
<p>In The Cult Queen of Canada from CBC’s Uncover, a tiny Saskatchewan town faces a surreal crisis when a cult leader calling herself “The Queen of Canada” occupies an abandoned school. As neighbours turn on each other, a retired teacher leads resistance in a story about what happens when online extremism spills into the real world. Hosted by Rachel Browne.</p><p><br></p><p>Crime. Investigation. Revelation. Uncover brings you explosive, high-caliber true crime year-round. From CIA mind control to serial abuse, mysterious disappearances to wrongful imprisonment.</p><p><br></p><p>More episodes of The Cult Queen of Canada are available wherever you get your podcasts, and here: <a href="https://link.mgln.ai/CQOCxFB" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://link.mgln.ai/CQOCxFB</a></p>
Loading summary
Rachel Brown
Being a nurse means being focused on others, on what someone else needs to get through, to feel better, to get the job done. At Post University, our advanced nursing degree programs are focused on what you need to succeed with 100% online classes on your schedule and monthly start dates that are ready when you are. So you can go from RN to bsn, BSN to msn, even MSN to dnp. Ready to move your nursing career forward? Apply now at Post. Eduardo
CBC Announcer
this is a CBC podcast.
Jamie
Hey, everybody. Jamie here. What happens when a conspiracy theory literally drives into your backyard? That's what unfolded in the tiny rural prairie town of Richmond, Saskatchewan, population 120. In 2023, Romana Didalo, a cult leader who calls herself Queen of Canada, arrived with her followers and turned town's abandoned school into her royal court, which led to a prolonged and surreal stando in the cult Queen of Canada. From CBC's uncover, investigative journalist Rachel Brown uncovers how online extremism bleeds into everyday life and divides the town. The cult Queen of Canada is a story about polarization, power vacuums, and what happens when a small community becomes the testing ground for extremism in modern Canada. We have the first episode for you now. Have a listen.
Rachel Brown
This story takes place in the heart of the Canadian prairies, in a tiny village barely larger than a hamlet, not even big enough to be classified as a town. It's surrounded by farmland so flat and so vast, they say you can see the weather coming three days away. But this story is about a storm no one saw coming.
Shauna Sane
It was Thursday, September 14th. Got a text message from somebody local saying, oh, I hear that there's this person coming to Richmond.
Rachel Brown
Shana Sane is telling me about the day that everything changed in Richmond, Saskatchewan, population just over 100.
Shauna Sane
And over the course of the weekend. Then it was confirmed that, yes, these RVs showed up at the school. And this Romana Digilo is at the school.
Rachel Brown
Romana Didolo. Over the past few years, Romana had built a following online, becoming one of the most influential conspiracy theorists in North America. She calls herself the Queen of Canada.
Romana Didulo
I address you today as your commander in chief and queen.
Rachel Brown
Now here she was pulling into Shauna's little village, right into the school where Shauna had been a teacher for 23 years.
Shauna Sane
We drove by, I took pictures and video on my phone, seeing that, okay, here are these art with all the labeling on it. And Her Royal Majesty, Queen Romana Didilo, Kingdom of Canada.
Rachel Brown
Romana had arrived with a dozen or so followers, members of her group, her cult, the Kingdom of Canada. They drove into the school grounds in RVs with images of Romana's face and their flag on the side. The followers poured out in matching purple and white uniforms. Some had hats that said security on them, and they were filming or photographing anyone who went by. Some were in their 30s, but most of the group were older, in their 50s or 60s.
Romana Didulo
I have also said that there is no more politics and no more politicians.
Rachel Brown
They'd followed her to Richmond, drawn in by her strange mix of conspiracies. QAnon, anti vax, the sovereign citizen movement, even ideas that drift far beyond the fringe.
Romana Didulo
Your DNAs were manipulated and unplugged by the evil aliens that came to planet Earth 300,000 plus years ago.
Rachel Brown
But she doesn't just preach. She threatens anyone who stands in her way.
Romana Didulo
You will receive not one, but two bullets on your forehead for each child that you have harmed.
Rachel Brown
Shauna wondered why were they here?
Shauna Sane
I was just flabbergasted to think that, like, really something like this exists. There's a person driving around Canada who claims to be the Queen, and she's still driving around.
Rachel Brown
But Shawna quickly learned the Queen wasn't still driving around. She and her convoy had taken over the school. They weren't leaving, and Richmond wasn't about to let that happen, not without a fight.
Shauna Sane
The world knows Romana is no Queen of anything.
Romana Didulo
You need to go far, far away. Leave the phone down.
Brad Miller
You're under arrest.
Rachel Brown
Why am I being executed?
Romana Didulo
Here is to making life hell.
Rachel Brown
How croc the town is, really. I'm Rachel Brown and this is the cult Queen of Canada from CBC's Uncover the Story of a Small Town and the Cult that Tore it in half. Episode 1 the Queen Comes to Town. So the first time I visited Richmond was in 2024, and honestly, I was a bit nervous. I'd been investigating this story myself for a few months, and I'd heard that this cult was unpredictable, possibly armed, and that the locals here were increasingly on edge. But when I drove into Richmond and saw it for myself, all that was hard to believe. It's a very small town, just a few blocks, and there's a community center, a post office. That post office doubles as the convenience store and liquor store. The town is that small. There's no restaurant, there's no bar, there's not even a coffee shop. You have to leave town to even get gas.
Shauna Sane
Turn right onto Varsmith Bay.
Rachel Brown
I wouldn't call Richmond quaint. It's practical, industrial, but there's a sort of stoic prairie charm to it. The whole town takes just a couple of minutes to drive from end to end and I don't see a single person. It strikes me that more people live in my condo building than in this entire town. We're pulling past what looks like a museum and there's a church and welcome Rachel Brown. Is that me? There's a sign that says welcome Rachel Brown. That's weird. Interesting. I thought I'd been laying low in advance of this trip, but I guess word gets around in a town this small. I've been an investigative journalist for 10 years, reporting on religion, extremism and conspiracies. I've worked for news outlets around the world, including Vice Global News and the BBC. The story of Richmond grabbed me because it feels like a little social experiment. For the moment, we're living in Richmond is like a petri dish out in the middle of nowhere, where extremism, misinformation and conspiracy theories are all swirling together in one small town. Richmound welcomes you. There's a sign in front of what looks like an old arena. There's a few houses, small bungalows, and up at the end, we're now pulling up to the school. This is where Romana and her group are. All around the town is farmland and highway out to the horizon. It's an hour to the nearest city, Medicine Hat. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are about an hour away too. You need to be able to rely on your neighbors out here. If that trust is lost, things could go sideways fast. But I think you could consider yourself pretty lucky if you had a neighbor like Shana. Sane.
Shauna Sane
If you want some more soup, please help yourself.
Rachel Brown
Since the cult's arrival, she's become the local cult expert. Like a studious teacher doing hours of homework on them to the point that her in laws even rib her about it.
Shauna Sane
I'm worried about my daughter in law. I think she's gonna need like psychiatric assessment soon and maybe you can help.
Rachel Brown
She's my first stop on my tour of Richmond and she will not stop feeding me. It's delicious, Shauna. Thank you.
Jamie
Wow.
Shauna Sane
Are you gonna have a piece of cake?
Rachel Brown
Oh my goodness, yes. Okay. Shawna is in her 60s with a tidy silver pixie cut and sharp blue eyes. She flies around her home like a hummingbird. She's always doing a million things at any given moment. Watching her grandkids, tending to her farm and cooking. Sean, I'll ask you for you, what makes Richmond Richmond?
Shauna Sane
So I moved here to teach decades ago and it was a thriving community and the people would all pull together for the big events. When I first moved here, there was a lot happening with community functions. Skating rink was active and the curling rink was active. The school was very active. They had the men's baseball team, the Richmond Rockets. And every May long weekend, there was a huge ball tournament and teams would come. That used to be a big deal.
Rachel Brown
Richmond was thriving in the 1980s and 90s. It was a bit of a boom town. The reason Richmond is flourishing is natural gas. There was money in oil and gas housing sprung up, and it became the flourishing, close knit little farming community Shawna fell in love with. But by the 2000s, the oil and gas business slowed down. And like a lot of rural towns in Canada, Richmond's population got smaller. Shauna's school shrank, and by 2008, it shuttered.
Shauna Sane
Altogether, it was a K to 12 school. And in our last year of operations, we had only 55 students from kindergarten to grade 12.
Rachel Brown
After the school closed, the building sat empty, abandoned for years.
Shauna Sane
After that, the grocery store ended up being demolished, the curling rink closed, and we don't have what was here before.
Rachel Brown
But for Shauna, Richmond is still her home.
Shauna Sane
I love being out in the country. I love the peace, the solitude that we can enjoy a campfire at night. You can see the stars in the sky. We go into our little village and there's no lineup at the credit union. I mean, if one person is ahead of you, that's a lineup for us, right? So enjoying just the comfort and the convenience of knowing everybody in your town.
Rachel Brown
That comfort was shattered after the queen arrived at the school where Shawna had spent her whole career. Now her school is unrecognizable. There's a fence around the perimeter covered in no trespassing signs. What is going on with the fencing?
Shauna Sane
Well, they clearly, they need it for security because the people of Richmond are so evil.
Rachel Brown
Whoever put it up is no fencer. They painted over the school mural. The cult even destroyed the beloved school sign.
Shauna Sane
What was the school sign that said Richmond School with a u, like a Y O u personally in it because people always misspelled and mispronounced Richmond. They, you know, glance at it and call it Richmond. Right.
Rachel Brown
Romana posts a video of herself narrating as her followers drill into the sign.
Romana Didulo
The word school when spelled backward is luch, which I believe is a German word for dumbed down. So we want to make sure people have the understanding that this is no longer a school, a place to dumb down people.
Rachel Brown
Now the sign reads command Center Saskatchewan For Shauna, this takeover felt personal.
Shauna Sane
Absolutely personal and horrifying. I mean, losing the school was a. A big heartbreak for lots of us here. I mean, this is the job that I took leaving university, and then I taught here for 23 years until that school closed. I mean, it's a huge part of me.
Rachel Brown
It.
Brad Miller
It.
Shauna Sane
It feels like, you know, like it's been defaced.
Rachel Brown
And the most intimidating part was Shawna had no idea who these people were and what they could be up to inside the school. We heard from some locals that when they tried to approach the group, the cult members would just stand there filming them and refusing to speak. So Shauna decided to find out what she could online. She headed to her computer to start
Shauna Sane
trying to research, like, who is this and what's going on? And I couldn't believe what I was reading.
Rachel Brown
If, like Shawna, you'd never heard of Romana Didolo or her kingdom of Canada before, that first Google search might overwhelm you.
Romana Didulo
What's this?
Shauna Sane
What's this? What's this?
Rachel Brown
Romana is not your typical cult leader. She's short, middle aged, with spiky salt and pepper hair. She often dresses in business casual pantsuits and sneakers. More like the manager of a department store, not the leader of a cult or a country. She guides her followers through online videos where she repeats the classic QAnon talking points. That there is a cabal of Satan worshipping Democratic elites running a child sex trafficking ring and that Donald Trump is working behind the scenes to dismantle it. And she casts herself as the Canadian equivalent.
Romana Didulo
The people who appointed me are the white hats and the US Military, the same group of people who have helped President Trump.
Rachel Brown
And after crowning herself Queen, Romana tells her followers she has abolished old Canadian laws in favor of her royal decrees.
Romana Didulo
Queen Romana's in power, and we're not paying any more bills. Utilities are free.
Rachel Brown
But for Shawna, the thing that alarms her more than all of this is Romana's following. Romana had more than 70,000 followers on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app, and she had allegedly encouraged them to take violent action on her behalf before.
Shauna Sane
I did start to become fearful when I learned of the story of the police station in Peterborough.
Rachel Brown
Peterborough is a city east of Toronto. That's where, a couple years earlier, Romana's followers attempted a citizen's arrest of the local police. The whole thing turned into this violent, ugly brawl between her followers and the cops. A number of her followers were arrested.
Shauna Sane
Her followers showed up there with specifically that aim in mind, right? This is what she's telling us to do, so we will do this. So, yes, I was fearful that. Who are all these crazy people all over Canada and United States? Are they going to come here now? And what's going to happen?
Rachel Brown
And Shawna wasn't the only person in town doing research and getting worried. Other locals were scared, too. They wanted this group out of their town. And they were all voicing their concerns to one man.
Brad Miller
I don't know if I can say bullshit.
Rachel Brown
You can let it rip.
Brad Miller
Yeah, it is a lot of bullshit. The pressure was put on us right away. Like, even the good people were on us. Like, get them out, get them out, get them out.
Rachel Brown
Meet Richmond's mayor, Brad Miller. He's in his 60s, tall, with white hair. Brad's a hunter, a fisherman, an outdoorsy guy.
Brad Miller
Then I watch mountain men. I watch Life Below Zero. I like all those bush shows. I'm living out in the bush.
Rachel Brown
Brad spent decades working in oil and gas. Then he became a traveling meat salesman for a local butcher called Cattle Boss. And like a lot of the town, he's a former player for the Richmond Rockets. And that's football?
Brad Miller
No, baseball.
Rachel Brown
Baseball.
Brad Miller
Hardball, yeah.
Rachel Brown
Hardball, yeah. But beyond that tough exterior, he's a softie. He loves watching Lord of the Rings.
Brad Miller
You like Lord of the Rings so much?
Rachel Brown
Oh, yeah. My family loves Lord of the Rings. And he's certainly not your slick, press, trained politician type. You weren't super comfortable as a public speaker.
Brad Miller
No, not at all. No.
Rachel Brown
Maybe a bit nervous or just not.
Brad Miller
Oh, nervous in saying whatever. Whatever. Or some different word when my voice was jittery, like wicked jittery.
Rachel Brown
In fact, because of all the Romana drama, he feels he's gotten a lot better at public speaking.
Brad Miller
Oh, it took me from a one to a hundred in public speaking. And your feelings come out a little more, too.
Rachel Brown
But when he signed up to be mayor, he had no idea what he was getting into.
Brad Miller
I've lived here approximately 35 years, and I'm the mayor of Richmond for the last three and a half years. And I took on a job thinking it would be just a perfect setting and just do some really good budgeting and bring in some new things with the townspeople, whatever.
Rachel Brown
He was just trying to enjoy a little trip out of town. When the Queen arrived, me and my
Brad Miller
wife finally got away on a camping trip. Two days into it, I got a phone call and somebody said, do you know the Queen is here? Then I found out about it, and I thought it was Just a joke, whatever.
Rachel Brown
But by the time Brad gets back to Richmond, he finds out this is no joke. The people in town are worried.
Brad Miller
There was a 12 year old boy that came to my step and he said, oh, Brad, I'm scared. He said, when the lights were on that school and when we drove by, I get scared every night.
Rachel Brown
Rumors were flying about just how dangerous this group might be. Brad's constituents told me how worried they were.
Brad Miller
Well, we saw the place being barricaded and all of the no trespassing signs and the fences, the people standing on guard 24 hours a day, photographing us as we went by.
CBC Announcer
There is a picture of Romana's rv and she's got a shotgun and shotgun shells. Yeah, they're definitely armed.
Shauna Sane
I'm sure they are.
CBC Announcer
I'd stake my paychecks on it.
Romana Didulo
Somebody told me it was a culture and the word cult just scared the Jesus out of me.
Rachel Brown
And some of the locals had even started approaching the cult to tell them
Romana Didulo
off, told them to get the fuck out of my village, that they weren't wanted here, and they didn't like that.
Rachel Brown
The pressure for Brad to act was overwhelming. I mean, it sounds like your phone's ringing off the hook. You're still getting texts, like it's kind of taken over your life.
Brad Miller
Yeah, it is. And that's. It's not a good thing, really. It's. Starting to build up.
Rachel Brown
Yeah. Yeah. Like it's non stop. Right?
Brad Miller
Can you stop it?
Rachel Brown
Richmond wanted the cult out and so did Brad, but he wasn't sure what he could do as mayor.
Brad Miller
And if I wouldn't have been mayor, like, I'm a hunter, fisherman, I go out, I don't scare easy, whatever. And I didn't have no kids here. If I'd had kids here, I would have been worked up and I would have went over there and probably kicked the fence down.
Rachel Brown
Brad wasn't about to start anything, but he was frustrated and feeling stuck. So was Shana sane, who was following the cult's moves online and getting increasingly nervous. Then Shauna saw a post that terrified her. Romana was advertising to her massive online following that she was hosting an event, a meet and greet, in Richmond on October 14, 2023, just a few weeks out. All of her followers were invited to come to town for a ceremony to swear an oath of sovereignty to Romana.
Shauna Sane
Well, who's gonna come? Are there? You know, some really committed, devoted followers who really hate the idea of anybody not supporting her, who are going to come with swords and guns and whatever.
Rachel Brown
Mayor Brad was on the same page.
Brad Miller
It's not maybe what's here, it's what's coming here. Because she calls out all kinds of lunatics, right?
Rachel Brown
They worried, was this event going to get violent, like what happened in Peterborough? Or maybe worse, will more of her followers move into the school? They felt they needed to take a stand, something to get the town united against the cult and stop them settling in before Richmond became their permanent home. Then Shaa got an idea. A protest to coincide with Romana's meet and greet. Had you ever protested before?
Shauna Sane
Never.
Rachel Brown
She got the word out and other locals got on board. But then, just days before the protest, phones across Richmound pinged, including Shauna's, an email from an unknown sender. It was a death threat. Just days before the protest, Shauna received a threatening email.
Shauna Sane
And here it is.
Rachel Brown
When you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters. But when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Granger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Grainger offers millions of products in fast, dependable delivery so you can
Shauna Sane
keep your facility stocked, safe, and running smoothly.
Rachel Brown
Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop
Shauna Sane
by Grainger for the ones who get it done. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters
Rachel Brown
who first covered this story.
Shauna Sane
What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau. Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen, on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Shauna Sane, you have been served, and you are to immediately stop in capital letters, with your abuse of power, with your corrupt reign of unleashed terror. The military is very aware you are the ringleader who started this reign of terror. Act accordingly. Now, that's just the introduction, right, then, here's 1, 2, 3, 4 pages.
Rachel Brown
The group threatened to publicly execute Shawna and harm her children and grandchildren if she didn't stop her reign of unleashed terror.
Shauna Sane
Signed and sealed by we the people in brackets. Every living man, every living lady, every living baby boy, and every living baby girl of the kingdom of Canada.
Rachel Brown
Were you fearful that you could be targeted?
Shauna Sane
Absolutely, yes. Because not knowing who are her followers out there, right, there's nothing stopping a bunch of Wackadoodles from coming to Richmond and gonna go look for this Shauna Sane because she's clearly in charge of all the terrorism against Romana in Richmond.
Rachel Brown
Mayor Brad got one too.
Brad Miller
And then I read through it and I thought, yeah, it's a joke, whatever. And then they said, we will execute you in front of your children, your grandchildren, stuff like that.
Rachel Brown
The local firefighters, the paramedics, even some teachers at a nearby school got the same threats. Brad and his council compiled the death threat emails and sent them to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The RCMP would have to come out and at least investigate the school now, but then nothing happened. And is that not enough to lay charges? It's a threat. It's a death threat.
Brad Miller
I. I don't know. I don't know. I don't get it anymore.
Rachel Brown
According to Shauna, the RCMP said they couldn't take any action on the emails because they couldn't prove that the cult had sent them. I reached out to the rcmp and they declined my request for an interview. So Shawna and Brad's protest was back on, but now with even more urgency. Their enemy had gone from a group of strangers with wacky beliefs to a collective who knew their names and wanted them out of the way.
Shauna Sane
And I have put myself at risk, which doesn't make my children happy. They are warning me, like, take a step back. But on the other hand, how can I just sit here and do nothing when the police are not doing anything to help us?
Rachel Brown
October 14, 2023. The day of Romana's meet and greet at the school and the Richmond counter protest. Shauna arrived at the meeting point, the baseball diamond beside the school. She watched as Romana's followers started pulling up. Dozens of them, some older, some younger, with licenses plates from around the country, all driving in to swear their sovereignty to Queen Romana.
Shauna Sane
And there was one vehicle, and it was a family. I was shocked to see that there was a man and his wife and two young kids.
Rachel Brown
Cult members who were on security detail stood guard on the other side of the fence, filming everything. Then the RCMP started to arrive. The same RCMP who didn't do anything about the execution letters were now showing up in droves.
Shauna Sane
It's pretty horrifying when you have a little village where before this, most people didn't even lock their doors at night. When you get 30 or 40 or more vehicles coming to the school, which now looks like a compound, and there are 45 to 50 police officers set up outside our little fire hall. So it's pretty intimidating to see that kind of setup.
Rachel Brown
But then, to her enormous relief, Shawna's fellow protesters started arriving as well. In minivans, in trucks, some in farm tractors. People pulled out of Richmond driveways or drove in from surrounding towns. They all gathered at the baseball diamond and started circling around the school, honking and honking some more.
Shauna Sane
Somebody had a megaphone. Maybe there were two.
Rachel Brown
The media descended. Local, national, international, the cult conspiracy theorist group has sent out cease and desist letters. Hundreds of people stage a protest, angry
Shauna Sane
with the newest inhabitants of Richmond, Saskatchewan.
Rachel Brown
They interviewed Shawna, who acted as a town spokesperson.
Shauna Sane
Sick and tired of walking around and having a cell phone pop up and be in your face and on your license plate of your vehicle. Like, for what? What do you need that for?
Rachel Brown
An independent reporter from nearby Medicine Hat livestreamed all day.
Brad Miller
They got the loud horns, they got all the noise making that, and that is pretty loud.
Rachel Brown
Locals turned up with signs. Leave and take your sheep. Government of Saskatchewan. We need your help. You're not our queen. Hit the road. One local told me her signs were censored.
Romana Didulo
I prefer my signs, but I got told I couldn't put them out there.
Rachel Brown
What were they?
Romana Didulo
Fuck off and die. They're all over my truck.
Rachel Brown
Someone drove up in a semi. They brought out the beast.
Brad Miller
Holy frick.
Rachel Brown
But that's awesome. As the day went on, the group of protesters grew and grew.
CBC Announcer
It was like 50 to 100 cars circling grain trucks. Combines like it doesn't get more country bumpkin with people driving these ridiculous farm vehicles around.
Rachel Brown
Yeah, that's Steve, a local who got the group organized to make even more noise.
CBC Announcer
I said, okay, let's angle park in front of the school. And then it was like an orchestra conductor. And they said, okay, everybody. And it was like. And all the hordes are creating this like dissonance. And we did that for probably a good 25 minutes straight.
Rachel Brown
But after a while, they'd honked us so much that car horns started blowing out. That gave Steve an idea.
CBC Announcer
I'm like, okay, I go to the shop, pull open the big overhead door, and I pull out the race car. It is a hot rod Mustang GT. It is a 1982 chassis with a 1993 body on it with a 347 stroker, 8.8 gears in the back, 5 speed transmission, hot rod, big GT40 heads on it and big headers and all that stuff. So it's noisy. This car is loud.
Brad Miller
So.
CBC Announcer
So I pulled it out in front of the school and I would Thump on it. But it was so noisy for the people behind me. And it would echo between the farm to the north and the school. It's deafening and it shakes your chest. Their windows would vibrate. And then the police are like, did you insure your race car for the roads? I'm like, you know I didn't. They're like, take it home.
Rachel Brown
The RCMP were doing more than checking insurance. They set up checkpoints at both ends of town, meaning every car in and out was questioned. As the protest wore on, their presence grew. My former colleague Mack Lammereau was there covering the protest for Vice. He was amazed at the numbers.
CBC Announcer
There was a shitload of cops there with long arms rifles. There were K9 units there. They were definitely launching, like, small drones in the air. There was plainclothes RCMP officers who were the most obvious cops I've ever seen, because everybody knows everybody in this town. And all of a sudden, you know, there's just like two people walking around in khakis and everyone's like, oh, those are the cops. The town must have doubled in size that day.
Rachel Brown
The RCMP didn't show up after the execution letters. But now they were swarming Richmond. What did they think was going to happen?
Romana Didulo
Shame on you. Shame on. Get out. Get out.
Rachel Brown
Outside, the protest was deafening. But inside the school's gym, the sounds of horns were a distant hum. Followers were meeting and greeting their queen.
Romana Didulo
And to those of you who may not be aware, this event is live streamed around the world. This is Rich Man, Saskatchewan. We're meeting Richmond Venice.
Rachel Brown
The room is full. It looks like maybe 40, maybe 50 people are in there. And they're not just there to meet Romana, but to swear an oath of sovereignty. Romana hands out loyalty money, her own special currency, and new Kingdom of Canada passports for them, too.
Romana Didulo
To those of you who came here to take your oath of sovereignty, thank you for your courage. Thank you. Thank you for having the critical thinking. Do not listen to the media. Do not listen to the paid for psyops calling Queen Romana a cult.
Rachel Brown
The followers squeeze together to get in frame for the oath ceremony to be broadcast. You can see two kids in the front of the crowd who Romana calls VIPs of the VIPs.
Romana Didulo
VIPs of the VIP. Thank you for being here. All right, bye. Now
Rachel Brown
you can hear the voice of one kid echo a little later than the rest. Outside, the mood of the protest has shifted from cathartic to tense. The cult members on security detail had been walking the perimeter and filming protesters all day.
Brad Miller
And the folks that are on the the cult side there, they are getting more and more paranoid.
Rachel Brown
But as this independent journalist from Medicine hat noticed, there was an edge to them now.
Brad Miller
And it doesn't look like they're going
Rachel Brown
to be able to handle this protest
Brad Miller
going on by the folks around here.
Rachel Brown
Things are getting heated. Then, as Shauna looked around at her protest, she noticed something curious. Not everyone in town turned out to the event. In fact, there was one Richmond local who had been actively defending the cult.
Shauna Sane
Oh, who's that? That's Melinda on the other side of the rope, ranting and raving with the cult and with her phone in everybody's face, videoing everybody who was within inches of her. Okay, Melinda's with the cult.
Rachel Brown
Melinda Fisher. You're going to hear that name again. She vehemently opposed the protest in Richmond. It turns out Richmond isn't the close knit small town I'd imagined. It's divided into factions that date back years before the queen arrived. But to see locals supporting the cult. For Shawna, this development was unnerving. If Richmond isn't united against the cult, will they ever get them out? While all of this is happening, the protest ramps up.
Brad Miller
You got people up on the roof. They got up on the roof there. It was scary because they were on top of the school, standing there, watching us, photographing us. Their local supporters were out in the streets, harassing us, giving us the finger, screaming at us.
Rachel Brown
Steve, owner of the hot rod, looked at the horizon and said he noticed the police were preparing for the worst.
CBC Announcer
They had set up snipers like specifically trained for long distance sniping. And you could see them.
Rachel Brown
A tense feeling washed over the protest. It was at this point that people started to wonder how this was going to end. The cult members inside the fence were cornered. The protesters were only getting louder. And a lot of people started asking the same question.
Shauna Sane
Could it be another Waco?
Brad Miller
There's people here like, oh, this will end another Waco.
CBC Announcer
Some people perceive there's going to be
Brad Miller
a lot of Waco, Texas happening here.
Rachel Brown
Waco, Texas, 1993. The Branch Davidians, a doomsday cult led by David Koresh, had been stockpiling weapons in their compound in Waco. Federal agents raided the compound and the cult resisted. What followed was a 51 day standoff. It ended in a brutal shootout. Then the compound erupted in into flames. When all was said and done, more than 80 people were killed, including four federal agents. Richmound locals looked around at the protest unfolding and wondered if that was going to happen here.
Brad Miller
Some Waco, Texas stuff. It's scary, you know, who knows what's going to happen? Are they going to stockpile weapons and make this place scary? You know, who knows?
Shauna Sane
Nobody knew. And I think the police didn't know either, the rcmp, which is why they showed up.
Rachel Brown
But when Steve, the hot rod guy, looked around, he didn't think of Waco, Texas. He saw Antelope, Oregon.
CBC Announcer
Are you guys familiar with Antelope?
Romana Didulo
Oh, yeah.
Rachel Brown
Wild Wild Country. Yeah, the Rajneeshis.
CBC Announcer
Yes, the Rajneeshis.
Rachel Brown
Like a lot of us, Steve had seen Wild Wild country, the Netflix doc series about the small town in Oregon that got taken over by the Rajneeshi cult. That cult stockpiled ammunition, poisoned the population. The FBI got involved, all in an effort to drive out the locals and take over the town. Was Richmond going to be the next Waco or Antelope or something else entirely?
Romana Didulo
They're using the Canadian people, the people of the Republic, as their lab rats. And these actions will not go unpunished either way.
Rachel Brown
A storm had arrived in Richmond and it wasn't leaving anytime soon because as the town would soon discover, the cult had been summoned by one of their own.
CBC Announcer
I purchased the property at the end of 2017 and I invited Queen Romana and team to come to Richmond
Rachel Brown
this season on the call Queen of Canada.
CBC Announcer
If they want to come over and beat me up or shoot me or whatever, by all means, I'll do it.
Rachel Brown
We meet the families who have lost loved ones to Romana. We've all tried to help my dad with it, but he just wouldn't listen. He believes this so much and it
Shauna Sane
just breaks my heart.
Rachel Brown
Follow an election where everything hangs in the balance.
Shauna Sane
Here's a fresh reality check that they are planning something for our upcoming election in November.
Rachel Brown
And go inside the battle for Richmond.
Romana Didulo
I want to tear it down. I want to burn it to the ground. Know this. Inside the Republic, the penalty for crimes against humanity and treason is death.
Brad Miller
I told him flat out there's going to be a civil war in the Southwest if we don't get something going already. Like, people are fed up.
Romana Didulo
Foreign.
Rachel Brown
You can binge all episodes of the Cult Queen of Canada early on the CBC True Crime YouTube channel or for early and ad free listening, subscribe to the CBC True Crime Premium channel on Apple Podcasts. Just click on the link in the show description. The Cult Queen of Canada is a production of New Metric Media and Muse Entertainment for CBC Podcasts. The show is hosted by me, Rachel Brown. It's written and produced by Pippa Johnstone and Rachel Brown. The series producer is Chris Kelly. Sound design and original music by Mark Angley. Our senior producer is Jeff Turner. Our digital producer is Emily Kinnell. The series was developed by Chris Kelly, Courtney Dobbins and Rachel Brown. For New Metric Media, the Executive producer is Mark Montefiore. The Vice presidents the of podcasts are Chris Kelly and Pat Kelly. For Muse Entertainment, the executive producers are Courtney Dobbins and Jonas Pruppis. For cbc, the executive producers are Cecil Fernandez and Chris Oak. Tanya Springer is the Senior manager and Arif Narrani is the Director of CBC Podcasts.
Jamie
That was the first episode of the Cult Queen of Canada. If you like what you heard, all episodes from the series are waiting for you right now. Just search for Uncover wherever you get your podcasts and be sure to follow the feed so you don't miss an episode.
CBC Announcer
For more CBC Podcasts go to CBC CA Podcasts.
Date: May 18, 2026
Host: Jayme Poisson
Guest/Featured Journalist: Rachel Brown
Episode: The Cult Queen of Canada (Uncover)
This episode examines the real-life effects of online conspiracy theories when they spill into local communities, focusing on the arrival of Romana Didulo—a self-proclaimed “Queen of Canada” and conspiracy cult leader—in the tiny prairie town of Richmound, Saskatchewan. Investigative journalist Rachel Brown immerses listeners in a surreal and tense stand-off where local residents, led by figures like Shauna Sane and Mayor Brad Miller, must navigate intimidation, threats, and deepening division as Didulo and her followers turn an abandoned school into their “royal court.” The episode explores modern extremism's grassroots impact, the nature of community polarization, and the personal toll on locals.
“This is a story about polarization, power vacuums, and what happens when a small community becomes the testing ground for extremism in modern Canada.”
— Jayme Poisson (00:34)
“Romana posts a video of herself narrating as her followers drill into the sign: ‘The word school when spelled backward is luch, which I believe is a German word for dumbed down. So we want to make sure people have the understanding that this is no longer a school, a place to dumb down people.’”
— Rachel Brown / Romana Didulo (12:24)
“If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed?”
— Rachel Brown (22:28)
“And is that not enough to lay charges? It's a threat. It's a death threat.”
— Rachel Brown (25:03)
“The RCMP didn't show up after the execution letters. But now they were swarming Richmond. What did they think was going to happen?”
— Rachel Brown (31:20)
“Some people perceive there's going to be a lot of Waco, Texas happening here.”
— Brad Miller (35:51)
“A storm had arrived in Richmond and it wasn't leaving anytime soon because as the town would soon discover, the cult had been summoned by one of their own.”
— Rachel Brown (37:41)
For listeners: This episode is a gripping exploration of how global conspiracy theories can turn the very real fabric of community life upside down—sparking fear, resistance, and fundamental questions about how to respond when extremism “drives right into your backyard.”