Advocate for families of crime victims Cliff Derksen dies at 77

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This article was published 25/05/2022 (1243 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Cliff Derksen, who along with his wife Wilma became widely known as advocates for crime victims and survivors after their 13-year-old daughter Candace was slain in 1984, died Sunday at age 77.

Derksen had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in late February. The artist and art teacher, who recently retired from working as associate pastor at Maplecrest Church, had gone to a walk-in clinic because he’d been feeling poorly for a few weeks.

Derksen was sent to Victoria General Hospital for tests and scans, then transferred to St. Boniface Hospital’s cancer ward that same day.

“It was too far gone,” he told the Free Press shortly after his diagnosis. The cancer, which had started in his gallbladder, had spread to liver and intestines.

Candace House, a non-profit Winnipeg organization he and Wilma created to provide a day refuge to the families of victims and survivors of crime during the court process, announced his death Wednesday.

“(Cliff Derksen) gave so much to his community and every person he met. His laugh, his art, his stories, and his heart, will be deeply missed,” says the statement announcing his death.

“We hold Wilma and the entire Derksen family so close to our thoughts and hearts during this time.”

The Derksens’ daughter, Candace, had gone missing on the way home from school in November 1984. Her body was found weeks later in an industrial area storage shed.

A suspect was identified 22 years later. In 2011, Mark Edward Grant was found guilty of second-degree murder. The conviction was overturned in 2013; a retrial in 2017 found him not guilty.