Calgary Stampede reaches tentative $9.5M settlement over Young Canadian sexual assaults
Posted Feb 6, 2024 1:55 pm.
Last Updated Feb 6, 2024 2:22 pm.
The Calgary Stampede and the group of men suing the organization for failing to protect them from a sexual predator have reached a settlement of $9.5 million, according to a joint statement from both parties released Tuesday.
The settlement is still subject to court approval and details on elements like distrubution still have to be decided, but acceptance of the deal by courts would end years of dispute between the Stampede and former members of the Young Canadians subjected to sexual abuse by former employee Philip Heerema.
Heerema received a 10-year prison sentence in 2018 after pleading guilty to charges including sexual assault, sexual exploitation, child pornography and luring.
The convicted sex offender was in court on Jan. 19 where his request for day parole was granted, and he was permitted by a two-member parole board to return to a halfway house in Calgary.
Heerema admitted to using his position with the Young Canadians School of Performing Arts, operated by the Calgary Stampede Foundation, which performs each year in the Calgary Stampede Grandstand Show, to lure and groom six boys into sexual relationships between 2005 and 2014, as well as in 1992.
The agreement also outlines a commitment to “additional and enhanced measures and programs,” according to the parties, which adds the tentative resolution came to after extensive settlement discussion which included the help of two Court of King’s Bench Justices.
The statement goes on to say if it is formally implemented, it is the parties’ hope that it will provide those impacted with “closure and aid” in their healing process.
Once court approval is granted, the parties will be available to comment on the agreement’s particulars and the claims and distribution process.
-With files from The Canadian Press
