Journey for Justice blog

When I found out that we would be reading 'Journey for Justice', a book by Mike McIntyre about the Candace Derksen case, I felt a lot of different emotions.

You see, this case is extremely personal to me. My sister went to M.B.C.I. She was in grade 12 when Candace went missing. She was part of the group of students that took flyers and canvassed the neighbourhood for days, hoping to find any clue of the whereabouts of one of their own. My sister was sitting beside David Wiebe in choir class, when the teacher came in to tell them the news that Candace had been found dead.

I was eight years old when I realized the boogeyman was real. There was no more playing after dark. No more walking alone...anywhere. Kids were terrified. How could a 13 year old walking home from school, during the day, just disappear? How was that possible?!?!?? It was unfathomable back then. Parents hugged their kids tight. Their thoughts going out to the Derksens, but secretly thankful the boogeyman didn't take their own child.

Three years later, I would be in grade 7 at M.B.C.I. I would walk the same halls as Candace, sit in the same desks and go to the same candy store where she made her last phone call home. I would also be in the same class as her younger sister Odia. How do you talk to someone knowing their sister was murdered? What do you say as an eleven year old? "Hi, nice to meet you. I know all about you and your family. I'm figuring out what to wear to school, while you're figuring out how to grieve the most unimaginable death."

This city, this community, waited a long, long, long 26 years to find out what happened to Candace. People who don't know the story of Candace but read the book from front to cover will be satisfied, because they know the beginning and the end in 341 pages. But those of us who sat year after year, wondering who this boogeyman was that committed this horrible crime... to have him found, tried and convicted after 26 years....there are no words.

Mike McIntyre was a few years older than me when he too found out that the boogeyman was real. What works in the book is that he writes with genuine interest and passion for the story. Candace's murder affected him as a kid, and it shows. He's thorough and I believe was careful to detail. He wanted to get the story right.

Contrary to a lot of my classmates I liked reading about the trial and the psychology of Mark Grant. Maybe it's because I finally, FINALLY have a face, a name, an insight into the mind of my childhood boogeyman. Who could do this? Why did he do it? How did he get away with it for so long? What was he thinking? I wish McIntyre would have written more on the police and forensic side of things.

I found the first half of the book relied too heavily on the novel that Wilma Derksen wrote. She had already written a book on a mother's/family's grief. Maybe getting so close to the Derksens hindered McIntyre in staying objective.

Journalists can learn from McIntyre that persistance and how you handle people are key. In the presentation he spoke of how he phoned a family in Saskatchewan about a case. They wouldn't talk to any reporters. So he drove out there to find the family in person. Showing he cared and that he was willing to drive out to speak to them face to face was the difference that got the family talking.

McIntyre writes this book like his other stories. Easy to understand and interesting. He states facts and strives for accuracy.

I really enjoyed hearing McIntyre and Wilma Derksen speak, although I wish they would've been in seperate seminars. McIntyre had interesting stuff to say about how to write a book, what research he does, his different case studies, his life as a crime reporter etc. That could've taken up the whole hour. Unfortunately, we didn't get to hear too much from Wilma Derksen. She's a great speaker and writer in her own right. It would've been nice to have had a full hour listening to her perspective.