To Romana Didulo’s followers, the Queen of Canada doesn’t live in a British palace – she’s in the rural village of Richmound, Sask.
Surrounded by farmland about 450 kilometres west of Regina near the Alberta border, Richmound has a population of just over 100. Since September 2023, it has also been home to Didulo and a group of her followers, leading to protests and heated confrontations with locals.
CTV W5 visited Richmound to learn more about the self-described “Queen of Canada.”
Didulo is a leading figure in the QAnon conspiracy movement, and has promoted the murder of police, politicians and those who oppose her.
“I have also said that there is no more politics and no more politicians,” Didulo decreed in one of her videos. “I said, you can blow up all of the legislature buildings in Canada.”
Didulo has also told Canadians to stop paying their taxes and bills, while promoting secret cure-all technology and threatening those who administer COVID-19 vaccines.
“For each child that you have harmed you will receive not one, but two bullets on your forehead,” Didulo said in another video. “Think very, very carefully before you touch that needle.”
The former school in Richmound, Sask. where Romana Didulo and her followers are living (CTV W5)
After an invitation from a Richmound resident who owns a former school, Didulo and about eight others started living at the property. Rolande Davis’s house is directly across the street.
“My daughter won’t come with her kids,” Davis told W5. “I would have never dreamed I would have a cult living in my backyard.”
Didulo says she immigrated to Canada from the Philippines, where her parents died when she was young. After being involved in several businesses, she emerged as a public figure during the COVID-19 pandemic when she founded her Canada1st Party to “clean up the swamp” in Ottawa.
Didulo further rose to prominence during the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa, where she railed against vaccines and pandemic mandates, called for the end of elections and burned a Canadian flag. Didulo and her group were soon travelling the country in a convoy of RVs to spread their message.
“I think she has more, amongst conspiracy theorists, if you will, more influence than anyone I can think of,” Christina Sarteschi, a criminology and social work professor at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, told W5.
Romana Didulo further rose to prominence during the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa, where she railed against vaccines and pandemic mandates (CTV W5)
Sarteschi, who studies extremist groups, has been monitoring Didulo for two years. She says the group could be considered a cult.
“She has talked about being from the planet Arcturus, so there’s an alien element to this,” Sarteschi explained. “She thinks that she has been sent here sort of in a divine way from god, master creator… and that she has been sent here to save people.”
Didulo does not shy away from claims like these in online videos.
“The Arcturians are the most advanced, like the Yoda,” she has said. “I am not a dictator. I am guided by the highest divine beings and I am here to deliver peace and prosperity.”
Richmound residents began protesting Didulo’s presence in October, which caused more of her followers and some of their children to arrive at the fenced-off former school, where they declared an oath of sovereignty to their queen.
One Richmound resident told W5 that her father even stopped paying his bills because of Didulo.
“I have watched people post videos of themselves getting taken out by the bailiff because they have lost their homes,” Sarteschi from Chatham University said. “I’ve seen court records where people are in foreclosure because they believed in her ideas and really believed that they didn’t have to pay their taxes, their mortgage, and then they’re literally on the streets or they’re living in their cars.”
A town hall in Richmound, Sask. where residents voiced concerns over the presence of Didulo and her followers (CTV W5)
‘We’re running out of ideas’: mayor
Didulo’s group has also allegedly sent threatening letters to Richmound residents and officials like Mayor Brad Miller, who fears Didulo or her supporters could run for town council.
“We keep the drapes closed now and our doors are always locked, double-checked,” Miller told W5. “Somebody’s got to help us out, we’re running out of ideas.”
The RCMP met with local residents in October 2023. Police have said that while they are monitoring the group and investigating alleged death threats, they cannot lay charges or remove people from private property unless there is harassment or an imminent threat.
W5 interviewed the RCMP’s commanding officer in Saskatchewan, Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore.
“At this point in time, we have no indication that there’s any imminent threat. We would certainly notify the public if there was an imminent threat, but we have no indication of that,” Blackmore told W5.
“We’re monitoring the situation and making sure that if there is any indication of criminal activity, that we will be there and we will investigate that thoroughly.”
W5 was also able to speak to former follower Kim Churchill.
“I didn’t recognize it as a cult until I got back,” Churchill said. “When you’re in [an] abusive relationship, you know, they want you isolated, they don’t want you talking to friends and family, they control your every move, manipulate you.”
Didulo did not respond to several requests for an interview.
You can learn more about the tensions in Richmound by watching the full W5 documentary, ‘The Cult Queen’, Saturday at 7 p.m. on CTV
OTTAWA – The New Democrats confirmed Thursday they won’t help Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives topple the government next week, and intend to join the Bloc Québécois in blocking the Tories’ non-confidence motion.
The planned votes from the Bloc and the New Democrats eliminate the possibility of a snap election, buying the Liberals more time to govern after a raucous start to the fall sitting of Parliament.
Poilievre issued a challenge to NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh earlier this week when he announced he will put forward a motion that simply states that the House has no confidence in the government or the prime minister.
If it were to pass, it would likely mean Canadians would be heading to the polls, but Singh said Thursday he’s not going to let Poilievre tell him what to do.
Voting against the Conservative motion doesn’t mean the NDP support the Liberals, said Singh, who pulled out of his political pact with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a few weeks ago.
“I stand by my words, Trudeau has let you down,” Singh said in the foyer outside of the House of Commons Thursday.
“Trudeau has let you down and does not deserve another chance.”
Canadians will have to make that choice at the ballot box, Singh said, but he will make a decision about whether to help trigger that election on a vote-by-vote basis in the House.
The Conservatives mocked the NDP during Question Period for saying they had “ripped up” the deal to support the Liberals, despite plans to vote to keep them in power.
Poilievre accused Singh of pretending to pull out of the deal to sway voters in a federal byelection in Winnipeg, where the NDP was defending its long-held seat against the Conservatives.
“Once the votes were counted, he betrayed them again. He’s a fake, a phoney and fraud. How can anyone ever believe what the sellout NDP leader says in the future?” Poilievre said during Question Period Thursday afternoon.
At some point after those comments, Singh stepped out from behind his desk in the House and a two-minute shouting match ensued between the two leaders and their MPs before the Speaker intervened.
Outside the House, Poilievre said he plans to put forward another non-confidence motion at the next opportunity.
“We want a carbon-tax election as soon as possible, so that we can axe Trudeau’s tax before he quadruples it to 61 cents a litre,” he said.
Liberal House leader Karina Gould says there is much work the government still needs to do, and that Singh has realized the consequences of potentially bringing down the government. She refused to take questions about whether her government will negotiate with opposition parties to ensure their support in future confidence motions.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet hasn’t ruled out voting no-confidence in the government the next time a motion is tabled.
“I never support Liberals. Help me God, I go against the Conservatives on a vote that is only about Pierre Poilievre and his huge ambition for himself,” Blanchet said Thursday.
“I support the interests of Quebecers, if those interests are also good for Canadians.”
A Bloc bill to increase pension cheques for seniors aged 65 to 74 is now at “the very centre of the survival of this government,” he said.
The Bloc needs a recommendation from a government minister to OK the cost and get the bill through the House.
The Bloc also wants to see more protections for supply management in the food sector in Canada and Quebec.
If the Liberals can’t deliver on those two things, they will fall, Blanchet said.
“This is what we call power,” he said.
Treasury Board President Anita Anand wouldn’t say whether the government would be willing to swallow the financial implications of the Bloc’s demands.
“We are focused at Treasury Board on ensuring prudent fiscal management,” she said Thursday.
“And at this time, our immediate focus is implementing the measures in budget 2024 that were announced earlier this year.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
OTTAWA – Treasury Board President Anita Anand has been sworn in as federal transport minister at a ceremony at Rideau Hall, taking over a portfolio left vacant after Pablo Rodriguez resigned from cabinet and the Liberal caucus on Thursday.
Anand thanked Rodriguez for his contributions to the government and the country, saying she’s grateful for his guidance and friendship.
She sidestepped a question about the message it sends to have him leave the federal Liberal fold.
“That is a decision that he made independently, and I wish him well,” she said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was not present for the swearing-in ceremony, nor were any other members of the Liberal government.
The shakeup in cabinet comes just days after the Liberals lost a key seat in a Montreal byelection to the Bloc Québécois and amid renewed calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down and make way for a new leader.
Anand said she is not actively seeking leadership of the party, saying she is focused on her roles as minister and as MP.
“My view is that we are a team, and we are a team that has to keep delivering for our country,” she said.
The minority Liberal government is in a more challenging position in the House of Commons after the NDP ended a supply-and-confidence deal that provided parliamentary stability for more than two years.
Non-confidence votes are guaranteed to come from the Opposition Conservatives, who are eager to bring the government down.
On Thursday morning, Rodriguez made a symbolic walk over the Alexandra Bridge from Parliament Hill to Gatineau, Que., where he formally announced his plans to run for the Quebec Liberal party leadership.
He said he will now sit as an Independent member of Parliament, which will allow him to focus on his own priorities.
“I was defending the priorities of the government, and I did it in a very loyal way,” he said.
“It’s normal and it’s what I had to do. But now it’s more about my vision, the vision of the team that I’m building.”
Rodriguez said he will stay on as an MP until the Quebec Liberal leadership campaign officially launches in January.
He said that will “avoid a costly byelection a few weeks, or months, before a general election.”
The next federal election must be held by October 2025.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he will try to topple the government sooner than that, beginning with a non-confidence motion that is set to be debated Sept. 24 and voted on Sept. 25.
Poilievre has called on the NDP and the Bloc Québécois to support him, but both Jagmeet Singh and Yves-François Blanchet have said they will not support the Conservatives.
Rodriguez said he doesn’t want a federal election right away and will vote against the non-confidence motion.
As for how he would vote on other matters before the House of Commons, “it would depend on the votes.”
Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos will become the government’s new Quebec lieutenant, a non-cabinet role Rodriguez held since 2019.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
— With files from Nojoud Al Mallees and Dylan Robertson
The former school in Richmound, Sask. where Romana Didulo and her followers are living (CTV W5)
Romana Didulo further rose to prominence during the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa, where she railed against vaccines and pandemic mandates (CTV W5)
A town hall in Richmound, Sask. where residents voiced concerns over the presence of Didulo and her followers (CTV W5)
