Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his chief rival, Pierre Poilievre, the chief of the Conservative Get together opposition, have spent the final week and alter arguing about Alex Jones. The American conspiracy theorist and broadcaster’s path from his Texas studio to the middle of the political debate up North reduce straight by way of “Diagolon” a fictional nation created by a gaggle of white nationalist podcasters in Canada.
The Diagolon empire stretches from Alaska to Florida by way of Canada’s Yukon territory and three westernmost provinces. Whereas the boys behind Diagolon insist it’s only a stoner meme, authorities on either side of the border have described the web motion as a violent terror menace. The latest debate over Jones was a vivid illustration of how the motion has gained prominence in Canadian politics and cast connections with the American far proper.
Trudeau, who’s struggling within the polls forward of subsequent yr’s election, spent a number of days late final month accusing Poilievre of “partaking with members of Diagolon” and refusing to “condemn and reject the endorsement of Alex Jones.”
“That is what he ought to say,” Trudeau, who leads the nation’s Liberal Get together, mentioned of Poilievre at an occasion in Quebec on April 26. “I reject categorically the endorsement and the help of Diagolon and of Alex Jones as a result of Diagolon is a violent white nationalist group and Alex Jones is a rubbish conspiracy theorist. That’s all Pierre Poilievre must say, however he gained’t say it and that tells you concerning the sorts of selections he’s making as a pacesetter.”
Jones, who’s greatest identified for airing wild, harmful conspiracy theories about mass shootings and COVID together with taking part in a significant position within the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, inserted himself into Canada’s nascent marketing campaign politics on April 4 when he posted a message on the location previously referred to as Twitter praising Poilievre as “the true deal.”
“Canada desperately wants much more leaders like him and so does the remainder of the world,” Jones wrote.
Poilievre didn’t take Trudeau up on the decision to reject Jones’ endorsement. Throughout a query interval within the Home of Commons on April 30 when the Conservative chief pressed Trudeau a couple of push to recriminalize sure onerous medicine within the province of British Columbia, the prime minister as soon as once more accused Poilievre of refusing “to denounce these extremists” and of “actively courting the help of teams with white nationalist views.” Poilievre shot again. With out naming Jones or Diagolon, he declared, “I all the time condemn extremism and racism.” Poilievre described the concept he was pandering to the group as a “distraction” and “falsehood” from Trudeau earlier than trying to return to the prime minister’s previous help for drug decriminalization.
“When will we put an finish to this wacko coverage by this wacko prime minister?” Poilievre requested.
That insult was a bridge too far for Speaker of the Home of Commons, Greg Fergus, a member of Trudeau’s Liberal Get together, who ejected Poilievre from the parliamentary physique after the opposition chief refused to withdraw the comment. The incident sparked days of headlines and debates over decorum in Canada the place among the identical rising extremism and civil unrest that has emerged in America is happening, however the rhetoric apparently hasn’t fairly reached U.S. ranges of nastiness.
A spokesperson for Trudeau advised TPM they’d nothing so as to add to the prime minister’s public remarks. Poilievre and his workplace didn’t reply to requests for remark. Whereas the Conservative chief dismissed Trudeau’s assaults as “false,” there have certainly been a number of incidents that related Poilievre with Diagolon — and the group has its personal ties to Jones.
Earlier than his social media endorsement of Poilievre, Jones had cast a reference to Diagolon. Jones featured the group’s “de facto chief” Jeremy MacKenzie on his “InfoWars” broadcast throughout the “Freedom Convoy” trucker protests in opposition to COVID well being mandates that gripped Canada’s capital, Ottawa, in early 2022. Extra not too long ago, in March of this yr, MacKenzie appeared on the weekend version of Jones’ present with one other host.
And Poilievre himself has additionally had dalliances with Diagolon. In these prior cases he has equally shunned providing a clearcut disavowal of the group.
In July 2022, Poilievre led a march in opposition to COVID measures in Ottawa alongside James Topp. Impartial reporter Rachel Gilmore, who was writing for World Information on the time, subsequently revealed that Topp had appeared on MacKenzie’s podcast. When Gilmore requested Poilievre if he would denounce these sentiments, his marketing campaign responded with an intensive comment-slash-press launch attacking her reporting as “guilt by a number of levels of separation” and stressing he was solely supportive of Topp on the “singular reason for ending vaccine mandates.”
The next month, MacKenzie, the chief of Diagolon, posted a photograph exhibiting him shaking arms with Poilievre at an occasion. That image led to requires Poilievre to denounce the group from the chief of the left wing New Democrat Get together, which pointed to a report from Canada’s Built-in Terrorism Evaluation Centre, a federal authorities group. The evaluation described Diagolon and QAnon, which ought to be way more acquainted to the American viewers, as being among the many “ideologically motivated extremism (IMVE) actions” that have been collaborating within the anti-COVID mandate convoy protests and will develop because of this. It additional recognized MacKenzie by title and dubbed him an “accelerationist influencer.” Poilievre’s supposed denunciation didn’t handle MacKenzie or the group particularly.
“As I all the time have, I denounce racism and anybody who spreads it,” Poilievre mentioned. “I didn’t and don’t know or acknowledge this specific particular person.”
Poilievre did criticize MacKenzie and a fellow podcaster in September 2022 after they allegedly broadcast feedback about sexually assaulting the Conservative chief’s spouse. MacKenzie mentioned he had made the statements whereas consuming and denied that means any hurt by them.
Diagolon was born throughout what MacKenzie has described as an identical mixture of partying and joking on-line as he and his fellow podcasters gained steam and related with one another throughout the COVID pandemic. MacKenzie, a army veteran in his late thirties, has mentioned he was “fairly ripped on edibles” one night time when he first realized many jurisdictions within the U.S. and Canada that didn’t have COVID mandates primarily fashioned a diagonal line throughout North America. The thought turned an more and more persistent, elaborate theme on an interlinked community of far proper podcasts.
On-line, MacKenzie makes use of the moniker “Raging Dissident.” His “Ragecast” is among the core Diagolon exhibits together with Alex Vriend’s “The Ferryman’s Toll” and Derek Harrison’s “Plaid Military.” They grew their viewers throughout the convoy protests and thru their very own in-person occasions. Whereas MacKenzie mentioned he has been banned from a number of social media platforms, Vriend has 5 determine followings on the location previously referred to as Twitter and on Telegram. Their broadcasts routinely appeal to 1000’s of viewers.
Regardless of this rising fanbase and the previous headlines, Gilmore, who has relentlessly coated Diagolon on a number of platforms, mentioned she was surprised to see the group invoked by the prime minister late final month.
“Relating to Trudeau truly mentioning Diagolon … by title, it’s type of thoughts blowing, as a result of I’ve been reporting on them for 2 years and it was all the time type of — they have been type of seen as fringey they usually nonetheless are,” Gilmore defined in a cellphone name with TPM. “I feel that, for Trudeau, he appears like he’s bought a political win in utilizing this in opposition to Poilievre. … To a sure extent he type of does, as a result of the factor that’s actually thoughts blowing to me and appears like an actual shift in our politics is that Poilievre gained’t overtly disavow or condemn these teams.”
The most recent incident that precipitated the spat between Trudeau and Poilievre within the Home of Commons passed off at an anti-carbon tax protest encampment close to the border between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Poilievre, who mentioned he pulled off the freeway and stopped when he noticed the protest, toured the camp, posed for pictures, and advised the group to “stick with it.” A number of key members of the camp have been subsequently revealed to have ties to the Freedom Convoy, Diagolon, and different far proper teams. At one level throughout his go to, Polievre was filmed stepping out of a trailer adorned with a drawing of the Diagolon flag, a black banner with a white stripe on its aspect.
Gilmore mentioned it was believable that Poilievre didn’t know who MacKenzie was once they shook arms in 2022. Nevertheless, she urged his continued affiliation with far proper figures who will be linked to the “Diagolon” motion, coupled with the refusal to extra immediately distance himself from them, is disturbing.
“He retains discovering himself in these circles and pandering to those individuals who appear to be type of one step faraway from these guys who actually have among the most scary politics and regarding type of ideology, just like the worst type of racism and far-right extremism that should not have any place in our politics,” Gilmore mentioned of Poilievre.
MacKenzie responded to Trudeau’s efforts to tie Poilievre to Diagolon with a taped assertion the place he described the motion as a “makeshift looseknit group” that has no hyperlinks to the border protest or the Conservative Get together. Whereas he claimed to have “no relationship” with one of many encampment’s leaders, MacKenzie admitted it was his romantic “associate” who had “doodled” the picture of the Diagolon flag on the trailer door throughout the convoy protests. As he tried to distance himself from each Poilievre and the anti-carbon tax protesters, MacKenzie described Trudeau’s assault as a part of a “fantasy narrative” from the prime minister that was aimed toward stopping “Conservative Get together momentum that seems overwhelmingly prone to crush the Liberals.” MacKenzie despatched the video to TPM once we reached out to him for touch upon this story. He additionally despatched a prolonged sequence of textual content messages whereby he rejected the time period “far proper” as “derogatory” and mentioned the media’s descriptions of his group as “extremist” or linked to potential violence have been a “preposterous characterization.”
Harrison, one other one of many principal figures in Diagolon, equally tweeted a prolonged assertion in response to TPM’s request for remark that pointed to quotes from inner Canadian regulation enforcement paperwork that figures within the group view as exonerating. Nevertheless, Harrison relied on a decidedly selective learn of these information, which do certainly point out official issues concerning the group. For instance, one of many statements highlighted by Harrison comes from what seems to be a Royal Canadian Mounted Police intelligence evaluation that mentioned, “DIAGOLON as a definite entity doesn’t pose a prison or nationwide safety menace presently.” Instantly after that line, the report notes, “sure people partaking with DIAGOLON have allegedly engaged in severe prison exercise” and “lone actors or small associations may very well be impressed to violence by the DIAGOLON rhetoric.“ Vriend, the third member of what Gilmore calls Diagolon’s “Huge Three” didn’t reply to a request for remark. Whereas Diagolon’s leaders protest any description of their group as violent or extremist, a notable case in Canada not too long ago highlighted regulation enforcement’s issues concerning the group and its potential ties to armed activists. A weapons cache seized at a 2022 Freedom Convoy protest within the city of Coutts close to the border with Montana included weapons and physique armor that displayed Diagolon patches. 4 males who have been concerned in that protest have been subsequently charged with plotting to kill regulation enforcement officers. Two of these males, together with one who has been recognized as a part of Diagolon, in the end pleaded responsible to lesser firearms fees.
MacKenzie, who was reportedly recruiting members on the trucker protests in Ottawa on the time, testified earlier than a fee that reviewed the federal government’s determination to invoke the Emergencies Act along side the weapons case and convoy protests. Whereas MacKenzie argued in opposition to the characterization of his group as an extremist menace, the commissioner reportedly rejected that argument and declared, “I’m happy that regulation enforcement’s concern about Diagolon is real and nicely based.” Paperwork launched by the fee included an analytical transient from the Canadian Safety Intelligence Service that reviewed of the group’s “violent rhetoric,” participation within the convoy protests, and progress.
Regardless of MacKenzie’s efforts to dispute the notion that Diagolon poses a threat of violence, his on-line content material has been unquestionably militant. On April 26, he made a publish on the social media website Telegram declaring “conflict is coming” and attacking each Trudeau’s Liberal Get together and Polievre’s Conservative Get together of Canada in addition to a gaggle that has monitored Diagolon and “Jews.”
“The Liberal celebration of Canada is a terrorist group selling violence on peaceable protestors and funding a violent communist revolution by way of backchannels such because the Canadian Anti Hate Community, Jews, who routinely lie about receiving authorities funding and help,” MacKenzie wrote. “Conservatives must get up to actuality that they’re in bodily hazard, that their households will probably be focused and there’s no means any model of peace can exist with these individuals freely roaming about. We can’t coexist, so somebody has to go. If the CPC is not going to act to defend Canada from attackers, the individuals will do it themselves and maintain the Conservatives to the hearth subsequent for derelection of obligation within the face of the enemy. Battle is coming, act accordingly.”
Gilmore, the journalist who has been protecting the group for over two years, mentioned this sort of language poses a transparent hazard.
“There’s a joke side to the group, however there’s additionally some very severe rhetoric and a few very severe stuff that underlies it, and that’s what actually turns into a priority,” she defined, later including, “With respect to precise violence, I’m massively frightened about that. Not essentially from the primary guys on this, however extra so from individuals who watch their reside streams and would possibly internalize the messaging. … All it takes is one individual from the 1000’s who’re on this Telegram channel to learn that and go, I’m going to do one thing about it, particularly if they need this man’s consideration or approval.”
American companies have additionally taken discover of the group. In its 2022 report on terrorism in Canada, the U.S. State Division famous the incident in Coutts and the presence of the Diagolon patch. That report described Diagolon as “a Canadian far-right ‘extremist’ group.”
Together with violent rhetoric, Diagolon additionally engages in blatant racism and anti-semitism. MacKenzie’s most up-to-date 10 posts on Gab, a social media platform in style among the many far proper, embody an advert for his podcast that encompasses a image of Orthodox Jews ominously controlling a chessboard with puppet strings. One other a type of adverts echoes the Nice Alternative mythos with a picture of a large determine festooned with the flags of India, Israel, and the LGBT group wielding an eraser to crush a mass of individuals waving Canadian flags.
When TPM requested MacKenzie through textual content to characterize his view of minority teams and whether or not he felt they’re threatening white Canadians, he accused this reporter of being an American intelligence agent.
“I imagine that the CIA has no place in ‘managing’ what the general public believes by authoring slanted hit items to vilify non-public residents,” MacKenzie wrote, including, “Don’t you assume you have to be extra involved with the very fact your nation is being invaded … facilitated by a global consortium of NGOs? Or is that basically the purpose of all this, to distract individuals from actual issues with imaginary ones? Give the company my regards.”
Peter Smith, an investigative reporter with the Canadian Anti-Hate Community, a nonprofit that screens hate teams in Canada, advised TPM in an interview that Diagolon’s racism and anti-semitism has grown of late.
“They’re extraordinarily conspiratorial and more and more white nationalists,” Smith mentioned. “Earlier than they’d type of buck the time period and overt neo-Nazis have been type of mocked out of the group to some extent.”
Smith, who tracks the group, mentioned Diagolon has ratcheted up their criticism of minorities as additionally they have positioned a rising emphasis on “in-person organizing.” They’re additionally constructing connections with fellow vacationers on this aspect of the border.
U.S.-based white nationalists have been a key a part of Diagolon’s roots, in line with Smith. Diagolon gained floor and a base for his or her podcasts “very early on” by showing on the extra established American white nationalist broadcast “Purple Ice,” Smith mentioned. Smith theorized the U.S. is enticing to the Diagolon podcasters due to the bigger inhabitants, which suggests a much bigger pool for his or her efforts to solicit donations and promote merch. He additionally pointed to Donald Trump’s GOP, and the truth that legal guidelines up north are much less permissive in relation to hate speech.
“They’re actually beginning to make these connections with the U.S. … It’s only a a lot larger marketplace for them than it’s right here,” Smith mentioned. “They’re very — each monetarily, I feel, within the U.S., which is a really giant market — however there’s additionally this, it appears a extra superb situation there. The Republican Get together is far more to the correct than our Conservative Get together. Hate teams are capable of arrange far more brazenly in numerous circumstances because of the First Modification. … It’s a bit completely different of an setting right here.”
MacKenzie advised TPM he has no American connections aside from appearances on numerous podcasts and streams, which he framed as an opportunity to get round Canada’s “rampant and malicious censorship.”
“I don’t have ties to anybody in the USA past transient appearances on numerous discuss present packages over time,” MacKenzie wrote.
The trade goes each methods. Diagolon podcasters have additionally helped promote American white nationalists. On Telegram, Vriend has shared a number of posts from the “lively membership” motion, the neo-Nazi Goyim Protection League, and Patriot Entrance, the group identified for its masked marches that’s arguably essentially the most lively hate group within the U.S. In late January, Vriend featured Patriot Entrance chief and founder Thomas Rousseau on a marathon three hour-plus episode of his Ferryman’s Toll streaming broadcast. Their dialog confirmed that the partnership between Canadian white nationalists and their American counterparts shouldn’t be fully with out awkwardness.
“I feel the border ought to be closed to all immigration frankly,” Rousseau mentioned. “If we’ve got any immigration, it ought to be from Europe. …Europeans which are prepared prepared and capable of assimilate into American tradition.”
“Whoah, whoah,” mentioned Vriend in a uncommon second of disagreement. “No, Canadians? What is that this?”
Rousseau clarified himself to point his openness to embracing his brethren from the north.
“Canadians are Europeans. We’re of the European race proper? So, the European race would come with Canadians, Australians … the Boers, issues of that nature,” he defined, including, “However I feel all these individuals, all these Mexicans ought to be deported.”
With their geographical variations put apart, Rousseau and Vriend have been capable of finish on a greater word. Rousseau even gamely carried out the stiff-armed “slashy salute” of Diagolon for the digital camera. The second illustrated how MacKenzie and his cohort are poised to affix a protracted custom of Canadian ties to the U.S. far proper that features Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes and white nationalist chief Richard Spencer’s Toronto interval. Vriend ended the printed on a word that exhibits the concrete affect of the far proper’s international connections as he implored his viewers to take part in fundraising for “the Coutts 4 protection” and to help imprisoned “lively membership” chief Robert Rundo, who’s at the moment jailed on this nation after spending time overseas.
The Diagolon viewers can be doing their half to assist the group forge ties right here within the U.S. On April 19, after Alex Jones shared one other admiring tweet about Pierre Polievre, a reader implored him to look past the Conservative Get together chief.
“Alex only a heads up, Poilievre is a globalist,” wrote the reader, whose profile on the location previously referred to as Twitter was adorned with the diagonal slashes Diagolon followers use to establish themselves on social media. “You may have been duped. If you would like the reality about Canadian politics look into Diagolon.”
Jones responded the next day.
“I’ll,” he mentioned.
This text was up to date to take away a reference to materials that was misattributed in one other publication.
