I met Dr. Vincent Lam in 2006 at a Humber College writing retreat where he was a guest speaker, sharing his experience of having published his first book, Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures. Lam spoke of being a ship’s doctor on an Arctic cruise where he met Margaret Atwood, one of Canada’s most celebrated writers, and asked her to read his manuscript.
“What was she going to say, no?” Lam said with a grin. Their literary connection was sealed by this chance encounter. His book went on to win the Giller Prize a few months after my having met him.
Lam was born in London, Ont. After completing his medical training at the University of Toronto, he served as an emergency room doctor at Toronto East General Hospital for 13 years. The emergency room exposes doctors to the acute end of substance use—overdoses, withdrawal crises, and patients with addiction issues that go untreated.
Lam’s work unfolded during one of the most devastating public-health emergencies in Canadian history. The opioid crisis has claimed 53,308 between January 2016 and June 2025. Lam was on the front line. The experience shaped his understanding of addiction, not as a moral failing but as a chronic medical condition that requires long-term, compassionate care. He later shifted into addiction medicine due to his deep sense of responsibility and grief for those whose lives were broken by opioids.
When I was ill in 2024 and had to rely on opioids medications for pain management, the infectious diseases specialist explained to me, after hearing my own nightmare withdrawal tale, the dilemma for doctors in prescribing these medications. Opioids offer effective pain relief that otherwise would leave a patient incapacitated. However, in prescribing opioids, a doctor is never sure if she is sending her patient down a path of addiction and the brutal battle required to break that dependency.
By 2013, Lam had transitioned fully into addictions care and became the medical director of the Coderix Medical Clinic in 2016, where he works directly with patients navigating opioid-use disorder, alcohol dependency and challenges with other substances.
The centre provides long-term support for recovery. Lam contributed to research on abuse-resistant opioids and developed strategies in reducing harm. He insists that addiction care must be integrated into national economic and social planning, especially in those sectors where high rates of substance use due to stress, injury and isolation exist. Addiction must be treated as a health issue rather than criminal.
Lam’s experiences informed his storytelling, and he has become one of the most compelling voices regarding the opioid crisis and the human story behind it. His fiction and essays allow him to reach people beyond the clinic, to those creating policy. His writing urges the reader to consider the human side of addiction with empathy not judgment.
I clearly remember hearing Lam speaking to upcoming writers at Humber as well as his acceptance speech at the Giller. All the qualities that one would hope for a doctor to hold were apparent as he spoke—compassion, empathy, humour, kindness. He consistently framed his success as a collective, how mentorship played such a vital role and the importance and responsibility of telling human stories with care.
Justin Trudeau hosted that year’s Giller Prize ceremony, which was fitting, as Lam explained how Pierre E. Trudeau embraced multiculturalism and allowed for an easier path in immigration from Asia, specifically the early phases of Vietnamese resettlement which included Lam’s parents.
Lam’s name jumped out at me recently in a release from the Pledge for Canada (www.engagement-canada-pledge.ca), a nonpartisan initiative launched Jan. 31, 2025, to bring Canadians together to work toward protecting Canada’s sovereignty, democracy and shared values. It is a “starting point for collective action”.
Lam has contributed as a public voice specifically on addiction, recovery and how the workforce can benefit by embracing support for those suffering from addiction. So many believe that addiction can’t be treated, but Lam strongly disagrees. “No one ever asked me whether it was possible to mend a broken bone or treat a heart attack,” Lam says.
Many of his patients include physicians, educators, business leaders, workers of every type. In the deaths due to opioid overdose between 2016 and 2021, “more than two-thirds were employed within the five years prior to their deaths,” Lam explains. The productivity loss due to those deaths is estimated in the billions, not to mention the human tragedy.
A program exists for health care professionals who experience addiction where 85 per cent of physicians in the program complete it successfully. The high rates of substance us in the trades is not to cast judgment but to recognize this risk must be met with support, Lam insists. His voice is essential for health initiatives and policy being established in this country for the well-being of every single one of us.
His novel, On the Ravine published in 2023 centers on the opioid crisis, based on his real-world experiences as an addictions doctor. It’s on my to-read list. Canada has benefited greatly from the immigration of his parents and Lam’s dedication to those who desperately need support.
