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RCMP probes threat against Poilievre’s wife

Nova Scotia activist says he was drunk when he made ‘joke’ about sexual assault on livestream

ALEX BALLI NGALL

OTTAWA The RCMP is reviewing a statement from a prominent far-right figure who says he was drunk when he joked during a live broadcast about sexually assaulting Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s wife.

The comment provoked Poilievre’s strongest condemnation yet of a group called Diagolon and its controversial leader Jeremy MacKenzie, a 36-year-old Nova Scotia man whose online community has been linked to misinformation, antisemitism and racism.

MacKenzie, who has been charged with weapons and assault offences, rejects evidence of ties between his followers and an alleged plot to kill police officers during last winter’s so-called “Freedom Convoy” blockade in southern Alberta.

Poilievre had previously sidestepped calls to denounce MacKenzie, including from leadership rival Jean Charest, after the men were photographed together at an event during the Conservative leadership race this summer.

Poilievre’s campaign also condemned what it called an “attack” from a Global News reporter, who asked questions about MacKenzie’s views after Poilievre briefly joined an army reservist marching across Canada to protest COVID-19 vaccination mandates. The marching reservist had appeared on, and expressed admiration for, MacKenzie’s “Raging Dissident” podcast.

On Monday, however, Poilievre lambasted MacKenzie after the Diagolon leader discussed sexually assaulting Anaida Poilievre during a livestreamed broadcast over the weekend.

“These men are dirtbags. Frankly, like most Canadians, until about a month ago I had never heard of Diagolon and these losers. They are all odious,” Poilievre said in a statement posted on Twitter.

The Conservative leader also said his office had referred the comments to the RCMP.

“This kind of garbage has no place in Canada. No one should face this abuse,” Poilievre’s statement continued.

“People can attack my politics, they can call me names, they can protest my ideas and what I stand for. But threatening my wife and family is appalling and I will not tolerate it. Leave my family alone.”

The RCMP confirmed Monday it is reviewing information provided by Poilievre’s office.

“Only in the event that criminal charges are laid would the RCMP be in a position to confirm the nature of the complaint or any individuals allegedly involved,” it said in an emailed statement to the Star.

A video circulating on social media shows MacKenzie discussing Poilievre’s wife with other men in an online forum. After MacKenzie comments on her appearance and where she’s from, he says, “Let’s rape her … It’s not really a sex thing, we just want to show people that we can do things to you if we want to. It’s a power move.”

In an interview by phone on Monday, MacKenzie told the Star he only vaguely recalled making the comment — which he described as a “joke” — because he was drinking alcohol during the discussion. MacKenzie said he thinks it’s “beneath” Poilievre as Conservative leader to formally condemn a comment from such a venue, and accused him of “political posturing.”

He also said he did not mean to be threatening or offensive, and that he’s sorry if his comments were taken that way.

“I feel bad if he or his wife or anyone is offended or upset. That wasn’t the intent,” MacKenzie said.

“I would hope he’d be a bigger man than that and have some thicker skin than that if he’s going to be prime minister, but obviously I would never condone something like that,” he added.

The incident comes amid rising concern about death threats and violent rhetoric aimed at public figures. Politicians have spoken about carrying panic buttons and beefing up security at their family homes. Journalists have also faced threats and attempted intimidation that has targeted racialized female reporters in particular, including at the Star.

MacKenzie himself has directed rage towards the media, stating to more than 13,000 followers on his “Raging Dissident” Telegram channel this summer that journalists have caused “irreparable” damage to society. “I hope the torment they receive as a reward for their service to evil is so overwhelming it inevitably ends them,” the statement said.

It’s also not the first time Poilievre has voiced disgust about threats to his wife. In late August, after Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was accosted by an aggressive man during a visit to Alberta, Poilievre told reporters he had hired private security to protect his family.

Asked about MacKenzie’s comments, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference on Parliament Hill that “no one should ever be subject to threats of violence or the kind of hatred we’ve seen increasingly … It’s important that we all stand up and condemn that.”

MacKenzie, a founding member of the People’s Party of Canada, was a prominent figure in far-right media online during the so-called “Freedom Convoy” protests that gridlocked Ottawa streets and sparked border blockades last winter.

Researchers at the Canadian AntiHate Network have described him as the de facto leader of Diagolon, an online community they report has provided a platform for propagating views about the desire to speed up the collapse of society — an idea labelled “militant accellerationism.”

The researchers also said discourse from the Diagolon community includes the promotion of Holocaust denial, conspiracy theories about COVID-19, and the sharing of neo-Nazi and white supremacist propaganda. MacKenzie rejects this as unfair, and says he is primarily concerned about divisions in Canadian society, a seeming intolerance for opposing views and economic problems.

Diagolon gained mainstream attention in February when patches bearing the Diagolon symbol were discovered with a cache of guns and body armour seized near a “freedom” blockade at a border crossing in southern Alberta. Fourteen people were arrested after the RCMP alleged some protesters were willing to use force if police moved against the blockade. Four of them were charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

The father of Chris Lysak, one of the men accused in the alleged plot, told the Star after the arrests that his son became radicalized online, including through engagement with Diagolon.

MacKenzie was charged last month with assault, pointing a firearm, mischief and use of a restricted weapon following an incident last year in Saskatchewan.

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This kind of garbage has no place in Canada. No one should face this abuse. S TATEMENT FROM CONSERVATIVE L E ADER PI E RRE POILIEVRE

NEWS

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2022-09-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-09-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://torontostar.pressreader.com/article/281612424274527

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