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Canadian Champions

Transcript

(Lead in)

(RCMP. crest)

(RCMP officer walking down a hallway with 4 youth)

The RCMP Drugs and Organized Crime Awareness Service is committed to ensuring Canada’s youth make wise choices.

(8 youth sitting around a table in a classroom)

Cameras rolling, action!

(Montage of celebrities featured in the video)

(Back to 8 youth sitting around a table in a classroom)

This production features celebrities and youth from across Canada to help you make the right decisions when the time comes.

(Youth in a classroom)

(R.C.M.P. officer walking up stairs)

After all, choosing sound options has never been harder with so many drugs on the street, both legal and illicit.

(Background music)

(Homeless individual overdosing)
(Zoom-in on Dr. Kreillaars)
(Zoom-in on David Eng)
(David Eng playing wheelchair basketball)
(Chantal Benoit playing wheelchair basketball)
(Zoom in on Sidney Crosby)
(Sidney Crosby on a breakaway during an NHL game)

 “He scores! Sidney Crosby with a great individual play!”

(Zoom in on Sidney Crosby)
(Alexandre Despatie diving)
(Zoom-in on Alexandre Despatie)
(Zoom-in on Caroline Calvé)
(Youth playing video games and music)
(Travis Cross in his equipment at the fire department)
(Youth playing Frisbee)
(Visual of lockers in a hallway)
(Classroom full of youth sitting, and then introducing themselves to each other)
(Ricky Anderson in front of the classroom)

Good to see you guys, how are ya?

Good, good.

Wonderful, wonderful! My name is Ricky Anderson and I work at addictions services.
Long before I ever worked at addiction services however, I was a former amateur and professional boxing champion. I went all over the world, winning trophies and medals. What are some of the things that get young people into drugs and alcohol? What are some of the issues you guys face in your lives?

(Youth raising their hands)
(Zoom-in on youth)

A lot of people are doing it.

A lot of people are doing drugs, ya, absolutely!

(Zoom-in on youth)

Bullying.

Bullying, that’s huge.

(Zoom-in on youth)

Your appearance, like how you look and if you are confident with what you look like every day and stuff like that.

You’ve got to feel good about yourself, yeah!

(Zoom-in on youth)

You feel like you can’t fit in.

You feel like you don’t fit in, that’s a tough one and if you feel like you don’t fit in, oh boy,

(Zoom-in on Ricky Anderson in front of the class)

“Well I’m the only one…oh those guys out there smoking drugs and that I guess I got to go in with them.” Yeah that’s huge.

(Zoom-in on youth)

Stress.

(Scan of the classroom, with Ricky Anderson talking in the front)

Stress is a big one. I know it’s not easy, I know it’s not easy, I was there.

(Zoom-in on youth)

What people say behind your back.
What people say behind your back.

(Zoom-in on youth)

My friend went behind me and my other friend’s back and just started saying stuff that she couldn’t say to our face.

(Scan of the classroom, with Ricky Anderson talking in the front)

How many of you have had to deal with bullying on Facebook perhaps?

(Youth raising their hands)

Yeah, what…oh man!

(Zoom-in on youth)

Um, like, saying things that aren’t true just because they don’t like you or something.  

(Zoom-in on youth)

He always seemed to be out with his friends, either getting high, or looking for drugs, stealing money, stealing stuff from our house, and then he just kind of drifted away from our family.

(Zoom-in on youth sitting beside lockers in a hallway)

I know kids that have turned to drugs because of family troubles, just…it’s hard to cope with.

(Zoom-in on youth standing beside lockers in a hallway)

I do know some people who are very close to me, very close friends of mine who have used drugs before and who still continue to use drugs to deal with stuff like depression and stress and family issues.

(Zoom-in on youth sitting beside lockers in a hallway)

Drugs are something that anyone can get exposed to no matter what your background is, or where you’re from, who you’re parents are, it has nothing to do with that.

(Scan of East Hastings in Vancouver, B.C., homeless people, alleyways, garbage…)

No one grows up dreaming of being a drug addict, but it happens.

(Zoom-in on Scott Oake)

And once you start fooling around with them, the risk is great.

(Homeless individuals in an alleyway in East Hastings)
(Zoom in on a needle)
(Zoom in on Dr. Dean Kreillaars)

I work with people from all walks of life, rich, poor, well educated or not.

(Scan of alleyway in East Hastings)
(Homeless individual picking out of a dumpster)

Independent of their backgrounds I always see the same behaviors being elicited.

(Zoom-in on Dr. Dean Kreillaars)

They take the wrong step and they go down the wrong path and all of them suffer the same consequences, independent of what support, how good their family is, etcetera, which is a downward spiral.

(Homeless person sleeping on the street in East Hastings)
(Scan of East Hastings)
(Zoom-in on Dr. Dean Kreillaars)

There is no protection offered against choosing bad behavior. If you have a great family support system or if you have a great education, it doesn’t protect you from making the wrong decision.

(Zoom in on needle)
(Scott Oake watching a video on his laptop in the Rogers Arena)

Well, it is with profound sadness that we open our hearts tonight and close ranks around our friend and colleague Scott Oake. This week Scott lost his eldest son Bruce and Bruce was a good athlete, had a great sense of humor and no question had his father’s gift for gab.

(Zoom-in on picture of Bruce)
(Zoom-in on Scott Oake)

Hi, I’m Scott Oake from Hockey Night in Canada. Three months ago, our son Bruce died of a heroin overdose. He was twenty-five years old.

(Zoom-in on a picture of Bruce and Scott)

When he was your age, Bruce was like many of you, popular in high school, played on the varsity basketball team.

(Zoom-in on Scott Oake)

Around the age of fourteen, Bruce began smoking weed. By the time he’d finished high school, his drug usage included hard core stuff like crystal meth, ecstasy, then it was on to Oxycontin and after that, the drug that killed him, heroin.

(Zoom-in on picture of Bruce)

You should know that while Bruce was an addict, he was not a down and out street addict.

(Zoom-in on Scott Oake)

He had a good job, beautiful girlfriend, nice car and a good place to live. This is a very sad story and I know you can appreciate that it’s very difficult to tell but the fact is, our son is dead, because he made bad choices when it came to drugs. So I’m telling this story because our family hopes that you will make better choices than our son did.

(Zoom-in on picture of Bruce and Scott)

Oxycontin is out there on the street, you can get it anywhere.

(Zoom-in on Scott Oake)

You could walk, we’re in Rogers Arena now where I work a lot of Saturday nights on our hockey night broadcasts of Canuck games but I can walk two blocks in that direction, go to East Hastings Street, and get any drug I want.

(Scan of East Hastings Street)
(Zoom-in on Scott Oake)

If you follow the pattern that our son did, pretty soon you are not over there looking for weed, you’re looking for Oxycontin, and maybe even heroin.

(Homeless individual overdosing)
(Homeless individual sleeping on the street)

If it can be stopped early, then you got a better chance, clearly, but once you start getting into the opiates and things like that, it’s a furious battle, it’s a lifelong struggle after that and it was for him and one that didn’t end well.

(Zoom-in on Scott Oake)

But, I am happy to be talking about it because we want to make his life mean something.

(Dr. Kreillaars in an alleyway in East Hastings)

When you start going down the drug pathway it’s important to understand that the first few steps that you take, if you sense something wrong, that’s the time to get out. Take the back pedals really quickly. Guaranteed, parents around you, friends around you are seeing this behavior, and they want you to walk out. Even other friends, who are actually engaged in the behavior, they probably want to exit too. You need to take the steps backwards as soon as you take a couple steps in because once you get too far down that pathway, boy, it’s difficult to exit.

(Zoom-in on Scott Oake)

There is somebody you can talk to for sure, because I think everybody has someone in their life to whom they look up to. Whether it’s an aunt, an uncle, one of your sports coaches, whether it’s clergymen, whatever, find an outlet, find someone that you feel you can confide in.

(Ricky Anderson in front of a classroom)

Who is your significant role model?

(Scan of classroom)
(Zoom-in on youth)

I would say my dad because even from the younger times he told me always to stay positive.

(Zoom-in on youth)

Probably my cousin.

(Zoom-in on youth)

Probably choose my mom; she has accomplished a lot in life.

(Zoom-in on Cory Joseph bouncing a basketball)

Did anybody pick me as a mentor yet?

(Zoom-in on youth)

I’d say, Mike Camalleri, he plays with the Montreal Canadians; he’s always saying that you should never give up.

(Zoom-in on youth)

My mentor is my stepdad; he has been with me since I was like three.

(Zoom-in on Cory Joseph bouncing a basketball)

Did anybody pick me as a mentor yet?

(Zoom-in on youth)

My two older brothers are my role models because I look up to them and I just want to be like them.

(Zoom-in on youth)

My parents, they are always motivating me to do my best in life.

(Zoom-in on Ricky Anderson)

Fantastic!

(Zoom-in on youth)

Ahhh, I was wondering if I could use the washroom? I just really gotta go!

(Scan of youth in classroom)
(Zoom-in on Cory Joseph sitting on a chair bouncing a basketball)

Anybody yet? 

(Background) - Ahhh, no Cory.

(Cory Joseph shooting and getting a 3-pointer in a gymnasium)
(Zoom-in on Cory Joseph with his arms up)

Anybody yet?

(Cory Joseph doing tricks with the basketball)
(Zoom-in on Cory Joseph)

Hi, I’m Cory Joseph, I just recently got drafted in the 2011 NBA draft to the San Antonio Spurs and I’m glad to be a Canadian.

(Zoom-in on Canadian basketball logo on Cory Joseph’s sweater)
(Zoom-in on Cory Joseph)

When I was growing up my mentors were my parents because they always kept me away from the bad stuff and they kept my head on straight.

(Cory Joseph playing basketball in an empty gymnasium)
(Zoom-in on Cory Joseph)

If I was in a situation I would probably say, hey look, if you feel uncomfortable just try to go to your friends or whoever they might be and tell them, “Eh, I’m going down a different path and just keep that stuff away from me.”

(Wheelchair basketball scene)
(Zoom-in on David Eng)

My name is David Eng and I am team captain of the Wheelchair Basketball Men’s Team from Team Canada.

(Wheelchair basketball scene)
(Zoom-in on David Eng)

You know, I would say from twelve to seventeen, lots of my friends, most of my friends, would use drugs.

(Sidney Crosby scoring in an NHL game)

(Background audio) Crosby he shoots it, he scores!

Malkin, Crosby he shoots, he scores! He roofed it!

(Sidney Crosby on a breakaway in an NHL game)

Crosby, behind everybody, in and alone, scores!

(Sidney Crosby walking down a hallway, pointing to his picture in a class picture)
(Sidney Crosby and an R.C.M.P. officer sitting in an empty gymnasium)

Around grade seven, I think, drugs were something that I became well aware of, and whether it be through friends, or you know, seeing people first-hand.

(Zoom-in on Sidney Crosby)

I think that’s probably the first time that I encountered it was around grade seven. There are obviously situations that you were in where it was around and you know, you had some choices to make.

(Wheelchair basketball scene)
(Zoom-in on Chantal Benoit)

In life, this is what we have in front of us, choices, and you know what is wrong and you know what is right.

(Sidney Crosby signing Team Canada jerseys)
(Zoom-in on Sidney Crosby)

You know, you had two paths, you could kind of buckle under the peer pressure and do it or you know, you could make the right choice to stay away from it. There are a number of reasons why you shouldn’t do it, you know.

(Sidney Crosby signing Team Canada jerseys)

The fact that number one, it’s illegal, it’s not good for you and really nothing good can come out of it.

(Wheelchair basketball scene)

Your friends are going to start telling you, “Okay, just this one time, take it, take it.” I never did it.

(Zoom-in on David Eng)

In the end, my friends actually respected me more because I didn’t fall for their peer pressure. They fell to my peer pressure, which was if you guys want to hang out with me, well, you guys are not gonna touch that stuff around me.

(Wheelchair basketball scene)
(Zoom-in on Sidney Crosby)

Don’t let that peer pressure affect your friendships because your real friends are gonna understand what’s important for you and they are gonna be there to support you. Your real friends aren’t going to be the ones pushing things on you.

(Dr. Kreillaars in an alleyway in East Hastings, Vancouver)

I work with young men and women in sport all the time, and the amazing thing to me is that they have chosen a life that is going to give them health benefits, and they are excelling in their sport. That gives them good reason to exist and they love it. But the funny thing, the contradiction is, that when I work with these athletes, they’re often weekly, binge drinking, smoking pot and even worse. But the key part about that is when you think about it, and they just haven’t thought about it, they’re taking up Friday night getting hammered, smoking pot, getting stoned. The next day they don’t perform as well, the next day after that they don’t perform as well, two or three days down for every time they engage in that behavior. Well, if you add that up, fifty two times, a week, a year…that’s 104 days a year. So when the coach says to you, “Hey, give me a hundred percent this year!” you come up, the athlete saying, “I’ll give you sixty percent.”

(Caroline Calvé snowboarding in a race)
(Zoom-in on Caroline Calvé)

Hi, my name is Caroline Calvé, I love snowboarding and I’m on the Canadian snowboard team.

(Caroline Calvé snowboarding in a race)

I started smoking when I was like fourteen because my friends were like, “You’re not cool if you don’t smoke.” It’s such a dumb thing to do, it doesn’t make me feel good, and the only reason why I’m doing it is because I think one or the other person, thinks that I’m cool but you know what?

(Zoom-in on Caroline Calvé)

What does it matter? I’m cool either way!

(Caroline Calvé winning the race)

(Zoom-in on Caroline Calvé)

The cool thing to do was to go and hang out with my friends that are just like me that like to have a high on doing something intense like skiing or snowboarding or all the other sports that I did.

(Scan of “So You Think You Can Dance” office)
(Zoom-in on Jean-Marc Généreux)

Hi, my name is Jean-Marc Généreux. I’m a judge on So You Think You Can Dance Canada.
(Jean-Marc Généreux dancing)

I have been dancing all my life and I love it.

(Zoom in on Luther Brown playing with his sunglasses)

They’re not coming off, ever! What are you talking about? Look around, the media is filled with stories of people who have failed due to the use of performance enhancing drugs. Is it really worth it? Come on.

(Zoom-in on Jean-Marc Généreux)

Are performance enhancing drugs really worth it?

(Zoom-in on Jordan Clark)

When I had like the peer pressure of like doing drugs, it just wasn’t me. I was so focused on what I wanted to do, I had my dream set and I wanted to focus on that and I had friends that did start doing that stuff and I was like “Why? What’s the point of it?” To me there’s just no point of it.

(Zoom-in on Jean-Marc Généreux)

Trust that your best is your best.

(Zoom-in on Cory Joseph)

No matter what you do in your life, you have to be happy and trust that your best is your best.

(Travis Cross wrestling, winning, audience clapping)
(Zoom-in on Travis Cross sitting on a firetruck)

I’m Travis Cross, Olympic wrestler and firefighter.

(6 youth around a table in the library)
(Youth running outside)

Whether you’re into Arts or drama or helping out in the community, there are lots of different things in every community that you can be involved in. Being a mentor yourself for a younger kid, volunteering.

(3 youth playing guitar)
(Youth walking down the street)
(Youth volunteering with children in a hospital)
(Zoom in on child)

So why do you like volunteering?

(Zoom-in on volunteer)

I think it’s important for kids who are in a hospital to kind of have a bit of a distraction so we can kind of just hang out and have fun…yeah!

(Youth typing on a laptop, youth playing video games)

Game night, board games, movie night…

(Zoom in on youth sitting against a tree)

The sports, activities, fun family activities…

(Youth playing Frisbee, youth walking and laughing in a park)

Things to do in the community keep kids away from drugs and alcohol. I like to play lacrosse, go biking, and hang out with my family.

(Dr. Kreillaars in an alleyway in East Hastings)

If you start working with people who start taking episodic excessive drinking behavior, take a lot of marihuana, take any other drug, our research clearly demonstrates that those people then, will engage further along those pathways. In order to prevent yourself from going down those pathways, you have to choose your friends wisely.

(Scan of Rogers Centre and Adam Loewen standing in it)
(Scan of CN tower)

My name is Adam Loewen, I’ve been with the Jays three years now.

(Zoom-in on Adam Loewen)

You know, choose your friends wisely and I think the more value you put on friendships more than trying to impress other kids, you know, you’ll go further.

(Adam Loewen hitting baseballs)
(Zoom-in on Adam Loewen)

When you can do that as a younger kid, no matter how hard it is, you can be, you know, confident in saying no to anything.

(Brett Lawrie holding his baseball bat with the CN Tower in the background)
(Zoom in on Brett Lawrie)

I’m Brett Lawrie with the Toronto Blue Jays and I dig the long ball.

(Brett Lawrie signing Blue Jays t-shirts)

If you find yourself in a tough situation, I think the best thing to do is go ask somebody for help maybe a little older, a teacher or your principal.

(Zoom-in on Brett Lawrie)

Really look inside yourself and see what you really want to do. Do you want to go down the wrong road? Or do you want to go down the right road?

(Brett Lawrie pitching and Adam Loewen swining)
(Zoom-in on Adam Loewen)

A guy I knew back in minor league baseball, he got addicted to over the counter medication and Oxycontin and it really took a hold of his life and he didn’t even care about baseball anymore, all he wanted was the drug. And it doesn’t only happen it sports, it happens everywhere.

(Zoom-in on Luther Brown)

Just because it’s prescribed doesn’t mean that it’s safe for you to take. So don’t be messing around and taking something that’s not yours. If it’s not yours don’t take it, if it’s not prescribed to you, don’t take it!

(Zoom-in on Adam Loewen)

Addiction is no joke.

(Zoom-in on Alexandre Despatie)

Elementary school, I was hanging out with this kid all year. We got in trouble all year.

(Alexandre Despatie diving)

(Zoom-in on Alexandre Despatie)

Hi, I’m Alex Despatie. I’ve been a diver for twenty years now. I’ve been world champion three times. And I knew I was gonna have to choose the right people to stay focused on school and diving at the same time, and I think that decision of, I made of sort of choosing the right people to hang out with, really helped me to grow as a person.

(Alexandre Despatie on the podium at the Olympics)

It was a real turning point for me for my personal growth at that point, even at such a young age.

(Zoom-in on Alexandre Despatie)

Pretty sure I made the right decision because he didn’t turn out so well in the end.

(Youth laughing and discussing in a classroom)

Yeah, so do you guys have like any idea of what you guys want to do when you’re older? Not that you have to know what you want to do when you grow up but you at least have to be focused and be putting effort towards your education even if you have no idea what you’re going to do.

(Zoom-in on youth)

I want to work with music, so like in the studio, being an audio engineer, like working with all the buttons that go up and down, that type of stuff.

(Zoom-in on youth)

I kind of want to be a doctor or like something that works with kids.

I don’t know what I’m going to be when I grow up. I don’t know what I wanna be but I know that by night, I’ll be fighting crime, I don’t know by day.

(Zoom-in on youth)

Maybe be a journalist or a reporter.

(Zoom-in on youth)

Maybe you’ll be the journalist reporting his crime stopping.

Maybe.

I think I’d really like to be a studio guitarist, work with music I guess.
So what are some things you guys think would get in the way of like, you accomplishing your goals?

(Zoom-in on Luther Brown)

I know it looks tempting to try drugs especially in a culture of peer acceptance, but really, is it worth compromising your life goals?

(Zoom-in on youth)

And when they don’t have a goal, they don’t really know what they’re going to do with their life, so they think like drugs are the easiest way.

(Zoom-in on youth)

Stress can be, a huge factor is someone’s life and for some people they might see drugs as the escape from reality.

(Zoom-in on youth)

Really, I mean it could potentially be anybody. It could be any one of us.

(Scan of 8 youth sitting at a table in a library)
 (Zoom-in on youth)

So there’s peer pressure, so like my school there’s a lot of, well, I don’t want to say a lot of people do it, but there’s some people close around me that do it like after school, at lunches and stuff. But like they try to get you into doing it, they think that that will make you cool, somehow.

(Zoom-in on Luther Brown)

In my life, I have encountered a lot of people, a lot of very cool people that I have worked with that I have looked up to and I have seen them and seen how drugs have affected them and trust me, it’s not cool. So when you think it makes you cool it actually makes you not cool. You know what I’m saying, I’ve seen it and I’ve seen how people went from being successful to being on their face. You know what I’m saying? To being like, really they lost everything. It spoils all their relationships, and it spoils all the thunder, all the things that made them special. It all went out the window. It doesn’t make you smarter, it doesn’t make you doper, it doesn’t make you more popular, it actually clowns you out, because I’ve seen it, so don’t do that.

(Back to the library with the youth sitting around a table)

Well I’ve even had people come up to me and say like, “Oh yeah, I heard like you rap, like if you did drugs like you might be able to be on like a high level like them like, the way you think.”

(2 youth walking down stairs)

I don’t see how it puts me on that higher level of thinking so like, I don’t see how it does me any good.

(Youth “checking himself out” in the camera lens)
(Youth setting up home studio to record music and playing video games)

Music is a big, big part of my life.

(2 youth “checking themselves out” in the camera lens)
(Youth sitting by lockers in a hallway at school)

Like I’d rather stay in my basement and use my equipment and record, than actually go to a party because going out to a party gets you into all this extra stuff you don’t need. But when I can just stay and do what I love in my own house of my own comfort, it just feels way better than doing all that other stuff.

(Music)
(Youth rapping/recording in a home studio in a basement)

“Rappin’ for a passion, I aint in the fast lane, but if it cross by, like Sidney’s last name, I might take a shot like Max Payne, I won’t lie, man that’s lame.”

(Zoom-in on Jean-Marc Généreux)

With drugs in your life, that leads to destroy your family, your friendship, lose your job, poor health. Why would you take a chance on that?

(Back to the library with the youth sitting around a table)
(Zoom-in on youth)

When someone asks me, or like says, “Oh you should try, whatever, you’ll love it,” just straight up say “No” and say “I respect myself more than that.”

(Zoom-in on youth)

The way I see it is that it changes like people’s way of thinking, like their mind set, so like they’ll be like okay, they used to be playing football, like all the time and that’s what they kept their mind on, and then it just changes completely like, “Oh I want to go get high” and all this stuff like…I’ve seen it completely change in a lot of people.

(Zoom-in on youth)

It’s become such a social norm.

(Zoom-in on youth)

But, only if you surround yourself with people that are into that kind of thing. So like, it’s not like you go down the hall and everyone’s like “Oh guys come on, let’s go out, smoke up and stuff.” Like if you go to the right spot, yeah, they’ll be offering you stuff, but if you just remove yourself from that situation, then you’re not really faced with it so it’s really, it’s a personal thing.  Like just don’t get involved with it and you’re not faced with the peer pressure.

(Zoom-in on youth)

I guess B’boying is like my drug, it’s the thing I love to do. Even though I get bruises everywhere, but it’s the funnest thing I’ve ever done and I’m going to keep doing it.
Who wants John to do something?

On the table? Are you serious?

(Youth clearing off the table)
(Youth starts to b’boy on the table)

(Yeah, here we go...that’s what I’m talking about...).

That is why you stay away from drugs!

(Youth sitting around a table in a library)
(Zoom in on youth)
(Youth playing guitar)

The best part about being drug-free for me is that I do have control of my life. I do live a stable life, I’m in control of my body and I don’t have to worry about the consequences that you normally would have if you were addicted to drugs.

(3 youth playing guitar in a living room)

I can still do the stuff that I love without having to worry.

(Ricky Anderson in front of a classroom)

What have you learned about the power that you have to make good choices?

(Youth raises hand)
(Zoom-in on youth)

Yes?
We all have that power and we all have the ability to make healthy decisions that are better for yourself.

(Youth running outside)
(Zoom-in on youth)

You know, you’re in the driver’s seat, you’re the pilot of your own path, you have the opportunity to make the right choices, so do it.

(Zoom-in on youth)

You don’t have to worry, like “Oh I can’t stop.” or like you don’t have to worry about that type of stuff.

(Youth recording in basement studio)
(Zoom-in on youth)

You know you can already be like yourself and you’re not using anything else to like affect you, and like make you like feel better when you can just be yourself, and feel better yourself.

(Zoom-in on youth)

I’ve learned that the only person that can make decisions for myself is me and I shouldn’t give in to peer pressure.

(Zoom-in on youth)

I feel like that if you say no, then you’ve accomplished something. You’ve, it’s like you’ve been over this like huge hill and you’ve actually accomplished something.

(Zoom-in on Sidney Crosby)

When you take that stance at that young of an age, it becomes a non-factor.

(Zoom-in on youth)

Trust, and I know that I’m drug-free and people trust me.

Yes?

(Youth raising hand)
(Zoom-in on youth)

Trust yourself.

(View of the classroom with students and Ricky Anderson in the front)

To trust yourself, very good, absolutely, that’s a great one.

(David Eng and Chantal Benoit)
(Zoom-in on David Eng)

It’s going to be tough, I know it’s going to be tough to change friends, you know, and it’s gonna take time, you know, but you have to do it.

(Ron MacLean and Don Cherry Hockey Night in Canada broadcast)

You gotta be strong, you, I mean you cannot, you can follow the crowd, you can go along, you can go along. You see it all the time, some poor kid gets caught up in it because he doesn’t have the strength to stand up and say “No, I’m not taking drugs, I’m not going to ruin my life.”

It really is, I can’t tell you enough from my own experiences. When I was a young guy and we were in Red Deer, it was tough neighborhoods and I found out early. It’s just the road to ruin, you were shot in a lot of ways when you were wearing yourself thin at that age, you were getting anxiety attacks, you were, you were really doing yourself a disservice.

(Zoom-in on Sidney Crosby)

Really, at the end of the day, it’s about doing the right thing and at that age, you’re, you know, thirteen, fourteen years old, you know what the right thing is and it’s just a matter of just doing that.

(Zoom-in on Dr. Kreillaars)

When you’re sitting for the very first time at a party, in a car, outside, wherever you are, you’re gonna be exposed to pot, marihuana, ecstasy. It’s critical that you have an explanation for why you’re not going to take it before you get to that party, before the alcohol makes you slip into that bad behavior. So, before you go to a party, you’re gonna say “What can I say to my friends that’s not going to allow me to engage in this behavior?” Things like, “I got a practice tomorrow.” That’s a great excuse; I’ve got a practice tomorrow, so I can’t do this behavior. They’ll accept it and move right on and not even have a blink of an eye at you.

(Ricky Anderson in front of the class)

You have to defend yourself. You have to stand up for yourself and that’s the only reason why I’m here today because I stood up for myself. When guys, when guys said “Hey look, you know, come do this or do that” I said “Hey guys, I gotta go to the boxing gym” or whatever it is or “I have to run today” or “I have to go to school.”

(Zoom-in on Dr. Kreillaars)

I see a lot of youth today believing in substances rather than themselves. They will buy a supplement to actually change their bodies, to drop some fat mass, gain some muscle mass or they’ll take a drug to get away from their problems and the pressures of life. It is not in the bottle that gives you success. It’s you believing in yourself that gives you success.

(Zoom-in on Scott Oake)

You know, if one kid looking at this was to say “Hey, I gotta start making better choices because that story really got to me,” then me talking about it now and everything else we do is worth it. 

(Zoom-in on youth in hallway standing beside lockers)

The motivation is there, my goals are there, and being drug-free allows me to stay on that path and to go exactly where I want to go in life.

(Zoom-in on Sidney Crosby)

Believe in yourself.

(Clapping)
(Youth getting up and leaving classroom)

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