Is POEC's Justification on the use of Emergencies Act on Convoy a House of Cards?

Conflicting intelligence reports, tenuous connections, and serendipitous coincidences

The recent release of the Hate-Gate Report* compiled by Toronto Lawyer Caryma S’ad and Elisha Hadegan, a one time member of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN), uncovered some shocking revelations behind the Trudeau government’s invocation of the the Emergencies Act on the Freedom Convoy. According to the Hate-Gate Report the government relied on faulty intelligence assessments, from the RCMP and CSIS, on something called Diagolon, and its so-called connection to the Freedom Convoy, to justify invoking the Act. According to the report’s authors those assessments were based on biased information produced by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) that had labelled Diagolon a far-right, neo-facist accelerationist group whose connection to the convoy could lead to the potential for violent extremism. Yet, the government never questioned CAHN’s veracity as a primary source of information on Diagolon, or even wilfully ignored it.

*The Hate- Gate Report is based on documents released under the Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection Act (FOIPPA) and its own investigation into CAHN.

When the Commissioner of the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) Justice Paul Rouleau ruled the Trudeau government was justified in invoking the Emergencies Act on the Freedom Convoy, he too focused on the Diagolon’s connection to the Ottawa protest which had he viewed as surfacing at the border blockade protest in the town of Coutts, Alberta. He found Diagolon’s presence to be: "the most troubling connection between the protest locations.‘ Did the Commissioner also rely on those faulty intelligence assessments and if he did so, why?

Diagolon-Convoy Connection — Coutts Border Blockade Raids and Arrests

So what occurred in the town of Coutts, Alberta, which was where one of several border blockades had erupted across the country during the Freedom Convoy in support of its protest? On February 13th and 14th, the RCMP made a series of raids—based on information of an imminent threat—in Coutts, which resulted in number of arrests. The arrests included four men who were ultimately charged with conspiracy to commit murder (of police). The RCMP also seized a cache of weapons in a number of trailers located in Coutts, which were the property of some of the men who were arrested. Seized with the weapons was body armour, that was identified to have attached to it, black rectangular patches with a white line drawn diagonally across the rectangle—this was apparently a replica of the Diagolon flag or symbol.

Diagolon symbol or flag

Shortly after the arrests, the RCMP released photographs of the weapons cache which displayed the body armour with the Diagolon patches. The RCMP never actually mentioned Diagolon in their media briefings on the arrests and only referred to the presence of a ‘criminal organization’.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino in his testimony at the POEC, referred to the four men arrested as a hardened cell of individuals armed to the teeth with lethal firearms, at Coutts, who possessed a willingness to go down with the cause."  The inference was that these men — the hardened cell of individuals — in custody, were connected with Diagolon. Justice Rouleau, in his POEC, summary noted: ‘The situation in Coutts was a concrete manifestation of the very risk that had been identified to Cabinet: a highly disruptive, but mainly peaceful protest that included a smaller group of actors who allegedly intended to effect serious violence for a political purpose".

So What is Diagolon?

This Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS), intelligence report dated February 21, 2022, and titled Diagolon Participation in the Freedom Convoy 2022 and Beyond, provided to the POEC, offered this description of Diagolon: Online personality Jeremy Mackenzie created Diagolon in January 2021 as a fictitious country to inspire unity among like-minded individuals. It represents a symbol of defiance against the government’s COVID-19 restrictions and mandated vaccinations. Diagolon members also voice grievances against increasing restrictions on firearms and promote a variety of conspiracy theories related to the government at large. Throughout 2021, Diagolon has expanded from an online presence to a real-world community that conducts in-person meetings* across the country. This description of Diagolon is hardly sinister. However, there are redacted sections entitled: Violent Rhetoric of Diagolon and Diagolon Participation in the Freedom Convoy.

*The expansion of Diagolon’s online presence in real world amounted to Mackenzie, hosting Meet and Greet barbeques for his podcast fan-base in a number of provinces.

The unredacted information under the section Diagolon Participation in the Freedom Convoy reads as follows.

Prior to actions of law enforcement on February 19-20 to clear the convoy in downtown Ottawa; Diagolon ‘members’ continued to maintain a presence at the Freedom Convoy. Mackenzie and two other ‘members’ were in Ottawa during the weekend of February 12-13. Mackenzie has claimed that he would not leave Ottawa until all COVID 19 mandates are removed.

‘Leaders’ of Diagolon did not call for violent participation in the Freedom Convoy and specifically asked that members attend to peacefully support the convoy. They believed that any attempt to label demonstrators in the Freedom Convoy as extremists would reduce the legitimacy of the demonstration and would allow further police and government intervention against demonstrators. 

Then CSIS’s tone changed slightly: Though there were calls for peaceful protest among Diagolon at the onset of the Freedom Convoy 2022, the tone of open messaging from key figures has become more focused on law enforcement over the past weeks. There have been more overt calls for members of Diagolon to travel to Ottawa and ‘hold the line.’

With respect to the Convoy, CSIS stated the following in another Analytical Brief dated February 2, 2022, obtained by Blacklocks Reporter: “The service is unaware of the presence of ideologically-motivated extremist groups at this weekend’s protests.”

So Diagolon, in the person of Mackenzie, and according to the CSIS report, and other ‘members’ were present at the Convoy—telling protesters to remain peaceful.

According to the Hate-Gate report Diagolon and Mackenzie played no role in organizing the Freedom Convoy, he had simply learned about the it through social media and concluded it would be a ‘big deal.’ He drove from his home province of Nova Scotia on two occasions to visit the convoy. While there he stayed at a farm outside the city and drove into town from time to time to visit the convoy. Once the Emergencies Act was invoked, he stayed away and watched things unfold on the news.

Enter the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) which has had Diagolon in its sites since 2019, and described it as follows on its website: Diagolon has the markers of militant accelerationism and narratives shared within the movement serve as primers and justification for accelerationist violence. MacKenzie and his collaborators create the preconditions for Ideologically Motivated Violent Extremism. They convince their audience that they are facing an existential threat, that it can’t be solved by democratic processes, that there are targets who are responsible, and that violence towards them is inevitable, justified, and righteous. Members of the movement, generally speaking, share the goals of many far-right populists – the formation of an illiberal republic, a halt to “mass immigration,” and the maintenance of Euro-centric societies.

The Hate-Gate Report countered CAHN and its villification of Diagolon as follows: CAHN described Diagolon as wanting to establish a white ethnostate, although this idea was never articulated in the hundreds of hours of livestreams. MacKenzie’s fanbase was called “militia-like”— at some point the qualifier was dropped, then added back. In fact, there was no evidence that Diagolon was an organized group of armed civilians, outside of CAHN’s imagination. An affinity for gun culture–which appeals generally to military-inclined people–cannot be conflated with the definition of militia. It may warrant law enforcement keeping an eye on things, but it is essential to consider context and intent when assessing risk. 

Diagolon ‘Founder’ Jeremy Mackenzie Testifies

Mackenzie testifying at the POEC from jail, which is another story in itself.

This focus on Diagolon—portrayed as it was, by CAHN, and apparently in intelligence reports from the RCMP and CSIS, was enough to summon its ‘founder’ Jeremy MacKenzie to testify at the POEC Inquiry. He was eager to appear to share his perspective and hopefully to put to rest some of the allegations made against him and Diagolon by CAHN.

Mackenzie is a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), and a decorated Afghan war veteran. He has since become a podcaster and comedian and his podcast—The Raging Dissident—had become quite popular. He was quite candid about the fact that, in his podcast, he is critical of the government and many of its policies. He was also critical of the RCMP. His video criticizing its response to the mass shooting in his home province of Nova Scotia 2020 garnered as many as one million views, and likely, he believed, put him on the RCMP’s radar. Many of his criticisms were similar to the findings of the Mass Casualty Commission.

It was from this podcast that Mackenzie created Diagolon—a fictitious country—based on drawing a diagonal line down North America from Alaska to Florida, to include all the prairie provinces and the Midwestern states through to Texas and Florida. It was a traditional conservative geographical divide—which he described as a ‘pretend parallel universe.’ He then created the ‘flag’ by drawing a white diagonal line across a black rectangle to represent this ‘parallel universe’. He described it as a form of branding for fans—from which stickers and the like could be made.

When asked about an RCMP report that described Diagolon as: A militia like network that is armed and preparing for violence and has supporters that express sentiments akin to accelerationists viewing a coming collapse or a civil war as necessary to right the course of the country.  He denied the allegations saying much of that narrative came from certain actors and members of the media, and CAHN.

Mackenzie was then asked whether he knew if CAHN’s views on him and Diagolon had been relied upon by law enforcement and other senior federal government officials. He replied that he had, through the disclosure of documents, via various legal proceedings, learned that police were relying on information from articles by CAHN, as open source intelligence, and taking it a face value and using it in their intelligence reports.

When asked about CAHN and it’s tactics Mackenzie didn’t hold back his criticism, He said: ‘It’s my opinion that the foundational work of the CAHN, as it pertains to targeting me, which has enjoyed a fair amount of government funding, to target and smear people that they consider politically inconvenient, or people they want to shut up. They regularly engage in inflammatory statements, and take statements out of context. They will take a clip here, a sentence there and stitch it together to make it appear it something that it is not. From there legacy media, lazily, it appears take it at face value, copy and paste, and then print the story. It is then consumed by police officers, who, rather than doing any digging themselves, compile these reports that go up the chain of government where they are faced with scenarios that have no basis in reality. He described the current situation as entirely avoidable, and absurd, the most grotesque intelligence failure in national history.

Jeremy Mackenzie on his podcast

Mackenzie was well aware that CAHN was targeting him and Diagolon and, the more CAHN vilified him and Diagolon, says the Hate-Gate report: ‘a stubborn and defiant Jeremy doubled down with more sarcasm. The joke became people not getting the joke, in a meta way. Community members began referring to themselves as “bigots,” intending to dilute the sting of a word carelessly misapplied. This was interpreted as an admission of intolerance.

The Canadian Anti-Hate Network’s Affidavit to the POEC

CAHN Exective Director Evan Balgord submitted a sworn affidavit to the POEC on Diagolon and Mackenzie after Mackenzie testified.

Mackenzie’s testimony and his criticisms of CAHN seemed to rankle the powers that be at CAHN. In an effort to to counter his testimony, CAHN’s Executive Director, Evan Balgord, introduced a sworn affidavit containing its assessment of Mackenzie and Diagolon to the POEC. According to Balgord, the POEC ‘didn’t have a significant amount of evidence on Diagolon’, so he decided to provide it. The Commissioner accepted CAHN’s affidavit on its face—much in the same way, it would seem that police and legacy media have. Mackenzie’s lawyer was not even informed that CAHN had submitted an affidavit to contradict his client’s testimony. Therefore he had no opportunity to challenge Balgord on the accuracy of his assessment of Diagolon, through cross-examination. According to Caryma S’ad, herself a lawyer, the evidentiary value of such an affidavit would have been next to useless in court, if not inadmissible altogether. For the POEC to have accepted such evidence from CAHN, in the manner in which it did, is, to say the least, both questionable and injudicious. Yet, the Justice Rouleau accepted it, and it would appear, gave it considerable weight.

Canadian Anti-Hate Network’s Questionable Reputation

The Hate-Gate report maintains that since it establishment in 2018, CAHN’s tactics and research methods have come under scrutiny and criticism. It has been accused of using inflated numbers and dubious metrics when reporting on ‘hate’ groups. Other assertions include smearing the competition, shady research tactics, the use of anonymous ‘experts’ who refuse to provide credentials or evidence to confirm their expertise, and making false and unsubstantiated claims. CAHN is also known for ignoring vicious harassment campaigns carried out by its supporters, against critics and competitors. CAHN openly admits that its focus is entirely on right wing groups or movements. Its Executive Director Evan Balgord when appearing before Commons Standng Committe said, “We are very proudly anti-fascist, and we focus on the far right.“

In addition to Diagolon, CAHN has written questionable disparaging reports on others. This includes James Topp a 28-year veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) who served in Afghanistan, Croatia and Bosnia, who marched across the country to protest federal COVID mandates. It has also done so on Josh Alexander and (Billboard) Chris Elston both of whom protest the indoctrination of children in extreme gender ideologies in schools and the use of puberty blockers on minors for ‘gender affirming care. Just recently CAHN described organizers of the Million March 4 Children protesting the indoctrination of their children with transgender ideology in schools as far right extremists, and by extension the parents who marched in the protest. CAHN also incited counter-protesters to take to the streets to thwart the Million March. Is that really an appropriate action for an organization that is only supposed to be evaluating ‘hate’ groups? 

During the Freedom Convoy, Bernie Farber, Chairman of the CAHN’s Board of Directors, posted a picture of an anti-semitic flyer on social media, claiming that it had originated with the Freedom Convoy. He ‘Tweeted:’ ‘Taken by a friend in Ottawa at the ‘occupation.’ The picture, however, was a screen-grab of a flyer from an earlier unrelated event held in Miami, Florida. It was Jonathan Kay, an associate editor at Quillette, that debunked the flyer. He tweeted, “Wow Bernie, isn’t it incredible that the picture your ‘friend in Ottawa at the Occupation’ sent you is identical to the photo posted on Twitter two weeks ago by someone in Miami, right down to the ceramic design in the background?”

Farber defended his post before ultimately deleting it. But it remained up long enough, to catch the attention of legacy media and members of the NDP who perpetuated the hoax.

Despite these criticisms, evidence of spreading misinformation, and admissions of its bias, the mainstream media, and law enforcement agencies seem to unquestioningly take CAHN’s work for granted and it would seem Justice Rouleau did so too.

Contradictory and Conflicting RCMP Intelligence on Diagolon

During Mackenzie’s testimony the POEC’s lawyer, relayed to him portions of RCMP intelligence reports on Diagolon, wherein the RCMP described Diagolon as: a militia like network that is armed and preparing for violence that has supporters that express sentiments akin to accelerationists, viewing a coming collapse or a civil war as necessary to right the course of the country. An assessment Mackenzie denied.

Here’s where things get a bit confusing. The RCMP in gathering intelligence on Diagolon, had reviewed CAHN’s assessment of the ‘organization’ and Mackenzie. According to the RCMP’s profile on Diagalon compiled in 2022 (no month included in the document) they found that the serious allegations CAHN had made about Diagolon and Mackenzie were difficult to corroborate or substantiate.

The Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) is cited as the main authority on the group (Diagolon) by all mainstream media outlets; due to the fact that all information traces back to one source, triangulation and the verification of facts is almost impossible at the current time. Based on the information that is publicly available, it is difficult to understand how CAHN can confidently assert that Diagolon is an ‘accelerationist movement that believes a revolution is inevitable and necessary to collapse the current government system’… Due to a lack of substantive open source material, operational information would be needed to supplement the profile.

In February 2022, Inspector Simon Pillay with RCMP Federal Policing National Security, concluded the following: Based on the source material and evidence I have personally viewed, we would have a hard time refuting the contents thereof despite how “Diagolon” is being portrayed in the media and the House of Commons. Just another example of why our direction to investigators is to be evidence focused and not caught up in the hype of the media surrounding this matter.”

Even after the Emergencies Act had been invoked RCMP intelligence officers still seemed at odds in defining Diagolon. In an email dated March 9, 2022, with the subject line: “Rejigging of my paper”, analyst Kandi Piamonte asks analyst Andrew Warden ‘whether there is any specific quantifier or qualifier to define a terrorist “group.”

In April of 2022, RCMP Federal Policing and National Security maintained: We do not consider it (Diagolon) a right wing militia group at this time.

In May of 2022, the Ideologically Motivated Criminal Intelligence Team of RCMP Federal Policing National Intelligence concluded that ‘although Diagolon is based on a set of satirical ideas, the community does not appear to have any coherent ideological purpose, objective or cause. It appears that Diagolon as a distinct entity does not pose a criminal or national security threat at this time. 

The RCMP had been monitoring Diagolon as far back as July 2021, and even then intelligence analysts found: ‘The channels are REMVE [sic] + conspiracy theorist in nature, but not accelerationist and no incitement of violence… no criminality. ‘

So one has to ask, where did the RCMP intelligence report come from that the POEC had questioned Mackenzie on which described Diagolon as: A militia like network that is armed and preparing for violence, that has supporters that express sentiments akin to accelerationists viewing a coming collapse or a civil war as necessary to right the course of the country. 

Could it have come from an ‘URGENT-What We Need’ request the RCMP received in the form of an email from the government (source of email unknown) on February 14, 2022. Adriana Poloz, Executive Director, of RCMP Intelligence and International Policing, forwarded the email on to Lisa Ducharme in RCMP Federal Policing National Intelligence (FPNI) who responded: “Will do our best but this is quite a lot of analysis and writing to do in 15 minutes.” The task was handed over to Ashley Chen also in FPNI.

The report, cobbled together in just 15 minutes, listed Diagolon among Ideologically-Motivated Violent Extremists (IMVE) adherents (as CAHN had), along with the Three Percenters a far-right anti-government militia, and Canada First. It described Diagolon as a “meme-based and satirical movement.” but went on to say that its “adherents express desires to form a country based on right-leaning Canadian provinces and US states.”

Chen received kudos for her work from Ducharme: Talk about an amazing intelligence ‘pull it together in 15 minutes’ assessment! Thank you so much. Your work has been shared at the highest level over at PCO. This request originated from a pressing tasking from the National Security and Intelligence Advisor (JodyThomas)for such information to help inform senior government decision-making. Talk about work impact! Well done Ashley, and thank you again for the outstanding work. Best regards, Lisa

The report’s description of Diagolon seemed to parrot how CAHN had characterized Diagolon, rather than relying on any of the RCMP intelligence reports that had still not come to a conclusion on Diagolon and were even questioning the veracity of CAHN’s assessment of it. Yet, the 15-minute report also seemed to fit well with the RCMP intelligence report the POEC lawyer had questioned Mackenzie on. Is it a coincidence that the request for this report, which was prepared to ‘help inform senior government decision-making’ came in on February 14th? Is it another coincidence that it coincided with the arrests of four men in Coutts, Alberta, some of whom appeared to have at least, a tenuous a connection to Diagolon? Does it seem that a very neatly wrapped package was delivered to the government, by the RCMP, on the same day it invoked that Act?

Too Many Coincidences?

The question is why didn’t Justice Rouleau question these coincidences? Had he not seen the numerous RCMP intelligence reports that came to the conclusion that Diagolon did not pose a criminal or national security threat, nor could it be labelled any type of militia group. Did he not take note of the fact the the RCMP itself, questioned the whether CAHN’s and the legacy media’s reports on Diagolon were more hyperbolic than accurate. Did he, instead just rely on the contents of the 15 minute report—much of which was redacted when it was released under (FOIPPA). Did he believe the CAHN affidavit and put more weight on it that Mackenzie’s testimony, where he was subject to cross-examination, where CAHN was not.

Then there are the four men arrested in Coutts, facing very serious charges. If the evidence as to whether or Diaglon did or did not pose a threat to security was ambiguous based on the collective intelligence, and questionable assessment of it by CAHN, why would their connection to Diagolon matter? And how was this somehow connected to the convoy in Ottawa? Why would the Commissioner find that connection ‘troubling,’ enough to rule that the government was justified in invoking the Emergencies Act?

When one assembles all the pieces of information leading to the invocation of the Emergencies Act and the POEC’s determination that it was justified, it is like a house of cards. The removal of, or changing of, a single card could bring down the entire house. And that card could be those four men arrested in Coutts and charged with conspiracy to commit murder. They have been held in custody, without bail for almost two years and have come to be known as the Coutts Four, and in some circles are considered to be Canada’s political prisoners. (Newsweek article)

Jerry Morin, Tony Olienick, Chris Lysak and Chris Carbert

Their trial began in June of 2023, but was waylaid by motions over late disclosure of evidence on the part of the Crown, and adjournments. Then accusations of prosecutorial misconduct on the part of the trial Crown Attorney, arose from the defence. This was predicated on unredacted disclosure materials that the had Crown inadvertently provided to the defence in a late disclosure package of evidence. The defence alleged that the Crown prosecutor had given false and illegal instructions to the police leading up to the arrest of the four men. The defence further claimed that this was an illegal act and requested that information be 'unsealed’ and made public. That particular Crown counsel was then recused from the trial. Justice David A. Labrenz, has since ruled that the package will be unsealed. However, the trial went on hiatus in September and will likely not recommence until November 2023—when it is expected the material the caused the defence allege prosecutorial misconduct will be revealed. Meanwhile, the four men remain behind bars.

What if this material exonerates these men and or exposes nefarious activities on the part of the Crown, the RCMP or the government? What if the reason for invoking the Act was based on false or illegal premises? What if Diaglon, which seems to have been at the centre of much of this and had the Commissioner so ‘troubled’, is shown to have nothing to do with this—other than a couple of patches on a armoured vest? What if four men have spent almost two years behind bars, are guilty of nothing? Who, if anyone, will be held accountable and pay the price if this house of cards falls apart.