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Podcast Host/Producer
from M and M Skylights, offering the full range of veluxe skylight products, installation and maintenance services to customers from Boston to Portland and surrounding areas. More information@mmskylights.com when I decided to take on the story of the Codfather, I realized it was a little more true crime than anything I had done before. And it was important to me that we do true crime in a way that served a larger purpose, that there was a point to it all, besides just people breaking the law and getting caught. And for me, one of the models of that kind of storytelling is the CBC's uncover. It's an ongoing feed that has released just a stunning run of highly original and intensely engaging crime stories that also help us understand our world. They have a new series out this spring, so we wanted to feature an episode of that here. The series is called the Cult Queen of Canada. It's set in a small prairie town of 120 people in Saskatchewan, which becomes the unlikely home base for a cult leader known as as the Queen of Canada. In the series, journalist Rachel Brown uncovers how online extremism bleeds into everyday life and divides this small town. It's a story about polarization, power vacuums, and what happens when a small community becomes the testing ground for extremism. Here is the host, Rachel Brown.
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 Sen
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 Sen is telling me about the day that everything changed in Richmond, Saskatchewan. Population just over 100.
Shauna Sen
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 Didalo. 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 Shawna's little village, right into the school where Shauna had been a teacher for 23 years.
Shauna Sen
We drove by. I took pictures and video on my phone, seeing that, okay, Here are these RVs with all the labeling on it in 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 DNA 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
Shawna wondered, why were they here?
Shauna Sen
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 Sen
The world knows Ramona is no queen of anything.
Romana Didulo
You need to Go far, far away. Leave the phone down.
Rachel Brown
You're under arrest. Why am I being executed?
Romana Didulo
Here's making life hell.
Local Resident
I'll show you how crock the town is.
Rachel Brown
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 Sen
Turn right onto Varsnake 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. Richmond 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 Sen
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 Sen
I'm worried about my daughter in law. I think she's going to need like psychiatric assessments 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. Wow.
Shauna Sen
Are you going to piece of cake?
Rachel Brown
Oh my goodness. Yeah, it's okay. I mean I just. Shauna 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. Shawna, I'll ask you for you, what makes Richmond Richmond?
Shauna Sen
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 slow and like a lot of rural towns in Canada, Richmond's population got smaller. Shawna's school shrank and by 2008 it shuttered.
Shauna Sen
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.
Local Resident
After that.
Shauna Sen
The grocery store ended up being demolished, the curling rink closed and we don't have what was here before.
Rachel Brown
But for Shawna, Richmond is still her home.
Shauna Sen
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 Sen
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 Sen
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.
Aura Advertiser
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 lush, which I believe is a German word for dumb 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 Sen
Absolutely personal and horrifying. I mean, losing the school was 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. It feels like, you know, like it's been defaced.
Rachel Brown
And the most intimidating part was Shauna 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 Sen
trying to research, like, what? 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 Didalo or her Kingdom of Canada before, that first Google search might overwhelm you.
Aura Advertiser
What's this?
Shauna Sen
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 Sen
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 Sen
Her followers showed up there with specifically that aim in mind.
Rachel Brown
Right.
Shauna Sen
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, and right away, like, even the good people were on us, like, get em out, get em out, get em 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 watched mountain men. I watched Life Below Zero. I like all those bush shows. I'm tired of 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.
Local Resident
Hardball. Yeah, hardball, yeah.
Rachel Brown
But beyond that tough exterior, he's a softie. He loves watching Lord of the Rings.
Brad Miller
He liked 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 words 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.
Local Resident
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.
There is a picture of Romana's rv and she's got a shotgun. And shotgun shells. Yeah, they're definitely armed. I'm sure they are. I'd stake my paychecks on it.
Shauna Sen
Somebody told me it was a cult.
Rachel Brown
And the word cult just scared the
Romana Didulo
bejesus out of me.
Rachel Brown
And some of the locals had even started approaching the cult to tell them
Local Resident
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 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. Though.
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 Sen
Well, who's gonna come? Are there? You know, some really committed, devoted followers who really hate the idea of anybody not so 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 Shauna got an idea. A protest to coincide with Romana's meet and greet. Had you ever protested before?
Shauna Sen
Never.
Rachel Brown
She got the word out and other locals got on board. But then, just days before the protest, phones across Richmond 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 Sen
And here it is, Shauna saying, 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 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 Shauna and harm her children and grandchildren if she didn't stop her reign of unleashed
Shauna Sen
terror, 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 Sen
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 going to go look for this Shauna Seine, 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. And 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, and stuff like that.
Rachel Brown
The local firefighters, the paramedics, even some teachers at a nearby school got the same threats. Brad and his counsel 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 Sen
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 license plates from around the country, all driving in to swear their sovereignty to Queen Romana.
Shauna Sen
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 arson RCMP started to arrive. The same RCMP who didn't do anything about the execution letters were now showing up in droves.
Shauna Sen
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, it's pretty intimidating to see that kind of setup.
Rachel Brown
But then, to her enormous relief, Shauna'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 world. The school honking and honking some more.
Shauna Sen
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.
Shauna Sen
Hundreds of people stage a protest, angry with the newest inhabitants of Richmond, Saskatchewan.
Rachel Brown
They interviewed Shawna, who acted as a town spokesman.
Shauna Sen
Person 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 live streamed all day.
Independent Reporter
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.
Local Resident
I prefer my signs, but I got told I couldn't put them out there.
Rachel Brown
What were they?
Local Resident
Fuck off and die. They were all over my truck.
Rachel Brown
Someone drove up in a semi.
Independent Reporter
They brought out the beast. Holy frick. But that's awesome.
Rachel Brown
As the day went on, the group of protesters grew and grew.
Steve
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.
Steve
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. 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 so much that car horns started blowing out. That gave Steve an idea.
Steve
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, so. 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. 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 Lammeroux was there covering the protest for Vice. He was amazed at the numbers.
Mack Lammeroux
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
Shut us down?
Rachel Brown
Shame on you. Get out. Get out. 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 making Rich man famous.
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 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 squeezed 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.
Rachel Brown
All right.
Shauna Sen
Bye.
Romana Didulo
Now
Rachel Brown
you can hear the voice of one kid echo a little later than the rest.
Romana Didulo
Here I declare my oath of sovereignty.
Rachel Brown
Here I declare my oath.
Romana Didulo
In Richmond,
Rachel Brown
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.
Independent Reporter
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.
Independent Reporter
And it doesn't look like they're going to be able to handle this protest going on by the folks around here. Things are getting heated.
Rachel Brown
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 Sen
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 gonna 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 this is happening, the protest ramps up.
Independent Reporter
You got people up on the roof. They got up on the roof there.
Local Resident
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 for the worst.
Steve
They had set up snipers like, specifically trained for longdistance 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 Sen
Could it be another Waco?
Brad Miller
There's people here like, oh, this will end another Waco. Some people perceive there's going to be a lot of Waco in 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 into flames. When all was said and done, more than 80 people were killed, including four federal agents. Richmond locals looked around at the protest unfolding and wondered if that was going to happen here.
Independent Reporter
Some Waco, Texas stuff. It's scary, you know, who knows what's going to happen? Are they going to stockpile weapons and make the this place scary?
Rachel Brown
You know, who knows?
Shauna Sen
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.
Steve
Are you guys familiar with Antelope?
Local Resident
Oh yeah.
Rachel Brown
Wild Wild Country. Yeah, the Rajneeshis.
Steve
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 labyrinths and these actions will not go unpunished
Rachel Brown
either way. 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.
Steve
I purchased the property at the end of 2017 and and I invited Queen Romana and team to come to Richmond
Rachel Brown
this season on the call Queen of Canada.
Local Resident
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 us so much and it just breaks my heart. Following election where everything hangs in the balance.
Shauna Sen
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.
Local Resident
I want to tear it down. I want to burn it to the ground.
Romana Didulo
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 south if we don't get something going already. Like, people are fed up.
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 News 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 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 Podcast.
Podcast Host/Producer
I really hope you're enjoying the show and before I let you go, I just want to drop in with that constant podcaster's reminder to please rate the show. Leave us a review, subscribe, and of course tell a friend. All that stuff really, really does help us keep the show going. Thank you so much
Shauna Sen
from PRX.
Episode Date: April 15, 2026
Feed: The Big Dig
Original Series Episode Featured: CBC Uncover – "The Cult Queen of Canada," Episode 1: The Queen Comes to Town
Host: Rachel Brown
Focus: The infiltration and impact of cult leader Romana Didulo and her followers on a tiny Saskatchewan town.
This episode of The Big Dig features CBC's acclaimed true-crime investigation, "The Cult Queen of Canada." Rachel Brown, an investigative journalist, examines how a bizarre and dangerous online cult led by Romana Didulo, who self-styles as the "Queen of Canada," physically arrives in the small rural village of Richmond, Saskatchewan. The episode explores how a tight-knit prairie community is torn apart, the failures of law enforcement, and grassroots resistance as townsfolk reckon with extremism moving from the internet into real life.
Tense, personal, and urgent, blending rural stoicism with mounting fear and grassroots resistance. The storytelling is meticulous, often reflecting small-town warmth and humor, but shadowed by real danger and tragedy as extremism comes not just online but directly to residents’ front doors.
| Timestamp | Topic | Notable Quotes/Speakers | |-----------------|-------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------| | 02:56–06:20 | Cult’s arrival in Richmond | “A storm no one saw coming.” (Brown) | | 10:01–12:31 | Town’s history and decline | “The Richmond Rockets…” (Shauna) | | 13:14–14:34 | The school’s takeover | “Absolutely personal and horrifying.” | | 16:34–17:09 | Previous cult violence | “Who are all these crazy people…?” (Shauna)| | 17:37–21:24 | Town-wide fear, mayor under pressure | “Bullshit. The pressure was put on us…” (Miller)| | 22:08–25:48 | Execution threats; RCMP inaction | “We will execute you…” (Brad, email) | | 26:07–33:38 | The protest and standoff | “Orchestra of honking… horns blew out.” | | 35:13–37:46 | Tension escalates, Waco fears | “Could it be another Waco?” | | 38:11 | Cult invited by a local | “I invited Queen Romana and team…” (Steve)|
This episode provides a vivid, at times suspenseful, account of how a Canadian cult moves beyond the fringe—spurring old and new tensions in a shrinking rural town. Through extensive interviews, sound clips, and personal stories, it highlights how misinformation and online extremism cut through community trust and safety, the limitations of official responses, and the gritty determination of ordinary citizens to reclaim their home.
For more: All episodes of "The Cult Queen of Canada" are available on CBC’s True Crime feeds.