The Children’s Treatment Centre will be holding their Celebrity Walk & Breakfast event on Tuesday, September 23, 2025 at the Best Western. Bob McDonald, Host of CBC’s Quirks & Quarks, will be the keynote speaker.

Bob McDonald is one of Canada's best-known science journalists, making science accessible to the public for more than 50 years. He is the host of CBC Radio’s award- winning science program, Quirks & Quarks, which has a national audience of nearly 500,000 people. McDonald is also a science correspondent for CBC Television’s The National; the Gemini-winning host and writer of the children’s series Head’s Up; and the
host of The Great Canadian Invention, Wonderstruck, and the seven-part series, Water Under Fire.

McDonald has hosted and written numerous television documentaries and more than 100 educational videos in Canada and the United States. He has also authored seven bestselling books, with his latest being The Future is Now: Solving the Climate Crisis with Today’s Technology and his memoir, Just Say Yes. McDonald has also contributed to numerous textbooks, magazines, and newspapers, including The Globe and Mail.

How did a blue-collar kid, university drop-out, and former construction worker from a small town become one of Canada’s most prominent science journalists?

In his most recent book, Just Say Yes, McDonald shares a more personal story — his own.

Drawing from his memoir in this inspirational keynote at the breakfast, McDonald will bring you right back to the beginning — his childhood in Orillia, growing up in a low-income family plagued by alcoholism — and shares powerful insights on how he learned to overcome his fear of failure, imposter syndrome, and life-transforming challenges, including childhood abuse, and find the courage to leap into every opportunity that came his way.

Should anyone wish to participate in the Celebrity Walk & Breakfast or attend this event, please contact the Children’s Treatment Centre by  phone at 613-933-4400 or by e-mail at ctc@ctcsdg.ca.