Georgian Bay Geopark hires Donnelly Law to advocate against Georgian Bay Guardians.
Is the Geopark trying to silence the opposition? You decide.
It can be very intimidating to receive a cease and desist letter from a lawyer. Especially when the letter concludes with “cease and desist immediately this egregious behaviour, take the prescribed steps to remedy this outrageous abuse, or face the consequences.”
That’s what happened when, on April 28, 2026 Donnelly Law issued a letter to our Executive Director titled as follows:
The letter correctly identified that “In your own words, you are leading a sustained public campaign against the Georgian Bay Geopark initiative.” Yes. We are.
It did not stop there.
On April 28, 2026 Donnelly Law submitted a formal complaint letter to our Executive Director’s employer. So now we have this disclaimer: All comments and opinions stated by Georgian Bay Guardians are expressly their own and in no way reflect the opinions or position of their employer.
It did not stop there.
On May 11, 2026 Donnelly Law expanded the letter writing campaign, sending multiple letters to municipalities and NGOs, including a few that had already written letters of opposition. At least some of the letters had this title and introductory paragraph:
“Donnelly Law represents Georgian Bay Geopark Inc. (“Geopark” and the “client”) in connection with providing legal advice and advocacy regarding recent misinformed public statements regarding the Geopark initiative.”
It did not stop there.
On May 31, 2026, the Georgian Bay Geopark team prepared a long document titled “thegbg.ca misinformation review”. This document was sent to Donnelly Law from the Geopark Board Chair on June 18. You can read the cover letter here.
It did not stop there.
On June 18, 2026 Donnelly Law sent a second letter to Georgian Bay Guardians.
This letter outlined 16 “claims” the Geopark wanted removed from thegbg.ca.
It did not stop there.
On June 18, 2026 Donnelly Law sent a second formal complaint letter to our Executive Director’s employer.
In total, we are aware of at least 7 letters sent on behalf of the Geopark by Donnelly Law between the end of April and mid June. We expect that more were sent.
It took a lot of hard thinking to decide whether to let the geopark try to silence us, or whether to go public with the Donnelly Law letter writing campaign.
What made us decide to go public was this July 2026 update to the Geopark website:
Given the Geopark’s commitment to an open and transparent dialogue, we are confident their Board of Directors will support our open and transparent sharing of the dialogue we and others have received from Donnelly Law advocating against our and the community’s opposition.
In the spirit of transparent dialogue, we call upon the Geopark Board to make public all of the letters sent by Donnelly Law.
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