What happens when a conspiracy theory drives into your backyard?

Summary

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Front Burner (CBC): "What happens when a conspiracy theory drives into your backyard?"

Date: May 18, 2026
Host: Jayme Poisson
Guest/Featured Journalist: Rachel Brown
Episode: The Cult Queen of Canada (Uncover)

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Episode Overview

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.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Cult’s Arrival and Early Shock

• The Incident: On September 14, 2023, Romana Didulo and a convoy of followers arrived in Richmound, setting up at the long-abandoned school.
  • RVs were emblazoned with Didulo’s image and her faux-royal insignia.
  • Followers wore purple and white uniforms, security gear, and filmed locals.
• Shauna Sane’s Reaction: “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.” (04:26)
• Romana’s Radicalism: Didulo’s online videos boast a mix of QAnon, anti-vax, sovereign citizen, even alien conspiracy theories, and explicit threats against perceived enemies.
  • “You will receive not one, but two bullets on your forehead for each child that you have harmed.” (04:10)

2. Local Backstory: The Identity and Decline of Richmound

• Town Profile: Once a thriving, close-knit farming town buoyed by the oil and gas industry, Richmound’s school closed in 2008 due to population decline. Central institutions withered, leaving the school abandoned and the community diminished but still tight-knit.
• Shattered Comfort: Didulo’s takeover of the old school, defacing familiar landmarks and surrounding it with fencing, felt “absolutely personal and horrifying” to Shauna Sane. (12:48)

3. Research, Fear, and the Spread of Conspiracy

• Learning About Didulo: Locals like Shauna turn online to research Didulo’s background, discovering her history of inciting followers and prior violence.
  • Reference to a violent attempted “citizen’s arrest” by Didulo supporters in Peterborough, Ontario.
  • “Her followers showed up there with specifically that aim in mind, right? ... Who are all these crazy people all over Canada and United States? Are they going to come here now?” (15:41)

4. The Town’s Response and Rising Tensions

• Mayor Brad Miller: Candid and outdoorsy, Miller is thrust into crisis leadership as residents look to him for action, feeling immense pressure.
  • “Even the good people were on us. Like, get them out, get them out, get them out.” (16:16)
• Community Anxiety: Increased fear, especially among youth. “There was a 12 year old boy that came to my step and he said... when the lights were on that school... I get scared every night.” (18:28)
• Rumors & Physical Intimidation: Locals are surveilled by cult members, who are rumored to be armed.

5. Escalation: Death Threats and Police Inaction

• Death Threat Emails: In the lead-up to a planned protest, Shauna, Mayor Miller, and other community members receive detailed threats of execution from unknown sources, echoing cult rhetoric.
  • “The group threatened to publicly execute Shauna and harm her children and grandchildren if she didn't stop her reign of unleashed terror.” (23:39)
• Police Response: The RCMP say they are unable to act on the email threats due to lack of evidence. “According to Shauna, the RCMP said they couldn't take any action... because they couldn't prove the cult had sent them.” (25:03)

6. The Protest and Showdown (October 14, 2023)

• Counter-Protest: Locals organize a boisterous, defiant protest during Didulo’s “meet and greet/oath of sovereignty” event for her followers.
• Community Mobilization: Hundreds protest with cars, trucks, farm equipment—“combines, grain trucks”—honking horns, using megaphones, holding signs (“Leave and take your sheep”; “You’re not our queen”).
• Notable Moment: Steve, a farmer, brings out his “hot rod Mustang GT” for noise, after horns blow out. (29:37)
• Police Presence: Massive RCMP response, including checkpoints, officers with rifles, K9 units, plainclothes agents, and even snipers positioned around the school. Detailing the scale: “There was a shitload of cops there with long arms rifles. There were K9 units there. … The town must have doubled in size that day.” (30:52)

7. Inside the Cult: Ceremony & Paranoia

• Oath of Sovereignty: Inside the school, Didulo presides over an oath-taking ceremony, distributing “loyalty money” and homemade “Kingdom of Canada” passports, while dismissing the media as liars.
  • “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.” (32:19)
• Securitization and Tension: Cult “security” details grow increasingly paranoid, filming and monitoring all outsiders; protesters notice locals siding with the cult, splintering community unity.

8. Fear of Violence and Historical Parallels

• Locals’ Fears: With police, protesters, and cult members all present, comparisons to Waco, Texas, and Antelope, Oregon, surface—a fear of violent standoff looms.
  • “Could it be another Waco?” (35:46)
  • “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?” (36:30)
• Community Divided: Anxiety spikes as it is revealed some townsfolk, notably Melinda Fisher, actively aid the cult.
  • “Not everyone in town turned out to the event. In fact, there was one Richmond local who had been actively defending the cult.” (34:08)

9. The Cult Was Invited

• Bombshell Revelation: The final twist—Didulo and her group were invited by a local property owner.
  • “I purchased the property at the end of 2017 and I invited Queen Romana and team to come to Richmond.” (37:54)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “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)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:34: Introduction to the main event: Didulo’s cult arrives in Richmound
• 01:56: First reactions from Shauna Sane
• 04:05–04:40: Community shock and school takeover
• 10:41–12:04: The symbolic defacing of the school
• 13:35–14:48: Who is Romana Didulo; her ideology and followers
• 15:12–16:02: Previous cult violence and community fears
• 16:14–17:16: Mayor Brad Miller’s introduction and candid demeanor
• 18:28: Emotional toll on local children
• 20:45: The looming threat of cult gathering
• 22:05–23:39: The death threats and RCMP’s inaction
• 25:50–27:10: Protest day, escalation, and the arrival of police
• 29:37–30:32: Protesters use extreme noise; “hot rod” anecdote
• 31:20: Observing the massive police operation
• 33:44: Protest grows tense; local division emerges
• 35:46–36:38: Fears and comparisons to Waco, Texas
• 37:54: Revelation: The cult was invited by a local resident

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Tone, Style & Final Observations

• The episode is immersive, blending investigative rigor with a neighborly, small-town perspective, and a sense of urgency.
• The voices of local residents are candid, emotional, and sometimes darkly humorous.
• The show achieves both a chilling picture of modern extremism and a poignant portrait of ordinary people upended by events beyond their imagining.

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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.”

Transcript

[Rachel Brown]

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[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]

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[Shauna Sane]

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[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.