Reverend Edward Cryer (Board Chair until October 2010)
Ted Cryer came to Vancouver in 1966, after a career in retail management in England and Zambia. In 1980, Ted had a mid-life career change following a religious conversion experience. The next few years were spent working on both sides of the prison walls. Firstly, he was appointed B.C. Field Director for Prison Fellowship and, after his ordination in 1984, as a chaplain with B.C. Corrections until his retirement in 1997. Some have described his ministry as outrageous and unconventional! His wife of thirty-three years, Rosemary, is a former president of the Elizabeth Fry Society in Vancouver. Ted has four children and eight grandchildren. His hobbies include computers, music, reading and adventures of the mind. Ted joined the Board of L.I.N.C. in 2000.
Kate Collins- Board Treasurer
Kate has been working as an employment/vocational counsellor with employment barriered persons for the past 12 years. Her clients include offenders, youth at risk, women in crisis, and those affected by Fetal Alcohol Syndrome/Effect (FAS/E). She holds the RRP Designation (Registered Rehabilitation Professional, PID (Provincial Instructor Diploma), ECTC (Employment Counselling Training Certificate), and is currently completing her final courses in the Bachelor of Education degree program. Kate has facilitated workshops and training seminars for groups and clients throughout Canada and western Washington.
Val Hughes- Member at Large
Is the executive director of the Missing Women’s Legacy Society (MWSL). MWSL was founded by family members and supporters of the missing women who were taken from the downtown eastside of Vancouver, B.C. and murdered. MWLS is an incorporated non-profit society dedicated to helping women suffering with addiction. The DNA of Val’s sister, Kerry Koski was found on the Pickton farm in January 2004.
Rosemary Cryer (Secretary until October 2010)
Rosemary Cryer came to Vancouver from England in 1966. Since that time she has worked for the Bay in the Vancouver downtown store. For the past twenty years, she has been a Christian volunteer with clearance in all Lower Mainland federal institutions. Rosemary was a board member of the M2W2 Association and as well sat on the board of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver, serving two years as its President. Rosemary has been married to Ted Cryer since 1968.
Brenda Marshall (Vice Chair April 2010-October 2010, Chair October 2010 onwards)
Brenda’s first association with corrections began at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon in 1973/74. The only corrections related classes offered by the sociology department interested this Saskatchewan farm person. In the first half of the year, a group of students participated in “rap” sessions at Saskatchewan Penitentiary with volunteer inmates. She found it interesting so in the next session, the students of the first class of Sociology 101 in Saskatchewan Penitentiary became part of a group that did a project with half of the group in the community. The inmate students administered a questionnaire to other inmates and the rest were administered to community participants. The goal was to look at values and attitudes. The only significant difference between community and inmate respondents was in the attitude toward the law, the enforcement of the law, and the judicial system.
That interest prompted Brenda to apply to the John Howard Society when they placed an ad in the newspaper under ‘male and female help wanted’. At that point, they had only hired males. That was the beginning of a number of firsts for positions that a female had not held before – John Howard Society of Saskatchewan, Regina Council, and institutional worker. Brenda was the first woman to work inside Regina Provincial Correctional Centre, the first female Parole Officer hired to work in Saskatchewan, first female Living Unit Development Officer at Kent Institution, first female Head Living Unit at Kent Institution, first female warden at Kent, Mission, Elbow Lake and Mountain Institutions.
Brenda was L.I.N.C.’s first Regional champion before she retired from the Correctional Service of Canada in 2005.
Marjean Fichtenberg (Became Vice Chair October 2010)
Marjean Fichtenberg is the mother of a murder victim. She is a past board member of Citizens United for Safety and Justice, the first victims’ advocate group in Canada. Marjean is also a member of the Canadian Association of Victim Advocates (CAVA) board. In 1996, she was instrumental in establishing a victims’ advisory committee to the Correctional Service of Canada, and the National Parole Board in the Pacific Region. For the past five years, she has served on the board of directors for the Ottawa-based Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime. She has given numerous presentations and workshops to various key players and groups in the criminal justice system.
Victim Advisory Committee
Rosalie Turcotte
Rosalie has been a certified dental assistant by profession since 1976, and operates a successful roofing business with her husband John. Her involvement with the criminal justice system began following the murder of her eldest son Ken in 1991 by a high school classmate. The offender is currently serving a life sentence for second degree murder. She is a founding member of the Victims’ Advisory Committee to the Correctional Service of Canada and the National Parole Board (Pacific Region).
Rosalie is a staunch advocate for advancing victims’ rights, and is the former director and founding member of Caveat BC, a victims’ rights organization. She has worked on implementing a number of federal and provincial legislative changes in areas in which victim rights, or increased victim participation, in the system are impacted. She has also been a member of the citizen advisory committees (CAC) at both Ferndale and Mission Institutions for over five years. She joined the Ferndale CAC when Ron Wiebe was the warden there.
Rosalie is committed to the development of a fair and balanced justice system that acknowledges both the harm done to victims, and which respectfully seeks to assist them with their needs both in trying to repair their lives and by allowing them a greater voice and participation in the entire process from start to finish. She believes that allowing victims a greater role in the system will lead to an increased public awareness and understanding of the system, and also bring home the fact to offenders that they have accountability both to their victims and to the communities to which they will be returning upon release. She also believes that it is possible to accomplish these goals while recognizing and being responsive to the needs of both victims and offenders.
Rosalie is also active in the community. In addition to her work in the criminal justice system, she has been a volunteer with community policing in Mission, B.C., worked on the development of a skateboard park for Mission youth, was director of the Abbotsford Judo club for many years, and is the current treasurer of the Mission Horse Club.
Janet Bakke
Janet is the chair of the Victim Advisory Committee and a member of the Fraser Region Community Justice Initiatives Association in Langley. She met with Howard Zehr who made her a chapter in his book Transcending, Reflection of Crime Victims.
Janet was brought up in an alcoholic home that was filled with abuse and poverty. Her biological father was physically and mentally abusive; her mother was physically and emotionally abusive, and her stepfather was mentally and sexually abusive towards her. Janet has always strived to be more, do more, and have more.
Janet is a mother of three sons that she adores and cherishes. She has always worked full-time, in order to obtain her independence and income. She too was married to an alcoholic and abusive man for a short time. Then Janet remarried a wonderful hard working man that is very good to her.
Since realizing that the world is what we make it, she has chosen to accept people for who they are and to be kind to everyone. She has had the pleasure of mixing her life with victims and offenders and had found it very rewarding.
Janet had a face to face meeting with her stepfather after sending him to prison for rape and molestation and realized that offenders are sometimes victims as well. Therefore, she is dedicating her life to helping victims and offenders in any way she can.