David Stephan was found guilty of failing to provide the necessaries of life to his toddler son, Ezekiel, who died in 2012. (Canadian Press/Facebook)
The owner of Health and Wellness Expos of Canada is defending his decision to invite David Stephan to speak at events in Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Calgary, and Edmonton.
Sobeys has withdrawn its sponsorship of the events after drawing criticism online over Stephan's participation.
Stephan and his wife Collet were convicted in 2016 of failing to provide the necessaries of life to their son Ezekiel, who died in 2012. The Stephans attempted to treat their 19-month-old son with natural remedies when he fell ill with meningitis.
David Stephan was sentenced to four months in jail, while Collet Stephan was given three months of house arrest, with each also ordered to complete 240 hours of community service. The conviction was appealed and has made it to the Supreme Court of Canada docket, where arguments are expected to be heard in May.
Cynthia Thompson, a spokesperson for Sobeys Inc., confirmed with CBC the sponsorship has been withdrawn. Thompson says Sobeys Inc. was not aware Stephan was a keynote speaker when the company decided to sponsor the event.
"Supporting the well-being of Canadians is essential to our purpose as a company and we entered this sponsorship with the best intention of advancing our focus on eating well, but we can't support the choice that Health and Wellness Expos of Canada has made on the selection of David Stephan as keynote speaker," she said.
Thompson also said Sobeys Inc. will be taking a closer look at events they sponsor in the future. "All I can say on the front of making the decision is that we're conducting a review of our process and governance on these types of sponsorships," she said.
"This really should not have happened," Thompson added.
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