Tyler Pelke, who now serves as Deputy Chief of Red Deer Emergency Services, is pictured here at a fire call earlier this year. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By rdnewsNOW staff

Altona

Red Deer Deputy Fire Chief’s duel with death the subject of new award-winning documentary

Dec 15, 2023 | 3:18 PM

Warning: The article below contains graphic details that may be disturbing or triggering to some readers

Thirty-three years ago, the life of Tyler Pelke, who is Red Deer’s Deputy Chief of Emergency Services, changed in a flash.

Though well-documented in the media, what happened the night of Nov. 17, 1990 in a small Mennonite town in Manitoba is the subject of a new award-winning documentary simply titled Altona, which unearths never-before-heard perspectives.

Earlier this month, Altona made its world premiere, and won the World Documentary Award at the Whistler Film Festival.

Altona, the name of the town, is where then 14-year-old Pelke survived a horrifying attack by a fellow student, in which he was bound, had his throat slit twice, and then was lit on fire. He suffered mostly third degree burns to 25 per cent of his body.

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His friend, Curtis Klassen, 15, with whom he’d been hanging out and watching a movie when the attack occurred, suffered similar injuries and tragically died.

The perpetrator, Earl Giesbrecht, who was 17, later argued that he suffered from a mental disorder and should not be held criminally responsible. He was ultimately sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. He was eventually released in spring 2020.

Fifteen years prior, in 2005, Pelke visited Giesbrecht at Drumheller Institution, telling the man who tried to kill him that he was forgiven.

Production still from “Altona”, depicting the meeting of Tyler Pelke and Earl Giesbrecht at Drumheller Institution in 2005. (Foreshadow Films/Langer Films)

Altona co–creators, Foreshadow Films and Langer Films, interviewed Giesbrecht for the riveting documentary, but he declined to appear on camera. An actor interprets Giesbrecht’s statement in which he expresses disbelief that Pelke has actually forgiven him.

He also recalls a demeaning statement Pelke had made to him in their youth, and questions why Pelke continues to put the spotlight on what happened, even decades later.

Pelke, now a firefighter, a small irony not lost on him, has shared his story nationwide over the years, giving speech after speech at schools and conferences, in addition to media interviews.

“People have pointed out I’m a burn survivor, and maybe at the time I got into fire fighting, I naively looked at it as the ability to show I have courage and could work through things,” Pelke tells rdnewsNOW. “But I’ve never looked at that night as ‘fire happened to me.’ I was burned because someone did something to me, so from a trauma perspective, fire didn’t become a barrier for me.”

Pelke’s talks don’t spend much time rehashing the terror of that night — instead, he shares a message of forgiveness and resilience.

“Forgiveness is for you. It’s a journey, not a destination; it’s an evolution over time in how you relate to something — a circumstance, an offense, a situation,” he explains. “For me, it started with recognizing things I had to face within my own self, looking in the mirror, having grace and ultimately walking through the full process.”

On resilience, he says taking care of mind, body and soul is integral.

“Feed them properly, practice mindfulness, and recognize that adversity will happen and we need to accept it,” Pelke says. “The more we can be prepared, the less those things will affect us.”

In his statement, Giesbrecht also expresses resentment towards Pelke’s opposing his early release at multiple junctures, even after Pelke expressed forgiveness.

Pelke gave victim impact statements on two occasions explaining the severity of the offense, and that he believed Giesbrecht should serve the sentence as given — 25 years minimum without parole.

“I’m pretty sure I said to him that although I’d forgiven him for what happened to me, Curtis is a different story and forgiveness from him was not mine to give,” he says.

Pelke doesn’t use his talks to advocate for changes to the judicial system, calling the sentence Giesbrecht received ‘fair.,’ For a period though, Pelke sat on the Correctional Service Canada Prairie Regional Victim Advisory Council in hopes of amplifying victims’ voices within policy.

“The question that rattled around in my brain as we were making this film was ‘If Tyler can forgive somebody for what is one of the most horrendous things a person can do to someone, why do so many of us struggle to forgive things that are much more petty or less important,'” Craig Langdon, executive producer and producer on Altona, shares.

The Affolter Brothers and Executive Producer Craig Langdon on the red carpet after winning the ‘World Documentary Award’, given to the festival’s ‘Best Documentary’ selection. L-R: Heath Affolter, Craig Langdon, Thomas Affolter, Nathan Affolter and Jon Affolter. (Whistler Film Festival)

“I realized forgiveness doesn’t really work that way. It’s a journey every person has to go through, and it’ll take different amounts of time or things to get there, but there’s no wrong or right way.”

Heath Affolter, who along with his three brothers Nathan, Jon and Thomas, wrote, directed, produced and edited Altona, hopes the film helps people.

“Tyler’s story is one we found to be incredibly inspiring and hopeful,” says Affolter, whose company is based in Vancouver. “We hope if there are people struggling the way he has, or the way the grieving parents have, they can watch and take a little bit of hope that there can be a better tomorrow. Despite the fact it’ll always be a challenge and the trauma is something you’ll carry, there are ways to move past it and live positively.”

The Affolters met Tyler Pelke in 2011, and years later the decision was made to create a film about the story of Pelke, Klassen and what happened in Altona. Pelke had no creative input on the film.

Pelke says he’s aware of Giesbrecht’s whereabouts, but isn’t at liberty to share.

Altona can be streamed for $15 through Dec. 17 on the Whistler Film Festival website (click the red ‘order now’ link).

The film’s production team is working on a deal to eventually have it streamed somewhere more permanently.