{"id":29616,"date":"2021-07-08T23:30:19","date_gmt":"2021-07-09T03:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=29616"},"modified":"2021-07-08T23:56:29","modified_gmt":"2021-07-09T03:56:29","slug":"theatre-aurora-reaffirms-commitment-to-being-safe-space-following-charges-against-past-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/theatre-aurora-reaffirms-commitment-to-being-safe-space-following-charges-against-past-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Theatre Aurora reaffirms commitment to being \u201csafe space\u201d following charges against past president"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Theatre Aurora has reaffirmed its commitment to \u201cbeing a safe space for all\u201d following criminal charges laid against its past president Steven Wolfer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Wolfer, 58, a resident of Markham, was arrested on June 4 following an investigation that began in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA victim came forward and reported that he had been sexually assaulted on two occasions by an older male in 1989 when he was approximately 12 years of age,\u201d said York Regional Police Constable Laura Nicolle. \u201cThrough the investigation, officers learned that the accused was a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters of York Region in 1989 and volunteered with the Boy Scouts in the mid-80s. He was also a supply elementary school teacher with the York Region Catholic School Board from 2000 to 2004 and had access to children in those roles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He faces charges of sexual assault and sexual interference of a child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The charges have not been proven and he is expected to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice on July 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to his work with the above organizations, Wolfer has long been active in local theatre and has previously served as President of Theatre Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, incumbent president Jason Silzer, responded to the allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheatre Aurora expresses its surprise and sadness at the recent news of criminal charges against its past-president, Steven Wolfer,\u201d he said. \u201cMr. Wolfer is not currently an active member of Theatre Aurora. Beyond that, we will not make any comment specific to this case or the parties involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheatre Aurora is committed to providing a safe, creative space for all. For a number of years, we have maintained a supportive-space policy covering sexual and workplace harassment, intentional discrimination, and workplace violence. Additionally, it is our practice to require background checks of our youth leadership team.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Theatre Aurora has reaffirmed its commitment to \u201cbeing a safe space for all\u201d following criminal charges laid against its past president Steven Wolfer. Mr. Wolfer, 58, a resident of Markham, was arrested on June 4 following an investigation that began in April. \u201cA victim came forward and reported that he had been sexually assaulted on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7HG","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-22 01:16:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}