Received the follow email from SCI Calgary stating that a Calgary safari operator organized last years protests of the African Safari Expo to hurt his competition. Anybody have any more info on this?


WEALTHY CALGARY SAFARI OPERATOR
PROTESTS COMPETITION
WHEN IT COMES TO TOWN
Mike Donovan and his BATH group protest legitimate business enterprises

Lion Dog Safaris offers Africa-bound tourists from Canada and the Western US, tours through glamorous African destinations like Tanzania's Serengeti, Congo and Zambia. The cost of these tours run up to $30,000 for a 15-day exclusive package.

Mike Donovan owns Lion Dog Safaris and he and his wife run their safari operation from their home in the upscale Calgary suburb of Scenic Acres.

So, when competition came to town, according to court documents, Donovan did what most ethical businessmen wouldn't do, or couldn't do according to the Canada Competition Act, and he formed a group to protest the African Events Show, an exposition of other African tourist outfitters.

While the protestors were mostly there to express their anti-hunting and animal rights opinions, it didn't hurt Mr. Donovan's Lion Dog Safaris that attendees were intimidated by loud and abusive bullhorn shouting. It is alleged that attendance dropped at these shows because of Donovan's picketing.

African Events is returning to Calgary on January 27-28 this year at the Delta South Hotel, with some 21 outfitters, travel agents and tour operators, and Donovan has promised to escalate his attacks on his business competition.



Mike Donovan at home in Calgary’s Scenic Acres

Photo safari operator.

I run in to the gentleman in question occasionally at the dog park. A bit of a prick.

Update

Alberta judge rules hunting is ‘a legitimate commercial enterprise’; grants injunction against derogatory statements by activists


CALGARY, 24 JANUARY 2017 - SCI-Calgary is celebrating a judge’s decision to require anti-hunting activists to remove derogatory statements about hunters and hunting from their social media pages and messaging.
The hunting advocacy organization had sought an injunction against Michael Donovan and his ‘Ban African Trophy Hunting’ (BATH) organization following their attempts to prevent hunters from congregating at African Events trade shows in Toronto, Saskatoon and Calgary in 2016.
It is believed Donovan planned similar protests for this years events.
The bizarre and highly inflammatory statements by Donovan include comparisons to the ‘extermination of jews’ and hunting in Africa, moral comparisons between what the judge deemed to be a legitimate commercial business and Donovan views as akin to slavery. Donovan also claimed that the only countries where hunting occurs in Africa are those where authorities are ‘paid off’ by lawful hunters.
Michael Donovan has organized protests against hunting events in a clear effort to draw down interest in the lawful activity and presumably to support his own ‘photo safari’.
“We were highly offended that Michael Donovan has sought to use defamatory comments about legitimate commercial enterprises by invoking the horrors of slavery and the holocaust in what we believe is simply an effort by him to shore up customers for his own African focused outfitting business.” Said David Little, President of SCI-Calgary. “The court affirmed you do not have the right to make such derogatory comments about legitimate activities like hunting, simply because it suits your interest to do so.” Little added.
SCI-Calgary is pleased with the judge’s ruling and hopes it will pressure anti-hunting activists to actually make fact based arguments to support their opinion, instead of degrading the memories of holocaust victims and those who were forced into slavery in decades and centuries past.
“It is clear to me that Donovan’s brand of activism is led by his desire to grow his own competing business, despite photo safari businesses doing precious little to support meaningful conservation in Africa. Here is some free advice for Mr. Donovan that I’ve picked up in business: calling people you want to be your customers ‘wealthy individuals with a sickness’ isn’t nearly as good as demonstrating value and having a positive impact on animal conservation in Africa -- something hunters and outfitters do everyday.” Little added.