For Romana Didulo fans, the Queen of Canada doesn’t live in a British palace: she’s in the rural village of Richmound, Sask.
Surrounded by farmland about 450 kilometers west of Regina, near the Alberta border, Richmound has a population of just over 100. Since September 2023, it has also been the home of Didulo and a group of his followers, leading to protests and heated clashes with locals.
CTV W5 visited Richmound to learn more about the self-proclaimed “Queen of Canada.”
Didulo is a leading figure in the QAnon conspiracy movement and has promoted the murder of police officers, politicians and those who oppose it.
“I have also said that there is no longer politics or politicians,” Didulo decrees in one of his videos. “I said you can blow up every legislature building in Canada.”
Didulo has also told Canadians to stop paying their taxes and bills, while promoting secret cure-all technology and threatening those administering COVID-19 vaccines.
“For every child you have hurt, you will receive not one, but two bullets in the forehead,” Didulo said in another video. “Think very, very carefully before you touch that needle.”
The old school in Richmound, Sask. where Romana Didulo and her followers live (CTV W5)
After an invitation from a Richmound resident who owns a former schoolhouse, Didulo and about eight others began living on the property. Rolande Davis’s house is right across the street.
“My daughter is not coming with her kids,” Davis told W5. “I would never have dreamed I would have a cult living in my backyard.”
Didulo says she immigrated to Canada from the Philippines, where her parents died when she was young. After being involved in several businesses, she emerged as a public figure during the COVID-19 pandemic when she founded her Canada1st Party to “clean up the swamp” in Ottawa.
Didulo rose to further prominence during the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa, where she criticized vaccines and pandemic mandates, called for an end to elections, and burned a Canadian flag. Didulo and his group soon traveled the country in a convoy of recreational vehicles to spread his message.
“I think she has more influence, among conspiracy theorists, so to speak, than anyone else I can think of,” Christina Sarteschi, a professor of criminology and social work at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, told W5.
Romana Didulo rose to further prominence during the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa, where she criticized vaccines and pandemic mandates (CTV W5).
Sarteschi, who studies extremist groups, has been monitoring Didulo for two years. She says the group could be considered a cult.
“She has talked about being from the planet Arcturus, so there is a strange element to this,” Sarteschi explained. “She thinks that she has been sent here in a divine way by God, the master creator… and that she has been sent here to save people.”
Didulo doesn’t shy away from claims like these in online videos.
“The Arcturians are the most advanced, like the Yodas,” he said. “I am not a dictator. I am guided by the highest divine beings and I am here to bring peace and prosperity.”
Richmound residents began protesting Didulo’s presence in October, prompting more of her followers and some of her children to arrive at the former fenced school, where they declared an oath of sovereignty to their queen.
One Richmound resident told W5 that her father even stopped paying his bills because of Didulo.
“I’ve seen people post videos of themselves being removed by the sheriff because they lost their homes,” said Chatham University’s Sarteschi. “I’ve seen court records where there are people in foreclosures because they believed in their ideas and they really believed that they didn’t have to pay their taxes, their mortgage, and then they were literally on the streets or living in their cars.”
A town hall in Richmound, Sask. where neighbors expressed their concern about the presence of Didulo and his followers (CTV W5)
“We are running out of ideas”: mayor
Didulo’s group also allegedly sent threatening letters to Richmound residents and officials such as Mayor Brad Miller, who fears Didulo or his followers could run for city council.
“Now we keep the curtains closed and our doors are always locked and double-checked,” Miller told W5. “Someone has to help us, we’re running out of ideas.”
RCMP met with local residents in October 2023. Police have said that while they monitor the group and investigate alleged death threats, they cannot charge or remove people from private property unless there is harassment or an imminent threat. .
W5 interviewed the commanding officer of the RCMP in Saskatchewan, Deputy Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore.
“At this time, we have no indication that there is an imminent threat. We would certainly notify the public if there was an imminent threat, but we have no indication of that,” Blackmore told W5.
“We are monitoring the situation and making sure that if there is any indication of criminal activity, we will be there and investigate fully.”
W5 was also able to speak with former supporter Kim Churchill.
“I didn’t recognize it as a cult until I came back,” Churchill said. “When you are in [an] abusive relationship, you know, they want you isolated, they don’t want you to talk to friends and family, they control your every move, they manipulate you.
Didulo did not respond to several interview requests.
You can learn more about the tensions in Richmound by watching the full W5 documentary, ‘The Cult Queen’, Saturday at 7pm on CTV.