Cynthia Dale on returning to Street Legal 25 years on

You may remember Cynthia Dale as the take-no-prisoners Olivia Novak in the CBC original series Street Legal. 

The legal drama followed a firm of Toronto lawyers taking on cases often inspired by true events. It put Canadian television on the map with millions of viewers and an eight-season run. 

After 25 years of being off the air, Canada's favourite legal team is back. A fan favourite, Dale is now stepping back into her role to lead a fresh team of lawyers taking on a major class action suit. 

The new series of Street Legal also deals with the opioid crisis — a story Dale has a personal connection to.

"My mother was addicted. And not because she was a drug addict on the street with heroin," Dale told q's Tom Power. "She was addicted because she was in pain and she was prescribed and given and had access to too many drugs. Too much oxycodone, too much fentanyl, too many patches, too much stuff."

"When she died I walked into the drug store with three bags of drugs that had been left in her house and the drug store was like, 'Where did you get this stuff?' I could of sold that, I could've put my kid through university if I had sold it on the street. It was unbelievable the stuff that's around. And that vulnerability of the body needing it, the psyche needing it, the spirit needing it, that's what this story is about."

You can catch the premiere of Street Legal on Monday, March 4 on CBC.

Click 'listen' near the top of this page to hear the full interview.

— Produced by ​Ben Jamieson