Actor Matthew Perry's legacy to live on through Canadian foundation to aid people with addictions
CTV
A new organization that aims to help people struggling with addiction officially launched in Ottawa Thursday, named after the late Matthew Perry.
A new organization that aims to help people struggling with addictions officially launched in Ottawa Thursday, named after the late Matthew Perry.
The actor and playwright grew up in Ottawa before finding international stardom on the TV series "Friends." He died last year in Los Angeles after struggling for years with his own addictions to drugs and alcohol. In the year since his death, charges have been laid against several people accused of supplying Perry with the drug ketamine, including a doctor who pleaded guilty to a drug charge earlier this month.
The Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada was founded by Perry's family and friends. Executive director Caitlin Morrison is his sister. Perry's mother Suzanne Morrison is also on the board of directors, alongside Brian Murray, Vice President of the Ottawa-based Waterford Property Group and a childhood friend of Perry's, and Cara Vaccarino, the President and CEO of the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre.
"The Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada was lovingly founded by Matthew's family and friends. We work to honour him by carrying on his commitment to helping others through recovery," the foundation says on its website.
Perry's stepfather Keith Morrison told Newstalk 580 CFRA's The Morning Rush with Bill Carroll that Perry wanted to be remembered for helping others.
"At the end of that book of his, he wrote that if he could be known for anything, it would be known for helping people with the same problem that he has had. The least we can do is carry on that mission of his," Morrison said.
Perry turned his Malibu mansion into a sober living facility for men in 2013. It operated until 2015. A U.S. version of the Matthew Perry Foundation was created in 2023.
