[4] The parents used herbal remedies, including homemade smoothies containing hot pepper, ginger root, horseradish, onion, other alternative therapies and a religious blessing.
[5][7][8] That evening, Ezekiel stopped breathing prompting the family to initiate CPR and call emergency services, meeting the paramedics on the way to Cardston hospital to save time.
"[11] The Crown prosecutors focused on a three-day period from March 10 to 13, 2012, when Collet called Lexie Vataman, a receptionist for a naturopathic doctor that the family used in Lethbridge.
He expressed concern that this case could be seen as an opportunity for government's monitoring how people parent, giving rise to the possibility of more criminal prosecutions.
[12] Research director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta, Timothy Caulfield, expressed concern that the continued statements from David about his family being targeted because they didn't vaccinate their children could make them martyrs for the alternative medicine and anti-vaccination movement.
The Crown asked the province's top court to overturn the acquittals because, in part, they felt that the judge's comments about Nigerian born medical examiner Dr. Bamidele Adeagbo's manner of speaking during the trial to be offensive and insulting showing possible bias.
[23][21][23] Defence attorney, Jason Demers countered stating the Judge was patient and fair, only addressing Adeagbo's speech mannerisms because David Stephan had brought them up.
Demers claimed that Adeagbo gave long winded answers, paced back and forth and was volatile, being asked on multiple occasions to calm down.
[24] "[Dr. Bamidele Adeagbo's] ability to articulate his thoughts in an understandable fashion was severely compromised by: his garbled enunciation; his failure to use appropriate endings for plurals and past tenses; his failure to use the appropriate definite and indefinite articles; his repeated emphasis of the wrong syllables; dropping his Hs; mispronouncing his vowels; and the speed of his responses," “It is inappropriate to disparage witnesses for their pattern of speech, accents or less than perfect command of one of Canada’s official languages.
Or of any language for that matter,” The prosecution also asked for the acquittal since they felt that the judge had made an error to make the Crown prove that timely treatments would have saved Ezekiel's life.
[21] Gorski criticized the judge's statement about Adeagbo's failing to look for another possible cause of Ezekiel's death since the symptoms of pus on the brain and in the pleural cavity clearly indicate that the meningitis was bacterial.
He asserted that Clarkson's verdict was not based on science, believing the testimony of Sauvageau, who Gorski viewed as unqualified since she was not licensed at the time of the trial and did not have a background in forensic pathology.
[2] At both trials, the Stephans stated that they had thought that their son had the flu or croup and had treated him with remedies that included "...a smoothie with tinctures of garlic, onion and horseradish.
"[14][4] In March 2021, the Alberta Appeal Court ordered a third trial against the Stephans, setting aside the not guilty verdicts, ruling that the judge's comments about Adeagbo showed a bias, and that Clackson had erred requiring the Crown to prove that medical intervention would have saved Ezekiel's life.
[27][28] The Stephans and their lawyer, Shawn Buckley expressed surprise that the decision was made prior to hearing the results of their application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
[11] A Facebook page called "Prayers for Ezekiel" was filled with acrimony with some asking for the death penalty for the Stephans and others decrying the guilty verdict as a "travesty of justice.
"[30] After the second trial acquittal, Gorski expressed his concern that the Stephans would now be heroes in the alternative medicine movement in Canada and around the world for being "“falsely accused” of child neglect, being “persecuted” by the system, and finally having beaten the charges and found to be “innocent”."
[31][1] Anthony started the company after his wife committed suicide[12] and after apparently curing two of his children who were diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder with a cocktail of supplements he created.
[31] In an email to the National Post in 2016, the company shared that EMPowerplus had been studied in four counties by 45 researchers and results appeared in 30 medical journals.
[12] Health Canada has reported 14 adverse reactions from EMPowerplus that result from withdrawing from prescribed psychiatric medications, which TrueHope advises.
[33] Anthony claimed that the charges against David and Collet were brought about in response to the Canadian government's failed attempts to shut the company down.
He asserted that "big pharma" was upset about losing profits to his family's supplements and had interfered with their attempts at raising funds for David and Collet's trials.
"[12] The anti-vaccination publication Health Impact News had stated that the Canadian government was using the Stephans' case as a deterrent for families who chose not to vaccinate their children, hoping to frighten them.
[12] Anti-vaccination activists Del Bigtree and Polly Tommey, producers of the controversial film Vaxxed, interviewed the Stephans for a YouTube video in 2016.
[34] On social media, David has stated that COVID-19 is a hoax that was brought about to bring on "fancy new vaccines" and that the seriousness of the illness has been "falsely inflated."
Rick Thiessen, who runs the Health and Wellness Expos, stated he started getting hate mail from around the world regarding David speaking at the events.
[32][17][37] Thiessen, who had run the expos for 24 years as of 2018[update], had not shied away from inviting controversial speakers and had previously stated that David's conviction was separate from the products he was selling.
[32] Promoter of the Body Soul & Spirit Expo in Calgary, Alberta, Chandler Armstrong, chose not to remove David as a speaker since the event did not rely on sponsors.
David posted on his Facebook page that he would be discussing brain and thyroid health and "how to avoid dangerous psychiatric medications while achieving a far greater quality of life.