A group described by the RCMP as “a militia-like network with members who are armed and prepared for violence,” found their planned July 7 meet and greet in Wahnapitae abruptly cancelled.
When they arrived at the Wahnapitae Community Centre, members of Diagolon were told the doors would not be open to them.
The group, which has been branded extremist by a House of Commons committee, are holding what they call the “Road Rage Terror Tour” this summer and travelling to meet supporters in their own communities.
The group encountered resistance when it visited Carp, Ont., just outside Ottawa, earlier this month. Diagolon had booked the Carp Agricultural Society Centre for a Terror Tour event, at which the Ottawa Police maintained a visible presence. The society’s co-president told the Ottawa Citizen he “had never heard” of the group before the meeting.
With an invitation that begins “Greetings Bigots or Bigette …”, Diagolon organizers welcomed supporters to join them in Wahnapitae for a meet and greet and potluck dinner, but warned the location should be kept under wraps “to protect the crew, attendees and establishment hosting us for the evening from people with ill-intent towards us.”
There was also a warning against taking photos (noting there would be an official Diagolon photographer) and the message stated that anyone taking photos or video would be removed. It also states there would be a security team present, and instructs attendees, “do not bring weapons of any kind.”
What is Diagolon
Founded by Jeremy MacKenzie, Diagolon is considered an Ideologically Motivated Violent Extremist (IMVE) by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security. They describe these as groups and individuals who attempt to leverage the COVID-19 pandemic and recent social unrest to spread disinformation and conspiracy theories, expand recruiting efforts, and advocate violence.
And according to Diagolon and MacKenzie’s websites, sell merchandise out of an online store, “The Grift Shop.”
Diagolon began as a joke, MacKenzie has told other news networks, what he said is a reaction to COVID-19. Taking to his podcast, which he manages under the name Raging Dissident, the military veteran said he saw provinces and states without COVID-19 mandates, and when highlighted, he believed they formed a diagonal line across the North American continent.
Diagonal, Diagolon.
But to a judge in the weapons case of follower of Diagolon, the group “can be properly described as anti-government and anti-authority, promoting the assembly of a militia to overthrow or, at the very least, actively resist the government.”
To the Ontario Provincial Police’s Intelligence Bureau chief, Pat Morris, they are “an extremist group”; to the RCMP, Diagolon is “a militia-like network with members who are armed and prepared for violence.”
But members might describe Diagolon as an online community sharing memes and jokes on imageboards.
An imageboard is a type of internet forum that focuses on the posting of images, often alongside text and discussion. Chan sites are imageboard websites composed of user-created messages and include examples such as 4chan and 8chan. According to the UK-based Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST), image boards are a visual culture, particularly using memes, “which may be used to promote extreme or even violent narratives under the guise of humour and irony.” Boogaloo or the Three Percenters, among others, use similar tactics, according to the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN).
CREST states that the full connotations of the memes and jokes are often “only situated within a broader extremist context,” and require “some level of digital literacy and familiarity with chan culture to interpret.”
That is, if you are on the outside of the group, you may not fully understand what each meme represents. This also adds to the feeling of “in-group” states the Centre. The feeling of finding community based on inside jokes and shared humour, which then blurs moral lines as more violent or racist imagery is presented, due to a need to remain in the group.
Memes and visual culture have been used to target “out-groups” including (but not limited to) Black and ethnic minorities, Jewish people, women, and the LGBTQ community, states CREST.
The further you move into the group, states CAHN, the more you will see a militant and potentially violent background. In fact, many of the members, including MacKenzie, are ex-soldiers.
CAHN states Diagolon members “see themselves as sentries, preparing to participate in a coming and inevitable collapse.” It’s often referred to as militant accelerationism, a belief that society is about to fall apart, that a civil war or the collapse of governments is inevitable and because of that, ought to be sped up. It’s also thought to be a process by which those who feel they have lost freedoms may regain it, CAHN states.
Documents filed by the RCMP during the Public Inquiry into the 2022 Public Order Emergency declaration, reiterate that Diagolon supporters subscribe to an accelerationist ideology.
Diagolon and MacKenzie also believe in the Great Replacement Theory, states CAHN.
The theory posits that left-leaning domestic or international elites, on their own initiative or under the direction of Jewish co-conspirators, are attempting to replace white citizens with non-white immigrants. A belief that perceived increases in birth rates from people of colour and immigrants compared to whites will enable new non-white majorities to take control of politics, economics, culture and societal makeup.
It’s been referred to as white genocide by theory adherents.
There are also heavy race and anti-semetic themes as part of Diagolon and MacKenzie’s livestreams and podcasts, CAHN states in their report.
The previously referenced court documents state that MacKenzie actively promoted “Day of the Rope”, a book about a white supremacist revolution that was based on “The Turner Diaries”, a 1978 neo-nazi novel. The books, described in the court documents as “the bible of white nationalism,” recount a race war that evolves into genocide in which all non-whites, Jews and “race traitors” are lynched.
A University of South Carolina thesis on the radicalization of Timothy McVeigh, better known as the Oklahoma City bomber, points to the “Turner Diaries” as providing a blueprint for McVeigh's anti-government rebellion, and his truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, which killed 168 people and injured 680.
In a recent podcast, discussing “foreign interference”in Canadian politics, MacKenzie said “We’re at war with India. We should be bombing India. We should be arresting and quarantining and putting all Indians in f**king camps and then putting them on buses and boats back to India at gunpoint starting yesterday. That’s what should be happening.”
With Jeremy Mackenzie's harassment charges thrown out due to the trial taking too long he's decided to bring back his "gun or rope" catch phrase.https://t.co/qoNxxyCCCRhttps://t.co/Rr8Bi5eecT
— Tony the antifascist swan (@TonyYvce) June 10, 2024
He also states "all Indians should be put in camps at gunpoint and deported".
1/4 pic.twitter.com/SFwwvU06SS
In addition to his tour of meet and greets, MacKenzie now manages several channels on social media like Telegram, as well as posting videos to GoyimTV, where there is an option to have the Nazi swastika as the image on the “like” button.
Goy (or Goyim) is a term used by Jewish people for a non-Jewish person.
MacKenzie now has 3000 subscribers to his Raging Dissident Substack, 12,000 subscribers on Telegram, almost 9500 followers on Rumble and almost 22,000 on Instagram, as well as 1800 on Gab, but as he maintains several more hard-to-find sites, these numbers could be higher.
The tour continues
The now-removed post from Wahnapitae Community Centre staff, who are volunteers, stated once they learned more about the group, they told the organizers of the event that they would not be able to enter the building and were offered a refund. “When we learned of the purpose, we informed the individual they could no longer utilize the space and offered a refund,” the post read. “And nothing more has come of it.”
Instead, the group met in the park area behind the community centre, totalling approximately 40 people, including what appeared to be Diagolon organizers travelling with MacKenzie.
The tour Road Rage Terror Tour continues with approximately 15 stops remaining.
Jenny Lamothe covers vulnerable and marginalized communities for Sudbury.com.