‘My stomach just sank': Phillip Heerema victims disappointed in Calgary Stampede's participation in Pride parade

Plaintiffs in a class-action sex assault lawsuit against the Calgary Stampede are expressing deep disappointment that members of the organization were allowed to walk in the 2023 Calgary Pride Parade.

Plaintiffs in a class-action sex assault lawsuit against the Calgary Stampede are expressing deep disappointment that members of the organization were allowed to walk in the 2023 Calgary Pride Parade.

The Stampede's presence at Pride celebrations comes just weeks after the organization accepted liability and negligence for the actions of the Young Canadians staffer Phillip Heerema, who had been abusing teenage boys for years before a police investigation was launched.

"My stomach just sank when I saw the Stampede members marching in the (Pride) parade, it just felt so wrong to me," said one of the victims in an interview with CTV News.  

"The Calgary Pride Parade has been about protesting against oppression for the queer community. The Stampede, by failing to act for so many years, put members of our community at risk, and it just feels so unacceptable that they would be allowed to walk in this parade."

Heerema was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2018 for sexually exploitative acts related to six members of the Young Canadians, a performing arts group that stars nightly in the Calgary Stampede's Grandstand Show.

The offences took place between 2005 and 2014, as well as in 1992. Documents filed in the lawsuit, launched in 2017, allege that Heerema's abusive behaviour may have stretched back as far as 1987.

The victim who spoke with CTV News cannot be identified under a publication ban, but said the decision to allow Calgary Stampede to march in the parade was "tone deaf" and sends a "damaging message to survivors of abuse."