New Documents Reveal More Government Subterfuge in Invoking Emergencies Act

Outrageous statements, faulty reporting on Diagolon and RCMP acquiescing to government demands to make their case...

Does anyone remember these bald-faced lies coming from the lips of then Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino last February? "The continuing street blockades in downtown Ottawa and recent border protests include links to a far-right extremist organization." He followed that up with this outrageous hyperbole! "The dangerous criminal activity occurring away from the TV cameras and social-media posts was real and organized. It could have been deadly for citizens, protesters and officers. We need to be clear-eyed about the seriousness of these incidents and indeed, several of the individuals at Coutts have strong ties to a far-right extreme organization with leaders who are in Ottawa."

Those were quotes from a news conference held by Mendicino which were published in an article by the Globe and Mail on February 16, 2022.

This was just two days after the RCMP arrested four men in Coutts, Alberta and then invoked the Emergencies Act on the Freedom Convoy. Those arrests followed a series of raids carried out by the RCMP between February 13 and 14, 2022, during the border blockade protest that convoy supporters had been participating in, at Coutts, for a number of weeks.  

Now just what was at the heart of this ‘real and organized’ dangerous criminal activity? Mendicino didn’t name a specific organization when he made these atrocious accusations. But, his spokesperson Alexander Cohen later confirmed to the media that the minister’s remarks were made in reference to Diagolon. So, who were its leaders that were in Ottawa as Mendicino claimed? Was it Tamara Lich or Chris Barber, who are currently on trial in Ottawa for their participation in the Freedom Convoy?  Well, thus far into their trial no mention has been made of Dialgolon at all. 

Diagolon symbol or logo

Was it the so-called Diagolon founder Jeremy MacKenzie? MacKenzie attended the Convoy in Ottawa intermittently, but spent much of his time at a farm on the outskirts of the city. He was never in Coutts. The four men arrested in Alberta who were ultimately charged with Conspiracy to Kill Police Officers, did not know MacKenzie personally, yet the media and the RCMP, by omission, connected them to Diagolon. They have, since their arrests, become known as the Coutts Four and have been held, without bail, at remand centres in Alberta for almost two years!

The Coutts Four—Jerry Mornin, Anthony Olienick, Chris Lysak, and Chris Carbert.

It would appear that most of these claims made by Mendicino were based on material produced by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN), an organization that has been heavily funded by the Liberal government and has a history of targeting what it deems as far-right extremism, rather than any far-left groups, such as say, ANTIFA. Documents obtained through Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIPOP) by Toronto Lawyer Caryma Sa'd and Elisa Hategan a former member of the CAHN, as part of their own larger investigation into the CAHN organization itself, reveal shocking details, not only about CAHN, but about the RCMP investigation into Diagolon. It also further shines a light on how the Trudeau government twisted CAHN’s unsubstantiated depiction of Diagolon—as a far right movement—to invoke the Emergencies Act.

What is disquieting about this whole course of events is that the internal reports of the RCMP, obtained via FOIPOP indicate that the RCMP, at the time of the arrests and invocation of the Act, had found no information to verify or corroborate that Diagolon was either a far-right or criminal organization. That would be because Diagolon was something that MacKenzie had created from the vivid imagination of a decorated Afghan veteran whose wartime experiences had left him scarred with many tragic memories that uses sardonic humour to cope with, including this internet meme of the fictional country of Diagolon*.

*Diagolon is a fictional country in a parallel universe based on a geographical divide he observed regarding the political response to the pandemic in North America. The Diagolon symbol or flag is a diagonal line against a black background, representing this divide. MacKenzie introduced it to his podcasts which had been growing in popularity. The concept took on a life of its own as fans collaborated to develop a rather absurd lore. That being that Diagolon’s head of state—King Phillip—was a cocaine addicted time-travelling goat and the the nation was at war with the fictional country of Circulon. I could add more, but you get the picture. It’s a meme that evolved into a game—not unlike Dungeons and Dragons.

CAHN was cited as the main authority on Diagolon, by all mainstream media outlets when reporting on the group, describing it as militant right-wing extremist organization. Yet, the RCMP, in the FOIPOP documents, concluded that due to the fact that all information on Diagolon could only be traced back to one source (CAHN) and that triangulation and verification of facts was almost impossible; Diagolon did not pose a criminal or national security threat. Additional RCMP documents went on to say that it was hard to understand how CAHN could assert that Diagolon is an ‘accelerationist movement that believes a revolution is inevitable and necessary to collapse the current government system.’ The RCMP maintained that due to lack of substantive open source material, actual operational information would be needed to supplement the profile.

Here are a few other excerpts from the RCMP’s evaluation of Diagolon

“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.” ▪ Simon Pillay, Inspector, OIC Ops1, Federal Policing National Security, February 2022*

Even after the Emergencies Act was invoked ongoing RCMP assessments of Diagolon continued to conclude the it did not pose a threat. 

 “We generally agree with the Key Assessments, 1) DIAGOLON is led by MACKENZIE, 2) based on current information, DIAGOLON does not meet dictionary definitions of a group.” • Matthew Desjardins, March 16, 2022 

We do not consider Diagolon a right wing militia group at this time, however assessment is ongoing as I understand it.” • Eliane Caron, Director of Ops Team 2, Federal Policing National Security (FNPS), April 8, 2022

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.” ▪ Submitted by: Ideologically Motivated Criminal Intelligence Team / Approved by: A/Director General, Federal Policing National Intelligence”, May 19, 2022.

The wheels on this series of events began turning on February 14, 2022, when the RCMP received an email–we have to assume, from someone in government–titled “Urgent WHAT WE NEED”. From that request, Adriana Poloz, Executive Director, of RCMP Intelligence and International Policing, tasked underlings to put together a key briefing document on Diagolon in as little as fifteen minutes. A report that would be sent up the government chain right to the Privy Council Office (PCO).

That report seemed to ignore the internal reports, compiled in February 2022*, by RCMP Natonal Security experts, which concluded that Diagolon did not pose a criminal or national security threat. Instead, it listed Diagolon among Ideologically-Motivated Violent Extremists (IMVE) adherents, along with the Three Percenters and Canada First. The report went on to say that Diagolon “adherents express desires to form a country based on right-leaning Canadian provinces and US states.” which is, of course, the way in which CAHN had described it. 

This hastily put together document, it would seem, gave the Trudeau government just what it needed to conclude that a real threat to territorial sovereignty existed and should be taken seriously. Whether the document was prepared by design to give the government what it wanted; or whether the omission of key information was due to the hasty manner in which it was put together can only be a matter of speculation. It was, however, this assessment from the RCMP that, in all likelihood, contributed to the government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act.

Two days after the Act was invoked Mendicino held his news conference where he made those remarks regarding the Coutts arrests. “Several individuals at Coutts have strong ties to a far right organization with leaders who are in Ottawa.“ While the Minister appeared to have great confidence in making that statement, it would appear he wasn’t willing to provide any further details on the ‘organization’ himself and instead referred media to the RCMP. The FOIPOP documents reveal an email thread that followed the February 16 news conference from RCMP officer Lisa McDonald-Bourg who, it appears, was with the RCMP Communications Department, to her colleague Leslie Sohm. In it she asked the following questions.

• Whether the RCMP could confirm a link between the individuals arrested at Coutts and members of the Ottawa protests?

• Does the far-right group the Minister referred to have a name, and can you provide any information on this group? 

• Any other information on this statement made by the Minister would be appreciated. 

Sohm forwarded the email to Inspectors Simon Pillay and Mike Saghbini at RCMP Federal Policing National Security (FPNS), which had been involved in the compiling the assessments on Diagolon; concluding it was not a national security threat. Yet, Saghbini was reluctant to provide any response saying he didn’t think FPNS should be responding at all, as it is still an ongoing investigation.

But the media pressure for a response was building so Sohm pressed onward. She told McDonald-Bourg that perhaps they could craft something from McDonald-Bourg’s ‘standing ongoing investigation (media) lines’ and the Ideologically Motivated Criminal Intelligence Team standing lines. Inspector Pillay weighed in suggesting that, ‘I think we could acknowledge what is already publicly available.’ He then provided a link to a Global News article that had been published a day earlier, following the Coutts raid and arrests, with the headline reading ‘Anti-hate experts concerned about possible neo-fascist involvement in trucker convoy.’

This is an excerpt from the article.

Note: Vests which appear to have the Diagolon symbole pinned to them on the top.

Those CAHN ‘anti-hate experts’ cited by Global, had been deemed unreliable by RCMP intelligence officials, yet RCMP officers had no problem referencing the Global article to address other media queries.

It would seem the RCMP, was twice asked to scramble and cobble together something on Diagolon, for the government, over a period of just 48 hours. The first time, it was URGENT—needed in 15 minutes— a briefing to give the government the ‘smoking gun’ it needed to invoke the Emergencies Act on February 14. Then, a second time—to invent a story to cover for Mendicino’s absurd and unfounded statements in the aftermath of declaring the Act. But, instead of sticking to their guns and saying they couldn’t comment on a ongoing investigation, RCMP staff googled news media articles to quote right back to the media, what it had already said about Diagolon and the Coutts arrests. One has to ask, why did they not refer the government to their own intelligence assessments of Diagolon, which concluded it was not a security risk?

Superintendent Roberta McKale.

That might be because the RCMP also held a media briefing in Alberta on February 14th, the day after they had conducted the raids that resulted in a total of thirteen arrests (including the Coutts Four) and the seizure of that dubious ‘cache’ of weapons and other items. The briefing, conducted by Superintendent Roberta McKale, never mentioned Diagolon. She only mentioned an organized group of people, who had come with weapons and intended to ‘do harm to police’. That was when the now famous photograph of the weapons cache and the vests with Diagolon tags, which looked suspiciously staged, was released to the media and the public. This of course implied the group of men arrested had ties to Diagolon, without ever saying so.

So what is the fall out of all of this? What does these new revelations mean. They mean that the Trudeau government was intent on finding a reason to invoke the Emergencies Act on the Freedom Convoy. They used dishonest means and subterfuge, with the RCMP appearing to cooperate, in helping them do so, despite its own benign assessments of Diagolon.

There are still four men in jail, as apparent Diagolon members or affiliates, that have yet to have been found guilty of anything. None of them knew MacKenzie, who has said on numerous occasions—including during his testimony at the Public Order Emergencies Commission (POEC) Inquiiy—that he didn’t know them. Only that he had briefly met Lysak on a couple of occasions at Meet and Greets for fans of his podcasts and had his picture taken with him.  

As for MacKenzie, he was certainly on the RCMP and government’s radar despite assessments that concluded Diagolon could not be classified as a far right extremist group. He likely first came to attention when he took part in a protest to condemn the Trudeau government’s decision to award Omar Kadhr, a Canadian citizen, who had fought for Taliban in Afghanistan, $10.5 million to compensate him for the ten years he had spent in Guantanimo Bay. The Harper government had, during those ten, refused to repatriate Kadhr back to Canada, but the Trudeau government did so when they came into power. As an Afghan veteran, MacKenzie had very strong and emotional views on the matter of the Canadian government making a terrorist, as far as he was concerned, a multi-millionaire.

MacKenzie’s podcasts, while often having humourous undertones, were highly critical of the government, the Canadian Armed Forces and its treatment of veterans. He was also critical of the RCMP, and gave a scathing critique of its response to the Nova Scotia mass shootings that occured in 2020; his review was largely validated three years later by the Mass Casualty Commission.

So, given the climate of the current government, it is not surprising that MacKenzie in November of 2022, found himself being arrested on a Canada-wide warrant for an incident near Viscount, Saskatchewan that had occurred a number of months back. He was arrested at his home in Cole Harbour, N.S., taken into custody and flown to Saskatchewan where he spent some 50 days in jail before being released on bail. His bail was initially denied largely due CAHN allegations made about him and Diagolon. Those charges against MacKenzie have since been stayed. But he still faces a number of other legal battles and has been debanked by the Bank of Nova Scotia. Still he ‘soldiers on’ with Diagolon.

So what is left to say about a government whose senior Cabinet Minister tells out and out lies about a so called right-wing group that doesn’t even exist, according to its own federal police force, to justify its use of the Emergencies Act on peaceful protesters, challenging its COVID mandates?

And then have that federal police force, the RCMP, manufacture material to prop up his lies and his government’s lies. And what do you say about a government who relies on dubious CAHN allegations, to persecute its own citizens, and an Afghan war veteran? Nothing, their actions speak for themselves, and they scream corruption, to its very core.

Here’s the link to for more information on Carema S’ad’s and Elisa Hategan’s deep dive in the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.