their family, John’s mother, sister and grown sons attempt to pull John out of the abyss of his addictions. Interventionist: James Dunn
With a past that includes a father who abandoned her, multiple sexual assaults, and a stepbrother who died from a heroin overdose, Loren, 26, has turned to alcohol to numb her pain. She drinks up to three liters of wine a day and suffers from seizures, black outs, and violent mood swings. A year ago, Loren entered treatment where she met her girlfriend, Christy (35). The two have been joined at the hip – and bottle – ever since. Christy is near death, and her body is shutting down after years of alcohol and prescription drug abuse. She is tortured by the thought of leaving her two children without a mother when she dies. Two families who have never met join forces to attempt a high-stakes double intervention in a last ditch effort to save their lives. Interventionist: Andrew Galloway
At 27, Wesley is a veteran of crystal meth use. He has been using since he was 17, and has been dealing meth and other drugs for most of his 20’s. He goes days without sleep, and lives a lifestyle that is one long party. Consumed by guilt over the death of his best friend on crystal meth when Wes was 17, and devastated by the loss of his father whose funeral he couldn’t even attend because of a stretch in jail, Wes has chosen to make a living off the drug that has made his life a nightmare. Knowing he is one bad choice away from a decision that could end his life, Wes’s family intervene in an attempt to get their son back. Interventionist: Samuel Waldner
Brad, 50, lives in a converted tractor-trailer and sells scrap metal for cash. He is also severely addicted to crack. Growing up in a rural town in New Brunswick, Brad was extremely skilled with his hands, and ended up constructing the home he lived in with his ex-wife. After moving to Ontario and starting a family, his life took a dangerous turn. Brad was badly electrocuted on a routine job cutting down a tree. The injury was life changing, and Brad lost everything. Defeated, he turned to crack cocaine. Brad has been smoking crack for the past 20 years and his daughter, now 26 and starting a life of her own, is fighting to get him back. Interventionist: Andrew Galloway
Candace is a 23-year-old mother who is addicted to cocaine and opiates. Raised in Northern Ontario by a single mother also struggling with addiction, Candace grew up immersed in the drug culture. When she was 14, her father, whom she adored, died suddenly just as she was preparing to move in with him. The devastating loss triggered an extended binge of substance abuse, which included using opiates with her mother while still in her teens. As her grandparents care for her young daughter, Candace continues to spin out of control on a combination of cocaine and morphine in the company of the drug-addicted father of her child. Candace’s addiction has destroyed her ability to be a mother. Her family believes an intervention is the only way to get her back and secure a future for her young daughter. Interventionist: Andrew Galloway
From the outside, Conrad, 20, leads a picture-perfect life. He lives in his parent’s lakeside home in Huntsville, Ontario, while they cater to his every need. Unfortunately, this family’s reality is far from ideal. Conrad was alienated when he was young because of ADHD and tourettes, and instead of friends, used extreme sports to fill the void. As he got older and the adrenaline wore off, Conrad turned to Oxycodone as his escape. Now, dependent on pills and full of rage, Conrad battles with his parents in a house that’s slowly suffocating them all. Afraid for their son, and trying desperately to hold onto their own relationship, Conrad’s parents finally deliver the ultimatum that might save his life. Interventionist: Andrew Galloway
From an early age Andrew’s life was rife with abuse, neglect, and tragedy. His father, an addict, left the family when Andrew was a baby. Struggling to raise two children on her own, Andrew’s mother worked as an escort, and turned to crack cocaine and alcohol as a means of coping with the emotional and physical abuse meted out by the men in her life. It was a coping mechanism Andrew would emulate as a teenager. When a surrogate father figure was killed in a car accident, Andrew began to spiral. Now, at the age of 22, he is attempting to finish a college degree while on a rampage of crack and alcohol that has him sleeping behind dumpsters and being rushed to the emergency rooms of Windsor, Ontario. Both mother and son need to break free of this dangerous cycle and repair their toxic relationship before Andrew is lost forever. Interventionist: Maureen Brine
TJ, 38, is a woman living a double life. She alternates between Terry Lynn, a mother of three living a normal domesticlife with her husband, Jamie, in the suburbs of Ottawa and TJ, an erratic drug addicted rock singer. Her addiction to crack cocaine has cost her band a record deal, and her family a mother they can count on. A thrill seeker at heart, TJ uses cocaine as a crutch to escape the daily grind. She disappears on binges lasting up to four months, leaving her music and family behind in search of more thrills and more drugs. TJ needs an intervention, not only to bring her back to her friends and family, but to save her from herself. Interventionist: Andrew Galloway
Jamie is a crack addict whose struggles began when his family moved from a small rural community in Ontario to Calgary, Alberta. When he was 12, he fell in with the wrong crowd and started disappearing for days at a time. He began stealing from his parents to buy alcohol, a habit that eventually led to stealing liquor to sell in the street. His alcohol addiction escalated to crack, opiates, and just about anything he could get his hands on. Now 26, Jamie is estranged from his entire family, and has trouble towing the line in the shelters he sometimes calls home. He wanders the streets and parks of Oshawa, Ontario, a solitary figure in search of his next fix. Meanwhile, he has a four-year-old daughter he has never met. Without an intervention he will likely not see 35, and more importantly, will have no chance of giving his daughter the father she deserves. Interventionist: Andrew Galloway
Hailing from a small seaside town in Nova Scotia, Barry, 50, was born into a life of alcoholism and turmoil. The victim of childhood abuse at the hands of a close relative, Barry learned to kill the pain with alcohol as a young boy. A gentle giant when sober, but violent and verbally abusive when spiraling on 40 ounces of vodka a day, Barry has alienated just about everyone in his life, including his father, whom he adores, and his 27-year-old son who has cut off all contact. Living day-to-day in run-down motels and struggling to put together a living between binges, Barry has a chance to reclaim his life, his family, and a relationship with his son who has shut him out of his life. Interventionist: Maureen Brine
Suffering from a severe eating disorder, depression and suicidal tendencies, Cassandra is a young woman who has lost her way. Growing up, she felt out of control and neglected - constantly left alone while her parents’ volatile relationship slowly disintegrated. Bullied by her peers for being ‘chunky’, Cassie struggled in school as well. Depressed and angry, she began bingeing and purging in an effort to control her body and her environment. Now, at 18, Cassie purges up to 15 times a day and takes anywhere from 10 to 30 laxatives. Close to death, Cassandra needs a lifeline before her family loses their young daughter to this dangerous disease. Interventionist: Maureen Brine
Tracy, 48, was born into a family rampant with alcoholism and abuse. With little parental oversight, she tried her first beer at the age of 11, and loved the feeling from the first sip. Although she excelled in gymnastics and other school endeavors, the seed of her undoing had been sown. When she hooked up with the father of her three children, Tracy fell heavily into a pattern of drinking and domestic chaos. After repeated visits to her home by police, her girls were put into foster homes where they watched from afar as their mother slowly imploded. Though deeply hurt by their mother putting alcohol before them, Tracy’s daughters set their resentment aside and make one last attempt to save the mother they never had. Interventionist: Maureen Brine
David, 29, is nothing less than a miracle. At the age of 18 he contracted leukemia and underwent a dangerous bone marrow transplant that he survived. Prescribed painkillers to cope with his treatment, David became addicted and now, a decade later, consumes massive amounts of Oxycodone. He uses up to 1200 mg a day, which he injects or snorts. Trading one kind of sick for another, David’s erratic, angry and manipulative behaviour has cost him every friend he ever had. His lonely existence is punctuated only by the presence of his mother, and the ever-present need to secure more oxy. Having fought the battle to save his life from cancer, David now is watching his addiction take it away. Interventionist: Andrew Galloway
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