Trial date set for man facing sex charges
A trial date has been set on child sex abuse charges against a longtime employee of a performance group that entertains each year at the Calgary Stampede.
Philip Heerema faces 22 charges that include child pornography, sexual assault, luring a child via a computer and inciting sexual contact with a youth. His four-week trial is to begin Jan. 15, 2018, before a judge and jury.
Police began investigating in January 2014 after receiving a complaint from a student and his parents of an inappropriate relationship with a “person of authority” in The Young Canadians troupe.
Investigators said after the initial complaint was made, other men, who were all between 15 and 18 years old at the time of the alleged offences, came forward. One complaint dated back to 1997.
Heerema, 53, was with The Young Canadians for 36 years, but resigned from the organization at the beginning of the investigation.
The Young Canadians works with 120 students between 11 and 18 from the Calgary area. It offers them a chance to train in dance, voice and performance in a professional environment throughout the year. Training culminates in a performance for an audience of more than 150,000 spectators at the grandstand show at the Calgary Stampede.
Heerema had been listed on the school’s website as business administrator and production services co-ordinator when he resigned.