Diagolon: What to know about the group whose founder shook Pierre Poilievre’s hand – National

Conservative management front-runner Pierre Poilievre got here below fireplace this previous weekend after a picture of him shaking palms with Jeremy Mackenzie, the founding father of a bunch referred to as “Diagolon,” emerged.

Shortly after the picture surfaced on Mackenzie’s public Telegram channel, NDP Chief Jagmeet Singh referred to as on Poilievre to “denounce Jeremy Mackenzie and Diagolon,” who he stated are “designated as violent extremists by Canada’s Built-in Terrorism Evaluation Centre.”

Singh was referring to a report from Press Progress, which final week printed a doc it obtained by means of access-to-information from the Built-in Terrorism Evaluation Centre, a federal group that assesses threats of terrorism to Canada.

The doc, dated Feb. 17, 2022, classifies Mackenzie as one of many “key anti-government IMVE (ideologically motivated violent extremism) adherents” that attended the so-called “freedom convoy” protests in Ottawa earlier this 12 months.

The Canadian authorities has not expressed formal concern about Diagolon nor does it record the group as a terrorist entity.

“Over the course of my marketing campaign I’ve shaken palms with actually tens of 1000’s of individuals at public rallies. It’s unattainable to do a background verify on each single one who attends my occasions,” Poilievre’s marketing campaign workforce stated in response to World Information’ request for touch upon Aug. 20.

“As I all the time have, I denounce racism and anybody who spreads it. I didn’t and don’t know or acknowledge this specific particular person.”

So who’s Mackenzie — and what’s Diagolon? Right here’s what it’s worthwhile to know.

A drug-addled demonic goat named Phillip. A fictional diagonal nation working from Alaska to Florida. An alleged plot to kill RCMP officers in Coutts, Alta.

There’s a typical thread uniting these matters: they’re all, indirectly, tied to Diagolon.

Founders of the group say it’s all one massive joke, a meme, and so they’re only a group of anti-establishment comedians. The demonic goat and fictional nation had been the product of “a number of edibles,” to listen to Diagolon founder Jeremy Mackenzie inform it.

His telegram channel has greater than 13,000 members, and he has at the least 10,000 subscribers on YouTube.

However after a patch bearing the group’s insignia was discovered alongside weapons seized by the RCMP close to the border in Coutts in February, some extremism consultants say they’re involved about what the multi-hour livestreams might encourage their viewers to do.

“It’s not simply an harmless podcast. It’s not simply irony,” stated Amarnath Amarasingam, an assistant professor at Queen’s College and professional on extremism.

These podcasters are giving their viewers a brand new “lens” by means of which to interpret their struggles, he stated – one which paints authorities because the villain and societal collapse as inevitable.

“The louder that will get, the extra people who message resonates with, then you definitely mechanically create the potential for one or two of them doing one thing about it.”

In an announcement despatched to World Information, Mackenzie rejected any suggestion that his livestreams might incite violence or aggression.

The purpose of his podcast, Mackenzie stated, is to “make folks giggle and alleviate their stress, construct a way of group to fight the social and religious isolation prevalent by means of society, make it abundantly clear that these extremely rich and highly effective people pushing the buttons in our house are to not be blindly trusted and not using a thought.”

It began with a single livestream.

Mackenzie stated he was “fairly ripped on edibles” one evening in 2020. That’s when the 36-year-old navy veteran realized the states with out COVID-19 mandates, when highlighted, shaped a diagonal line throughout the North American continent.

“I used to be like, ‘It’s going to finish up, that is the place all of the sane folks dwell.’ The remainder will go loopy, California will most likely sink into the ocean, New York will explode, and everybody will simply type of dwell on this line,” he advised a fellow podcaster on a livestream on July 7.

The joke turned increasingly more elaborate. The livestream dubbed the collection of states and provinces the “Empire of Diagolon,” Mackenzie stated.

In actuality, Mackenzie stated Diagolon is a “cultural clique.”

“There’s a group. It’s like a fan membership of a podcast, primarily. That’s actually all it’s — and it’s simply like-minded folks,” he stated.

The streams repeatedly specific their deep mistrust in political establishments, hinting at a societal collapse they consider the political elite has Canada careening in direction of.

The Canadian authorities has not expressed formal concern about Diagolon, although Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino did confer with “a far-right excessive group” in relation to the blockade in Coutts.

“A number of of the people at Coutts have robust ties to a far-right excessive group with leaders who’re in Ottawa,” he stated on the time.

He didn’t title the group.

Diagolon shouldn’t be listed as a terrorist entity in keeping with Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Act — and in keeping with Amarasingam, it doesn’t match that definition.

He stated the hazard with Diagolon, reasonably, lies with how its viewers may internalize the cynical worldview Mackenzie and different affiliated broadcasters current.

“I don’t get the sense that they know what they need to do subsequent…. There’s this type of fixed revelling within the grievance itself. However there’s no actual ask,” Amarasingam stated.

“That’s to not say specific people and this motion gained’t take it upon themselves to do it — as we (allegedly) noticed in Coutts.”

As anti-COVID-19-mandate demonstrations paralyzed the border at Coutts in February, the RCMP stated they turned conscious of a small, organized group on the protest that had “a willingness to make use of pressure towards the police.”

In a subsequent raid, Mounties uncovered 13 lengthy weapons, handguns, a machete, a big amount of ammunition and physique armour. Additionally they discovered two tactical vests — adorned with what Canadian Anti-Hate Community researchers consider had been Diagolon patches.

A 2023 trial date was set for the 4 accused on this raid July 11.

Mackenzie denies that the patches are affiliated together with his group. A publish on an internet site devoted to Diagolon suggests the patches are faux and being “used to border group members.”

In the meantime, the Diagolon founder has stated in livestreams that he’s “not doing something.” He’s simply “commenting” on the “harmful” behaviour of others — together with these in positions of energy.

“I’m simply pointing it out as a result of I don’t know what else to do,” he stated. “And if sufficient folks see it, possibly one thing will occur.”