Monday, November 20, 2023

SASKATCHEWAN
The QAnon Queen’s Compound Is Now a Ghost Town

The townsfolk who fought for weeks to get her out are holding their breath, hoping the QAnon cult leader is gone for good.

By Mack Lamoureux
By Evy Kwong
November 16, 2023


The QAnon Queen of Canada has left her compound in rural Saskatchewan…. For now, at least.

Romana Didulo, a cult leader who has convinced hundreds of people across the world she’s the true queen of Canada (among other eccentric things), has been living in an abandoned school in the small Saskatchewan town of Richmound for over a month.

But a video sent to VICE News by a local shows Didulo’s team unloading belongings including surveillance gear from the school into several motorhomes and vehicles. One local told VICE that the school, which once almost always had cult members outside filming anyone who came close, is now a ghost town.

“A flag was taken down and the lights and cameras are off the school,” Shauna Sehn, a resident in the town, told VICE News.

Brad Miller, Richmound’s mayor, told VICE News that earlier in the day bylaw and building inspectors went to the school for an inspection but were denied.

“Shortly after that Romano’s RV left town as well as a few vehicles,” said Miller. “The remaining people are scurrying around packing.”

Miller added that believes Didulo and her followers are camped out at a farm not too far out of town. For now the town holds its breath hoping the cult is truly gone.

For weeks Didulo faced fierce resistance from the townsfolk, who held several large protests to get the cult out of the school, but it seemed their honking and shouting had little effect. At the time Miller told VICE News that he was working multiple angles to have the cult removed, several including working bylaws.

In the livestream that Didulo hosts—primarily a way for her to ask her followers for money—her spokesperson said the group was invited to a follower’s farm and promised they would be returning to the school shortly

The school was initially purchased by Rick Manz, a local who believes in Didulo’s eccentric teachings and hoped to turn it into a cannabis grow-op. Instead, he gifted it to the cult, and as a reward for his service, Didulo declared that her followers now must call Manz “his excellency.” In mid-September, the cult moved over ten people into the property and even held an odd ritual where believers from across western Canada came to the tiny town to pledge their loyalty to Didulo and receive some of the fraudulent currency she invented.

Now though, for the first time in weeks, the school is sitting empty again.

“The entire compound is vacant and they scurried off in different directions,” local Hugh Everding, who lives just across from the school, told VICE News. “There isn’t a soul there.”

'Queen of Canada' Romana Didulo and her followers leave Sask. village school after 2 months


CBC
Sat, November 18, 2023 

Romana Didulo, who calls herself the Queen of the Kingdom of Canada, is seen in a livestream posted on the app, Telegram, which was recorded at an old school in Richmound, Sask., where Didulo and her group were staying. (QRTRV News/Telegram - image credit)

Self-proclaimed "Queen of Canada" Romana Didulo — known for her QAnon beliefs — and her followers have left the Richmound, Sask., school they've been staying at for more than two months.

Mayor Brad Miller said the cult left the school early afternoon on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, villagers discovered through online coverage of the "Kingdom of Canada" cult's regular live streamed videos — which it posts on the app Telegram — that the group had a heater propped up on a propane tank in the school.

That, the mayor said, is a fire code violation.

The village sent the fire chief, a building inspector and a bylaw officer to the school on Wednesday, but Miller said the extremist group would not let them enter the school.

However, Miller said Didulo and her followers quickly packed up their vehicles and left the school after the visit.

"Right after that they were scurrying around just like bunch of little chickens, or whatever. And they're going nuts actually, just hooking up RVs or the camper trailers," Miller said.

They didn't go far.

Miller said they are camped out only 11 kilometres east of the village in the Rural Municipality of Fox Valley on unused farmland after being given permission to stay there by the landowner.

The cult that calls itself 'The Kingdom of Canada' quickly packed up its RVs early Wednesday afternoon and left the old Richmound school, according to Mayor Brad Miller.

The cult that calls itself 'The Kingdom of Canada' quickly packed up its RVs early Wednesday afternoon and left the old Richmound school, according to Mayor Brad Miller. (Submitted by Arlene Miller)

Miller said he was relieved to see them leave the village, but he's not celebrating too much just yet.

"I'm still thinking they might come back and, if they do, it'll be a letdown. But when I see them take off, there will be the biggest party ever."

He said the village is breathing a little easier at the moment.

"It gives you relief. You don't know the feeling until you've lived with it. But they're still seven miles away. We're going to keep working, trying to keep pushing them. I don't care where they are, or whatever. Get them out of here."

Meanwhile, Ricky Manz, the owner of the old Richmound school who invited Didulo to stay in the first place, missed his court date in Leader, Sask., on Thursday for an assault charge. This information was confirmed to CBC by the Swift Current Provincial Court office, which operates as the registry office for the Leader court.

The court office said a warrant is now out for Manz's arrest. Saskatchewan RCMP told CBC on Friday afternoon that Manz had not yet been arrested.

Richmound Mayor Brad Miller said village residents do not feel safe with Romana Didulo and her followers there.

Richmound Mayor Brad Miller said village residents do not feel safe with Romana Didulo and her followers there. (CBC)

2 months of tension

After the cult moved into Richmound on Sept. 15 they followed residents around, taking video of them. Miller said this behaviour caused people to be stressed and fearful, and affected their mental health.

Didulo's followers also sent out many "cease-and-desist" letters, threatening individuals in the community with "public execution" if they didn't adhere to the the Queen's "decrees."

Dr. Christine Sarteschi, a professor of social work and criminology at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pa., has been following the movement of the "Queen of Canada" for years.

In October, she told CBC the cult has made similar "public execution" threats before, but to her knowledge have never actually carried out violence. She says that does not mean threats against the people of Richmound should not be taken seriously.

"We don't know what they're capable of, but they're very active," said Sarteschi.

The 'QAnon Queen' and her followers are now camped out on unused farmland in the RM of Fox Valley.

The 'QAnon Queen' and her followers are now camped out on unused farmland in the RM of Fox Valley. (Submitted by Arlene Miller)

Residents of Richmound held a two-day protest on the weekend of Oct. 14, calling for the cult to leave.

Miller told CBC on Friday that, since then, the group has stopped filming residents and has been pretty quiet. Miller and one of his council members did both receive new "cease-and-desist" letters last week, but he said they did not threaten their lives.

In the meantime, Miller said Richmound is exploring some new legal avenues that may keep the cult out for good but he couldn't share those details at this time.

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