Brian Markle: Nearly 20 Years of Sobriety, Service and Chaplaincy

OTTAWA — August 2026

When Brian Markle looks back on the years before he became sober, he doesn't have to imagine what it feels like when alcohol begins taking more from a person's life than it gives. He remembers it.

In January 2027, Markle will mark 20 years of sobriety from alcoholism—a milestone that represents much more to him than the passing of time. The decision to get sober in January 2007 began a journey that would eventually influence almost every aspect of his life, including his ministry, chaplaincy and continuing work with people struggling with alcohol, drugs and difficult life circumstances.

Recovery also changed the way he understood helping others.

Rather than approaching addiction only from a professional or pastoral perspective, Markle has been able to sit with people knowing something about the fear, uncertainty and consequences that can accompany it. His own experience has remained an important part of how he connects with people who may feel that their lives have gone too far off course to recover.

Over the years, faith and service became an increasingly important part of that journey.

Markle became a licensed and registered minister in Ontario and served in ministry before eventually feeling called toward chaplaincy. It was a natural progression for someone who had become increasingly drawn to working with people outside the traditional walls of a church—particularly those experiencing addiction, crisis, hospitalization, incarceration or major personal upheaval.

His association with the Chaplains' Office of Canada Corporation (COOCC) further developed that calling and provided another avenue through which he could serve.

Chaplaincy has taken Markle into some very different circumstances.

At times, it has meant going to a hospital after being called because someone is struggling with drugs or alcohol, has experienced an overdose, or has a family facing an uncertain situation.

At other times, it has meant visiting someone in jail or simply sitting across from a person whose life has become complicated by addiction and the justice system.

Those are situations where Markle's own history is never very far from his mind.

He understands that the person sitting in a hospital bed, a jail visiting area or a recovery meeting is still a person—and that what may appear from the outside to be a series of poor decisions can be considerably more complicated when addiction is involved.

That understanding has shaped his approach to chaplaincy.

It is less about having all the answers and more about being willing to show up, listen, provide spiritual care when it is wanted, and help someone determine what the next realistic step might be.

His involvement in the recovery community has continued alongside that work. Publicly available material over the years has documented Markle's connection to Alcoholics Anonymous and his efforts to support other people dealing with alcoholism, including during the isolation and uncertainty of the pandemic.

As the 20-year anniversary approaches, Markle does not describe sobriety as something that was accomplished once and then put away.

It remains a continuing part of his life.

There have been good years and difficult ones, personal successes and setbacks, and circumstances he could never have anticipated when he first became sober. What has remained constant is the understanding that recovery gave him an opportunity to build a different life—and, eventually, to use parts of his own experience in the service of other people.

Nearly two decades later, that service continues through chaplaincy, recovery support, hospital calls, jail visits, pastoral care and the many private conversations that will never appear in a biography or news story.

For Markle, perhaps that is where the most meaningful work happens.

January 2027 will mark 20 years since he stopped drinking. The milestone provides an opportunity to look back, but his attention remains largely on what comes next—and on continuing to answer the calls that first led him from recovery into ministry and, ultimately, into chaplaincy.re