Thousands arrive in Vancouver for international Alcoholics Anonymous conference

Courtney Dickson · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 03, 2025 5:28 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hr ago

It's been 24 years since Carolyn joined Alcoholics Anonymous. 

"I deliberation my drinking started similar astir people," she told CBC's The Early Edition. "It was experimenting, it was fun. There were tons of bully times. I deliberation intoxicant is simply a mean portion of our society."

In her teens, she noticed her drinking looked antithetic than her friends. She was struggling astatine enactment and successful relationships, with her behaviour. 

But astatine property 30, it became excessively much. 

"It gets to a constituent wherever you conscionable don't privation to unrecorded similar that anymore. And what a alleviation that there's a mode out."

She's 1 of thousands of radical descending connected downtown Vancouver this play for an planetary league for Alcoholics Anonymous, arsenic the enactment celebrates 90 years. 

Kerry Meyer, an organizer for the league and a person of AA — which means she is not an alcoholic, but alternatively idiosyncratic who acts arsenic a nationalist look for the enactment — said much than 30,000 radical from 90 countries are expected astatine the event, which lasts from Thursday until Sunday. 

It volition see each kinds of meetings, including a peculiar gathering for "old timers" who person been sober for upwards of 50 years. 

Controversy

Formed successful 1935 successful the United States,  Alcoholics Anonymous is simply a 12-step programme for radical who person occupation with substance use. 

It's been criticized for being excessively religious, thing Meyer denies. 

"It is not a spiritual program, but it is simply a spiritual program," she said.

People person besides questioned what technological grounds determination is to backmost up the program's effectiveness.

But Meyer said that the sheer fig of radical coming to Vancouver for this league unsocial demonstrates however overmuch Alcoholics Anonymous helps. A survey by the Cochrane Collaboration successful 2020 found it surely is effective.

"It is thing that a batch of radical find not conscionable sobriety, but existent semipermanent betterment and caller lives through," Meyer said.

Anonymity

Carolyn said anonymity was hugely important successful her betterment journey. 

CBC News has agreed to usage lone her archetypal sanction for this story. 

"It makes it truthful overmuch easier to scope out," she said.

"[It] allows you to question betterment from intoxicant connected your ain time, connected your ain terms. It's been precise important for galore people, including me, to cognize we person that. "

Decades aft she joined the program, Carolyn is excited to beryllium attending the league successful Vancouver and has invited her siblings to travel and enactment successful that portion of her life. 

"I don't deliberation astir of the radical successful my beingness spot maine arsenic an alcoholic," she said. "They spot maine arsenic a sober idiosyncratic successful their lives that they tin trust on, which surely isn't what it looked similar earlier AA."

The league runs successful downtown Vancouver, astatine the Vancouver Convention Centre and B.C. Place July 3 to 6. Registration is required to attend. 

Meyer said she hopes the league volition assistance members consciousness "re-energized to their ain sobriety and past spell location to their communities and scope retired to the inactive suffering alcoholics truthful that they tin bask this state arsenic well."

LISTEN | Kerry Meyer and Carolyn stock thoughts connected Vancouver conference: