The Chilliwack Progress from Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada • Page 3

THE CHILLIWACK PROGRESS, Wednesday, January 22, 1992 A3 Gang-style murder turns off a member New reporter named The Chilliwack Progress has expanded its reporting staff. Mark Falkenberg joins The Progress and sister paper The Hope Standard as a regional reporter. He will be responsible for business and news beats in Chilliwack, and general assignment work at The Standard. Falkenberg holds a B.A. English from UBC, and a Masters of Journalism from the University of Montana.

His newspaper experience includes work as a graphiclayout artist for the Lethbridge Weekly in Alberta, and as a reporter with the Montana Kaimin, a daily university paper. Falkenberg orginally hails from Lethbridge. Just married before Christmas, he now lives in Chilliwack with his wife Janice. By Robert Freeman Mark Falkenberg Derksen was giving his girlfriend a piggy-back ride on the school grounds when Isaack walked up to him and, after an exchange of words, punched him in the face, Crown prosecutor Jack Gibson told the court. Isaack then pulled Derksen's head down and kneed him repeatedly in the head, then punched and kicked him after he fell to the ground, Gibson said.

Derksen suffered a broken nose and facial cuts and was treated at MSA General Hospital. The Crown asked for a jail term of one to three months for the "brutal and unprovoked assault," but agreed the time could be served on weekends. Defence lawyer Alvin Bergen said Isaack, who was 18 at the time of the assault, was in a "very violent" group of youths who "worshipped violence" and drove around looking for trouble. Isaack was not involved in the Martin murder but later gave evidence in the trial that ended in a murder conviction for one youth, assault charges for two adults and obstruction charges for two other youths. Bergen said the murder had "turned (Isaack's) stomach against violence" and that a motor vehicle ac Staff Reporter A former youth gang member says he has turned away from violence since witnessing a Matsqui gang-style murder.

Michael Wade Isaack, 19, who gave evidence during the trial of a Countess Street gang member charged with the September 1990 murder of Kirby Martin, was in Chilliwack B.C. Supreme Court on Friday facing a charge of assault causing bodily harm. Isaack pleaded guilty to a "brutal and unprovoked" assault of 15-year-old Kimber Derksen at the Junior Secondary school grounds on Sept. 28, 1990, hours before the Matsqui murder occurred. Supreme Court Justice William Davies sentenced Isaack to 30 days in jail to be served on the weekends and ordered him to report to a probation officer for the of the sentence which starts Jan.

24. But Davies warned Isaack a longer sentence awaits if he returns to court on similar charges. "Hopefully you are sincere in your desire to change the course of your life," Davies said. "Let me say if you are not and continue to associate with those involved in crime and violence, the consequences will be most "The court will not condone brutal unprovoked attacks," Davies said, and handed down "a lenient sentence" on account of Isaack's age at the time of the incident, lack of criminal record and his apology to the victim. Internal church crisis said to be solved, but accounts differ wildly cident the following year had changed his life.

"The two jolts have caused him to mature and he By Paul BllCCi regrets his artiliation with the (youth) group back in September of 1990," Bergen said. Isaack has apologized to Derksen, Bergen added, although the complainant had challenged his client to a re-match after a previous fight. 'Fair panic over meningitis scare says the applause was as much for Thiessen as it was an expression of relief that the ordeal which was threatening to split the church was reconciled. Some members of the council had accused Thiessen of threatening phone calls. Norris says that was refuted at the meeting.

"No one would answer the questions about the threats," he said. One parishoner was shouted down after he asked for a motion to expell Thiessen from the church, Norris said. "There are some people who were out gunning for John but they were a small minority." Although Norris speaks on Thiessen's behalf, he was not present at the meeting. Thiessen has refused to grant interviews. Other members of the congregation have also refused to comment.

Nickel said Thiessen apologized during a special congregational meeting and asked the church to forgive him for his actions. Thiessen raised the ire of some church members when he accused the council in the media of urging Eben-Ezer's congregation into supporting Rempel's continued work in the church. "He saw that he was wrong and by apologizing to the church it was seen that he did do that," Nickel said. But Thiessen's lawyer Wayne Norris of Abbotsford said his client apologized for retaining the services of a lawyer not for speaking out against the council. Norris said the congregation decided to "take the bull by the horns" and settle the Thiessen manner once and for all.

Norris said that during the two-hour emotional meeting, Thiessen was given a standing ovation from the congregation. One church source Staff Reporter The internal crisis surrounding the church council and parishoner John Thiessen at Abbotford's Eben-Ezer Mennonite Church has been resolved. But accounts of how the crisis spawned in the wake of the Walter Aaron Rempel sex trial was resolved are wildly varied. Thiessen was prepared to take the church council to court this month to force them to re-instate his voting privileges. The council stripped Thiessen of his voting priviledges and issued a gag order last year after he complained about the council's decision to allow Rempel to continue church work.

Rempel is a Mennonite church worker who was recently convicted of sex crimes he committed against two Chilliwack-area teenage girls nearly 10 years ago. Church council president Rudy to be limited due to meningitis outbreaks in eastern Canada. Dr. Webb says the health unit does not keep supplies of the vaccine because it is needed elsewhere. "Most people will probably be referred to travelling clinics in Vancouver city," he says, if they need immunization.

Although there have been no reported cases in the Chilliwack area, a Sardis infant died of meningococcal septicemia in late 1990, Webb says. There's a "fair bit of panic" in Chilliwack since three new cases of meningitis were reported in the Kamloops area, says Dr. Bud Webb, head of the Upper Fraser Valley health unit. But no cases of meningitis have been reported here despite rumors to the contrary, Webb says. Meanwhile, the provincial government decided to start immunizing 30,000 people in the Kamloops area despite failure to identify the strain of meningitis in the latest case there.

Provincial epidemiologist John Farley ordered 50,000 doses of the vaccine to innoculate Kamloops-area youngsters between the ages of two and 19 years. Three cases of type meningitis were reported in the area, all involving children between the ages of two and four years. One two-year-old girl died. However, the Chilliwack health unit does not have any of the vaccine and supplies in Vancouver are said WAAL CO. (r TAKE A STAND! NOTARIES PUBLIC FASHION WW OFF ALL itci A BRANDS RCA COLORTRAK STEREO MONITOR-RECEIVER INCLUDES FREE STAND 38-Button Master Touch Universal Remote On-Screen Clock, Sleep Alarm Timer 4 "I nil in iHtumiitKii i i ilM i ii Real Estate Transfers Mortgages Leases Commercial Contracts Mobile Homes Wills Bills of Sale Chattel Mortgages ALFRED SUNG BLUE ZONE DANIEL HECHTER S-Video Connector Free Matching Stano" with purchase THIS THURSDAY ONLY JAN.

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