Controversial seminar held in Olds

A controversial nutritional supplement speaker's seminar went ahead last week unabated by a social media backlash organizers say was contrived.

"Lots" of registrants attended David Stephan's seminar on brain health held in Olds last Thursday evening, said Rick Kohut, president of Health Street Wellness, who invited Stephan to speak.

Stephan started doing speaking engagements again last year. He and his wife were convicted in 2016 of not providing the necessaries of life to their son who died in 2012 from bacterial meningitis. Stephan said he does not believe his son died from meningitis.

In the days leading up to the Olds event, Health Street endured a social media backlash similar to Health and Wellness Expos of Canada which also invited Stephan to speak at its multi-city events. At least one sponsor and several vendors backed out of some of the expos last month because Stephan was booked as the keynote speaker.

"Calling yourselves marketers of health and at the same time inviting a man who has been found guilty of denying his child the necessities of life to hawk wares at your store is beyond ironic. Shame on you for allowing him more exposure," said a Julie Barron post on Health Street's Facebook page.

Kohut said he believes the approximately 20 similarly critical posts on the company's Facebook page were largely from people hiding behind aliases sowing discourse on the Internet.

"Ninety-nine per cent of them are pharma-trolls. They're hired by that industry to put a black spot on holistic health," Kohut said in an interview after the seminar was held.

Kohut said he had the support of the local community in hosting the seminar which also featured former NHLer Morris Lukowich. Lukowich suffered for years with concussion symptoms and depression.

"We had the event because mental health is a big deal," said Kohut.

"We looked to them because they're the experts in nutrition for mental health."

Registrants were invited to "Join David Stephan and learn how our moods and outlooks on life naturally change as we improve brain and thyroid function, allowing for us to become more energetic, positive and vibrant beings. He will be providing information on how to simply improve your life and begin the journey to becoming your best self through powerful nutrient supplementation," read the seminar's description.

Stephan promotes his father's Truehope EMP formulations, which Lukowich has been taking since 2014.

The company's disclaimer reads in part that "these products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease."

Kohut said none of the attendees brought up "the elephant in the room" and no one spoke "a negative word" during the event.

"We're here to help people. To create controversy over this is wrong," said Kohut.