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Fortney: Heerema guilty plea ends dark chapter for Young Canadians

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He was just one of 17,000 people in the Stampede Grandstand seats that night, there to take in the family-friendly show.

Yet for him, it would be a life-changing experience. On that night, the boy’s dream to become a member of the Young Canadians performance troupe was born.

His story, read out matter-of-factly by Crown prosecutor Martha O’Connor, brings into stark relief the tragedy of what unfolded after the boy was introduced to a sexual predator by the name of Philip Heerema.

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Heerema, now 55, worked for the Young Canadians performance troupe for 36 years. Many times over those decades, as the court heard Tuesday, he zeroed in on a child such as the unnamed one above — whose identity is protected under a publication ban — and began a slow but steady grooming.

A “father figure” and mentor in an organization considered by its members as a family, the former Young Canadians performer had his own dream job: one that provided him access to teen boys whom he could assault, sexually exploit and use as unwitting models in the creation of homemade pornography.

On Tuesday morning, O’Connor spends 37 excruciating minutes reading out the agreed statement of facts in the trial where Heerema was charged with 20 offences against eight boys over more than three decades.

The once revered, now disgraced business administrator for the Young Canadians — marking its 50th anniversary in 2018 — has agreed to plead guilty to eight of the charges, hence the final summation of his admitted crimes against six teenage boys.

Midway through his trial, Heerema agreed to plead guilty to one count of sexual assault, two counts of sexual exploitation of minors, two counts of making child pornography and three counts of internet luring.

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While the charges are disturbing on their own, the manner in which Heerema carried out those crimes is even more chilling. According to the agreed statement of facts, he befriended his victims, starting out as a trusted confidante. He’d often exploit adolescent sexual curiosity, first talking about things like masturbation before pressuring boys to perform such acts.

It’s all textbook predator behaviour, says Cathy Carter-Snell, a Mount Royal University associate professor in nursing and an adviser with the Canadian Centre for Male Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse.

“They start off with secrecy or they won’t have continued access,” she says. “It’s not shocking that this happened in a family-friendly organization. It can happen anywhere where those who want to abuse are put in a position where they can.”

Carter-Snell says it’s up to the entire community to help prevent more of these cases, from encouraging young victims to speak out, believing them and supporting them at the policing and prosecution levels.

“We think things like police screening checks will prevent this, but so many abusers never get caught,” she says. (Heerema passed the Stampede’s screening process).

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“It really does take the entire village to fight it.”

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In this day of an almost daily diet of shocking sexual abuse news — the most recent being American doctor Larry Nassar, whose athlete accusers and victims number more than 160 — you’d think one might be beset by compassion fatigue.

In this case, in our own front yard and involving something as innocent and apple pie as the Young Canadians, I’ve no doubt others filling a Calgary courtroom Tuesday feel as I do: overwhelmed with compassion for those kids whose performing dreams were crushed under the weight of the fear, guilt and self-loathing of sex abuse victims.

It’s an experience Sheldon Kennedy knows only too well.

“The times of sweeping this stuff under the carpet and pretending it’s going to go away are gone,” says Kennedy, a former NHL player who turned his victimization as a teen by junior coach Graham James into today’s Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre.

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“If you don’t have a program that is proactive and empowering, then you’re not doing your part. It’s an issue to get in front of, to educate people who are working with our kids.”

Warren Connell, Calgary Stampede CEO, says continued improvements to his organization, including enhancements to its Dare to Care program, can help to prevent such a crime from happening again.

“The Stampede continues to operate on a continuous improvement model,” he says, adding the physical design of the new Young Canadians School of Performing Arts — with its glass walls and open spaces — will also serve as a deterrent to would-be abusers.

Still, the sad chapter in the Young Canadians’ storied history likely won’t end with Heerema’s expected sentencing later this spring.

A proposed class-action lawsuit on behalf of some of his victims, which alleges the Calgary Stampede and the Young Canadians failed to adequately investigate the now convicted sex abuser, means the ugly details of this tragic case could, possibly, once again ring out in a court of law. 

vfortney@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/valfortney

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