A self-proclaimed ‘Queen of Canada’ and her followers have been chased from their campsite on an abandoned school site after a fire hazard emerged.
The QAnon The cult left the school in Richmound, Saskatchewan, where they had installed a propane tank heater last week, two months into their stay.
Romana Didulo, 48, and her group called the “Kingdom of Canada,” have camped out in Canada in recent years to spread QAnon ideas.
Didulo, who declared herself “Queen of Canada” and later “Queen of the World,” made threats to execute local officials, medical workers, journalists and others in the QAnon movement.
With more than 60,000 online followers, the ‘Queen’ was inspired by the sovereign citizen movement, a loose group of anti-government activists who refuse to pay taxes and only adhere to the legal systems they themselves design.
Romana Didulo, 48, and her followers have been booted from their campsite on an abandoned school site in Richmound, Canada after creating a fire hazard with propane tanks
The cult, dubbed the “Kingdom of Canada,” has camped out in Canada in recent years, spreading QAnon ideas and anti-vaccination conspiracies.
The group left the old school in Richmound (pictured), where they had installed a propane tank heater last week, after staying there for more than two months.
They set up camp just 7 miles (11 km) east of the village in the Fox Valley Rural Community (pictured), on unused farmland, where they were given permission to stay by the landowner.
The self-proclaimed “Queen of Canada” moved to the old Richmound school with her 15 to 25 followers in September and had been livestreaming on the Telegram app since then.
The cult followed locals, made videos of them and sparked widespread protests in a village of about 150 people in southwestern Saskatchewan.
They then went a step further by sending numerous ‘cease-and-desist’ letters, threatening ‘public execution’ against members of the community who did not comply with the Queen’s ‘decrees’.
Mayor Brad Miller said Didulo and her followers entered the community with two RVs and up to 10 vehicles. CKOM reported.
‘They’re a bit hidden inside. She doesn’t come out that much and…it’s cordoned off and cordoned off,” Miller said.
‘As far as we know there is no running water and no heating. The building is lit at night and we can see activity there every night, but we don’t know much about the power yet.
“The zoning is commercial, but they’ve never gone outside the bylaws,” he said. ‘Our hands are tied. The RCMP’s hands are tied. There are a lot of people watching it.”
The self-proclaimed “Queen of Canada” moved to the old Richmound school with her 15 to 25 followers in September and had since been live streaming on the Telegram app
The cult followed locals, made videos of them and sparked widespread protests in a village of about 150 people in southwestern Saskatchewan.
Local authorities and residents faced obstacles in their efforts to remove Didulo and her followers because they had the express permission of Ricky Manz, the private owner of the building and land.
The sect received an invitation from Manz, a Didulo supporter who was arrested and charged with assault during an altercation in October and missed his court hearing last week.
Also last week, eagle-eyed locals spotted a propane tank heater in the background of the sect’s daily livestream, raising concerns about a possible fire code violation.
In response, local officials attempted to conduct an inspection visit but were denied entry, a village spokesman said.
However, within an hour of the visit, the group was seen packing and moving.
Miller said they set up camp just seven miles east of the village in the Fox Valley Rural Community, on unused farmland, where they received permission to stay from the landowner.
“I still think they might come back and if they do it will be a letdown. But when I see them leave, there will be the biggest celebration ever,” Miller said CBC.
‘It provides relief. You don’t know the feeling until you’ve lived with it. But they are still seven miles away. We keep working and trying to keep pushing them. I don’t care where they are or anything. Get them out of here.’
Didulo was raised by a teacher after her father, a lawyer, died when she was ten, and her mother died when she was eleven.
She emigrated from the Philippines to Canada and at one point became homeless after several failed business ventures, as previously reported by The Guardian.
Ten years later, in 2021, she founded her own nationalist political party, Canada1st, pledging to free Canadians from “slavery” and advocating the withdrawal from international alliances.
Didulo’s popularity saw a surge in May 2022 when leaders of the QAnon movement took notice of her speeches on Telegram.
In her speeches, she claimed that former US President Donald Trump is secretly fighting a group of influential individuals involved in Satan worship and child exploitation.
Her group also attempted to arrest police officers in Peterborough, Ontario, accusing them of “crimes against humanity,” a charge she claimed Queen Elizabeth II committed and for which she was executed.
Didulo founded her own nationalist political party, Canada1st, promising to free Canadians from “slavery” and advocating the withdrawal from international alliances
During the pandemic, Didulo encouraged her supporters to send fake “cease-and-desist” letters to health workers, demanding them to end public health measures and destroy vaccines.
“In a way, she has almost become a religious figure for her followers. She is charismatic and has created a movement for herself,” said Carmen Celestini, postdoctoral researcher at the Disinformation Project at Simon Fraser University.
“A leader will articulate a problem and then provide those solutions, even if that problem doesn’t necessarily exist,” Celestini told the Guardian.
“And that’s what she’s doing to a group of people who are afraid and have total distrust in their country’s institutions.”
During the pandemic, Didulo encouraged her supporters to send fake “cease-and-desist” letters to health workers, demanding them to end public health measures and destroy vaccines.
She threatened health workers to receive “not one, but two bullets in your forehead for every child you have harmed as a result of injecting this experimental vaccine.”
She also issued decrees – which had no legal force – to “acquit” her 34,000 followers of bills and debts, which resulted in several followers losing their homes and vehicles after following her advice.
After being driven from Kamsack in September, Didulo and her sect set up camp in Richmound, where they continued to disturb residents and draw the attention of police.
Despite leaving the village after more than two months, their presence has worried local residents as they are believed to live on a farm not far from the village.
This was said by a village spokesperson, who asked not to be identified BBC: ‘We are happy that they are gone, but everyone is still tense in case they come back’
The spokesperson fears reprisals from the group, which is now probably staying on a farm west of the village.
“They are very secretive about what they do, but they still care about what is happening in Richmound and are talking about a return,” Christine Sarteschi, a professor at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, told the newspaper.
“They’re unpredictable right now … and that unpredictability is making people nervous,” she said.