Off Script

It’s how they found hope out of tragedy. It's been nearly five years since a horrible tragedy in Calgary’s community of Brentwood took the lives of five young people. Now their families are inspiring healing with the city's first dedicated musical garden. A reflective space in honor of their kids and a gift back to Calgarians who helped them through their darkest days.

It’s how they found hope out of tragedy. It's been nearly five years since a horrible tragedy in Calgary’s community of Brentwood took the lives of five young people. Now their families are inspiring healing with the city's first dedicated musical garden. A reflective space in honor of their kids and a gift back to Calgarians who helped them through their darkest days. Listen to "Thank You" on podcast on Friday, April 5, or tune into Off Script on 770 CHQR on Saturday, April 6 at 5 a.m. and Sunday April 7 at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m.

It’s a blood sport, a fight to the death. Dogs pitted against each other in a makeshift torture arena while spectators gamble on which breed will triumph. It’s an underground crime that rescue organizations say the public needs to know about. It’s brutal, uncomfortable and disturbing, but those on the front lines say it’s time to lift the veil on this well-kept secret.

We're off this week, but we wanted to bring you a favourite episode from the archives with an update -- stay tuned to the end of the episode. Those living on the streets of Calgary are dying decades earlier than the life expectancy for the average person. Often they are alone, without a family to support them in the final days. They are sometimes judged for how they’ve lived but a dedicated medical team is ensuring dignity in the way they’re dying. They tirelessly devote themselves to providing end of life care to the homeless. We follow this mobile palliative care team as they treat the terminally ill. "Remember Me," episode 21, originally aired August 10, 2018.

More Albertans than ever before are choosing medically-assisted death. Among them, a former nun who wasn’t waiting for God to decide when she died. She wanted to make that decision all on her own. In this episode we explore the controversy and conflict between religion and medically assisted death, and uncover a beautiful and friendship between faithful friends and how they helped their terminally diagnosed friend in her final journey of life -- fulfilling her final wishes.