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
WINNIPEG – A public memorial honouring former judge, senator and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into residential schools, Murray Sinclair, is set to take place in Winnipeg on Sunday.
The event, which is being organized by the federal and Manitoba governments, will be at Canada Life Centre, home of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets.
Sinclair died Monday in a Winnipeg hospital at the age of 73.
A teepee and a sacred fire were set up outside the Manitoba legislature for people to pay their respects hours after news of his death became public. The province has said it will remain open to the public until Sinclair’s funeral.
Sinclair’s family continues to invite people to visit the sacred fire and offer tobacco.
The family thanked the public for sharing words of love and support as tributes poured in this week.
“The significance of Mazina Giizhik’s (the One Who Speaks of Pictures in the Sky) impact and reach cannot be overstated,” the family said in a statement on Tuesday, noting Sinclair’s traditional Anishinaabe name.
“He touched many lives and impacted thousands of people.”
They encourage the public to celebrate his life and journey home.
A visitation for extended family, friends and community is also scheduled to take place Wednesday morning.
Leaders from across Canada shared their memories of Sinclair.
Premier Wab Kinew called Sinclair one of the key architects of the era of reconciliation.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Sinclair was a teacher, a guide and a friend who helped the country navigate tough realities.
Sinclair was the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba — the second in Canada.
He served as co-chair of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba to examine whether the justice system was failing Indigenous people after the murder of Helen Betty Osborne and the police shooting death of First Nations leader J.J. Harper.
In leading the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he participated in hundreds of hearings across Canada and heard testimony from thousands of residential school survivors.
The commissioners released their widely influential final report in 2015, which described what took place at the institutions as cultural genocide and included 94 calls to action.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
OTTAWA – Members of Parliament studying the federal government’s decision to buy a $9-million luxury condo in Manhattan are preparing to recall Canada’s consul general in New York to answer more questions about his involvement in the purchase.
The Conservatives put forward a motion on Tuesday to have Tom Clark return to the House operations committee. The move was supported by other opposition parties after new information emerged that contradicted his previous testimony.
Clark told the committee in September he had no role whatsoever in the purchase of the new condo, or the sale of the previous residence.
But reporting from Politico on Tuesday indicated Clark raised concerns about the old unit two months after he was appointed to his role as Canada’s representative in New York.
Politico cited documents obtained through access-to-information, which were then shared with other media by the Conservative party.
A May 2023 report from Global Affairs Canada indicates Clark informed government officials the residence needed to be replaced.
“The current (consul general in New York, head of mission) expressed concerns regarding the completion of the … kitchen and refurbishment project and indicated the unit was not suitable to be the (consul general’s) accommodations,” the report reads.
“It does not have an ideal floor plan for (consul general in New York) representational activities.”
The final call on whether Clark will face further questions has not been made, however, because the committee adjourned before the motion went to a vote. The committee’s next meeting is next week.
Tuesday’s meeting featured Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly as a witness, and she faced questions about Clark’s involvement in the purchase.
“This was not a political decision because this was an operational decision,” Joly told the committee in a testy exchange with Conservative MP Michael Barrett.
“(The committee) had numerous people, officials of mine, that came to see you and said that. So, these are the facts.”
Joly later told the committee she only learned of the decision to purchase a new residence through media reports, even though her chief of staff was notified weeks earlier.
“The department informed my chief of staff once the decision was taken. Because, of course, it was not a political decision,” Joly said.
Shortly before Joly was excused, Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie put forward the motion to recall Clark for two more hours to answer more questions.
Bloc MP Julie Vignola proposed instead to have him testify for only one hour — indicating she would support the motion with that change.
“One hour is more than enough to know whether he lied to us,” Vignola told her colleagues in French.
NDP MP Taylor Bachrach also said he would support the move, given the contrast between the new report and Clark’s testimony about whether he spoke to anyone about a desire to move into a new residence.
“What really irks me is the consul general was so clear in response to repeated questioning at committee,” Bachrach said.
“Mr. Clark said, ‘Never.’ One-word answer, ‘Never.’ You can’t get more unequivocal than that.”
The Liberal government has argued that buying the new residence will save Canadians taxpayers millions of dollars and reduce ongoing maintenance costs and property taxes while supporting future program needs for the consul general.
The former official residence is listed for sale at $13 million, but has yet to be sold.
In her remarks Tuesday, Joly told the committee other like-minded countries have paid more for their Manhattan residences than Canada has — including $11 million for the U.K., and France’s $19 million purchase in 2015.
Joly said among the countries that have residences in New York, only Afghanistan and Bangladesh were not located in Manhattan.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
TORONTO – An Ontario judge says any outstanding issues regarding a proposed $32.5 billion settlement between three major tobacco companies and their creditors should be solvable in the coming months.
Ontario Superior Court Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz has released his reasons for approving a motion last week to have representatives for creditors review and vote on the proposal in December.
One of the companies, JTI-Macdonald Corp., said last week it objects to the plan in its current form and asked the court to postpone scheduling the vote until several issues were resolved.
The other two companies, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd., didn’t oppose the motion but said they retained the right to contest the proposed plan down the line.
The proposal announced last month includes $24 billion for provinces and territories seeking to recover smoking-related health-care costs and about $6 billion for smokers across Canada and their loved ones.
If the proposed deal is accepted by a majority of creditors, it will then move on to the next step: a hearing to obtain the approval of the court, tentatively scheduled for early next year.
In a written decision released Monday, Morawetz said it was clear that not all issues had been resolved at this stage of the proceedings.
He pointed to “outstanding issues” between the companies regarding their respective shares of the total payout, as well as debate over the creditor status of one of JTI-Macdonald’s affiliate companies.
In order to have creditors vote on a proposal, the court must be satisfied the plan isn’t “doomed to fail” either at the creditors or court approval stages, court heard last week.
Lawyers representing plaintiffs in two Quebec class actions, those representing smokers in the rest of Canada, and 10 out of 13 provinces and territories have expressed their support for the proposal, the judge wrote in his ruling.
While JTI-Macdonald said its concerns have not been addressed, the company’s lawyer “acknowledged that the issues were solvable,” Morawetz wrote.
“At this stage, I am unable to conclude that the plans are doomed to fail,” he said.
“There are a number of outstanding issues as between the parties, but there are no issues that, in my view, cannot be solved,” he said.
The proposed settlement is the culmination of more than five years of negotiations in what Morawetz has called one of “the most complex insolvency proceedings in Canadian history.”
The companies sought creditor protection in Ontario in 2019 after Quebec’s top court upheld a landmark ruling ordering them to pay about $15 billion to plaintiffs in two class-action lawsuits.
All legal proceedings against the companies, including lawsuits filed by provincial governments, have been paused during the negotiations. That order has now been extended until the end of January 2025.
In total, the companies faced claims of more than $1 trillion, court documents show.
In October of last year, the court instructed the mediator in the case, former Chief Justice of Ontario Warren Winkler, and the monitors appointed to each company to develop a proposed plan for a global settlement, with input from the companies and creditors.
A year later, they proposed a plan that would involve upfront payments as well as annual ones based on the companies’ net after-tax income and any tax refunds, court documents show.
The monitors estimate it would take the companies about 20 years to pay the entire amount, the documents show.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
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)
