Front Burner - What happens when a conspiracy theory drives into your backyard?

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

In The Cult Queen of Canada from CBC’s Uncover, a tiny Saskatchewan town faces a surreal crisis when a cult leader calling herself “The Queen of Canada” occupies an abandoned school. As neighbours turn on each other, a retired teacher leads resistance in a story about what happens when online extremism spills into the real world. Hosted by Rachel Browne.Crime. Investigation. Revelation. Uncover brings you explosive, high-caliber true crime year-round. From CIA mind control to serial abuse, mysterious disappearances to wrongful imprisonment.More episodes of The Cult Queen of Canada are available wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/CQOCxFB

Shopping for a car should be exciting, not exhausting. But sometimes it can feel like a maze. That's where Car Gurus comes in. They have advanced search tools, unbiased deal ratings, and price history, so you know a great deal when you see one. It's no wonder Car Gurus is the number one rated car shopping app in Canada on the Apple app and Google Play Store. Buy your next car with Car Gurus at Cargooros.ca. Go to cargoos.ca.

to make sure your big deal is the best deal. That's C-A-R-G-U-R-U-S.C-A. This is a CBC podcast. 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 Diedelow, a cult leader who calls herself Queen of Canada, arrived with her followers in Turntown's abandoned school into her royal court, which led to a prolonged and surreal standoff. 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 my own.

modern Canada. We have the first episode for you now. Have a listen. 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. It was Thursday, September 14th. got a text message from somebody local saying, oh, I hear that there's this person coming to Richmond. Shana Seine is telling me about the day that everything changed in Richmount, Saskatchewan.

Population, just over 100. 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. 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. I address you today as your commander-in-chief and queen.

Now here she was, pulling into Shauna's little village, right into the school where Shauna had been a teacher for 23 years. We drove by. I took pictures and video on my phone, seeing that, okay, here are these RVs with all the label on it in her royal majesty, Queen Romana, Digilo, Kingdom of Canada. 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 in their 30s, but most of the group were older in their 50s or 60s. I have also said that there is no more politics and no more politicians. They'd followed her to Richmond, drawn in by her strange mix of conspiracies, QAnon, Antivax, the Sovereign Citizen Movement, even ideas that drift far beyond the fringe. Your DNAs were manipulated and unplugged by the... evil aliens that came to planet Earth 300,000 plus years ago.

But she doesn't just preach. She threatens anyone who stands in her way. You will receive not one, but two bullets on your forehead for each child that you have harmed. Shauna wondered, why were they here? 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. But Shauna quickly learned the queen wasn't still driving around. She and her convoy had taken over the school.

They weren't leaving. And Rich Mound wasn't about to let that happen. Not without a fight. You need to go far. You're on your own. You're fucking letters. Why am I being executed? How 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 Rich Mound 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. It's no restaurant, there's no bar, there's not even a coffee shop. You have to leave town to even get gas. I wouldn't call Richemount 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. or 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. 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. Richmount 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. Rich Mound 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 Shauna Seine. If you want some more soup, please help yourself. 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. I'm worried about my daughter-in-law. I think she's going to need, like, psychiatric assessment soon, and maybe you can help. She's my first stop on my tour of Rich Mound, and she will not stop feeding me. It's delicious, Shana. Thank you. Wow. Are you going to have a piece of cake? Oh, my goodness, yes, okay.

Shana 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? Rich mound. 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 Richemount Rockets.

And every May-long weekend, there was a huge ball tournament and teams would come that used to be a big deal. Richemount was thriving. In the 1980s and 90s, it was a bit of a boom town. The reason Richmount 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 Shana fell in love with. But by the 2000s, the oil and gas business slowed down. And like a lot of rural towns in Canada, Richmount's population got smaller. Shawna's school shrank, and by 2008, it shuttered altogether. It was a K-12 school, and in our last year of operations, we had only 55 students from kindergarten to grade 12. After the school closed, the building sat empty, abandoned for years.

After that, the grocery store ended up being demolished. The curling rink closed, and we don't have what was here before. But for Shawna, Rich Mound is still her home. 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 country. 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. That comfort was shattered after the queen arrived at the school where Shauna 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? Well, clearly they need it for security because The people of Richmond are so evil. Whoever put it up is no fencer. They painted over the school mural. The cult even destroyed the beloved school sign.

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? Romana posts a video of herself, narrating as her followers drill into the sign. 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. Now, the sign reads Command Center, Saskatchewan. For Shawna, this takeover felt personal.

Absolutely personal and horrifying. I mean, losing the school was a big heart. break 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. 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 trying to research, like, who is this and what's going on? And I couldn't believe what I was reading. If, like Shauna, you'd never heard of Romana Dietolo or her Kingdom of Canada before, that first Google search might overwhelm you. Well, what's this? What's this? What's this? 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 Q&on 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 cast herself as the Canadian equivalent. The people who appointed me are the White Hats and the U.S. military. The same group of people who have helped President Trump. And after crowning herself Queen, Romana tells her followers she has abolished old Canadian laws in favor of her royal decrees. Queen Romana's in power, and we're not paying any more business. utilities are free.

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. I did start to become fearful when I learned of the story of the police station in Peterborough. Peterborough is a city east of Toronto. That's where a couple years earlier, Romana's had. 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. 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? 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. I don't know if I can say bullshit. You can let it rip. 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.

Meet Rich Mounds mayor. Brad Miller. He's in his 60s, tall with white hair. Brad's a hunter, a fisherman, an outdoorsy guy. Then I watch Mountain Men, I watch Life Below Zero. I like all those bush shows. I wish I was living out in the bush. 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 Rich Mound Rockets. And that's football. No baseball. Baseball. Hardball, yeah. Yeah. But beyond that tough exterior, he's a softie.

He loves watching Lord of the Rings. He liked Lord of the Rings so much. 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. No, not at all. Maybe a bit nervous or just not.

Oh, nervous and saying whatever, whatever, or some different word. And my voice was jittery, like wicked jittery. In fact, because of all the romance. man a drama, he feels he's gotten a lot better at public speaking. Oh, it took me from a one to 100 in public speaking and your feelings come out a little more too. But when he signed up to be mayor, he had no idea what he was getting into. I've lived here approximately 35 years and I'm the mayor of Richmond for the last three and 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. He was just trying to enjoy a little trip out of town when the queen arrived. Me and my wife finally got away on a camping trip. Two days into it, I got a phone call and somebody said, do you know what the queen is here? And I found out about it and I thought it was just a joke, whatever. But by the time Brad gets back to Richmound, he finds out this is no joke. The people in town are worried. 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. Rumors were flying about just how dangerous this group might be. Brad's constituents told me how worried they were. Well, we saw the place being barricaded and all of the no-trestes. passing 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 shelves. Yeah, they're definitely armed. I'm sure they are. I'd stake my paychecks on it. Somebody told me it was a cult, and the word cult just scared that me teaches Army. And some of the locals had even started approaching the cult to tell them off.

Told him to get the first. fuck out of my village, that they weren't wanted here. And they didn't like that. 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. Yeah, it is.

And it's not a good thing, really. It's starting to build up. Yeah. Yeah. Like, it's nonstop, right? Can you stop it? Rich Mound wanted the cult out. And so did Brad, but he wasn't sure what he could do as mayor.

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 went over there and probably kicked the fence up. Brad wasn't about to start anything, but he was frustrated and feeling stuck. So was Shauna Seine, 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. Well, who's going to 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? Mayor Brad was on the same page. It's not maybe what's here. It's what's coming here because she calls out all kinds of lunatics, right?

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 stopped them settling in before Rich Mound became their permanent home. Then, Shawna got an idea, a protest to coincide with Romana's meet and greet.

Had you ever protested before? Never. She got the word out and other locals got on board. But then, just days before the protest, phones across Richmond pinged, including Shana's, an email from an unknown sender. It was a death threat. Just days before the protest, Shana received. a threatening email. And here it is. Shopping for a car should be exciting, not exhausting. But sometimes

it can feel like a maze. That's where Car Gurus comes in. They have advanced search tools, unbiased deal ratings, and price history. So you know a great deal when you see one. It's no wonder Car Gurus is the number one rated car shopping app in Canada on the Apple app and Google Play Store. Buy your next car today with Car Gurus at Cargooros.ca. Go to Cargooros.ca to make sure your big deal is the best deal. That's C-A-R-G-U-R-U-S.ca. Car-Gurus.ca. At Desjardin Insurance, we know that when you're a building contractor, your company's foundation needs to be strong. That's why our agents go the extra mile to understand your business and provide tailored solutions for all its unique needs. You put your heart into your

company, so we put our heart into making sure it's protected. Get insurance that's really big on care. Find an agent today at Dejardin.com slash business coverage. Sean Ossain, 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 ring leader who started this reign of terror, act accordingly. Now, that's just the introduction, right? Then here's one, two, two,

three, four pages. The group threatened to publicly execute Shana and harm her children and grandchildren if she didn't stop her reign of unleashed 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. Were you fearful that you could be targeted? Absolutely. Yes. Because not knowing who are her followers out there, right?

There's nothing stopping a bunch of whackadoodles from coming to Richmound and I'm going to go look for this, Sean Assain, because she's clearly in charge of all the terrorism against Ramana in Richmond. Mayor Brad got one too. 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. 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. I don't know. I don't know. I don't get it. anymore. According to Shana, 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 Shana 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. 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? October 14, 2023, the day of Romana's meet and greet at the school and the Richmond counter protest. Shawna 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. 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. 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. 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. little fire hall. It's pretty intimidating to see that kind of setup. 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 Richemount

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. Somebody had a megaphone. Maybe there were two. 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 with the newest inhabitants of which Mount Saskatchewan. They interviewed Shauna, who acted as a town spokesperson.

They're 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? need that for? An independent reporter from nearby medicine hat live streamed all day. They got the loud horns. They got all the noise made that and that is pretty loud. 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. I prefer my signs, but I get told I couldn't put them out there. What were they?

Fuck off and die. They're all over my. truck. Someone drove up in a semi. They brought out the beast. Holy free fun. That's awesome. As the day went on, the group of protesters grew and grew. It was like 50 to 100 cars circling. Grain trucks, combines. It doesn't get more country bumpkin with people driving these ridiculous farm vehicles around. That's Steve, a local. who got the group organized to make even more noise.

I said, okay, let's angle park in front of the school. And then it was like an orchestra conductor. And I said, okay, everybody, it was like, and all the boards are creating this dissonance. And we did that for probably a good 25 minutes straight. But after a while, they'd honked so much that car horn started blowing out. That gave Steve an idea. I'm like, okay, I go to the shop, pull open the big overhead.

head 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, five speed transmission, hot rod big GT 40 heads on it and big headers and all that stuff. So it's noisy. This car is loud. So I pulled it up 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. 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 Lamarru was there covering the protest for Vice. He was amazed at the numbers. There was a shitload of cops there with long arms, rifles, there were K-9 units there.

They were definitely launching small drones in the air. There was plain-closed RC&P 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, they're 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. The RCMP didn't show up after the execution letters, but now they were swarming Richmond.

What did they think was going to happen? 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. And to those of you who may not be aware, This event is live stream around the world. This is Rich Manum, Saskatchewan. 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. To those of you who came here to take her 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, side-offs, calling Queen Romana a call. 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. Vipes of the VIPs. Thank you for being looked. All right, I am. You can hear the voice of one kid echo a little later than the rest.

You're my own sovereignty. In Richtown, he wakes near Saskatchewa. 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. And the folks that are on the cult side there, they're getting more and more paranoid. But as this independent journalist from Medicine Hat noticed, there was an edge to them now. 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 needed. Then, as Shawna Lawyer, looked around at her protest, she noticed something curious. Not everyone in town turned out to the event. In fact, there was one Richemount local who had been actively defending the cult. 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. Melinda Fisher. You're going to hear that name again.

She vehemently opposed the protest in Richemound. It turns out, Richemount 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 Richmount isn't united against the cult, will they ever get them out? While all of this is happening, the protest ramps up. We 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. Steve, owner of the hot rod, looked at the horizon and said he noticed the police were preparing for the worst.

They had set up snipers, like specifically trained for long-distance. Snydering, and you can see them. 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.

Could it be another Waco? There's people here like, oh, this will end another Waco. Some people perceive there's going to be all out, Waco, Texas happening here. There's a fire going on right now. Waco, Texas, 1993. The Branch Dividians, 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. Richemount locals looked around at the protest unfolding and wondered if that was going to happen here. 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? Nobody knew. And I think the police didn't know either, the RCMP, which is why they showed up. But when Steve, the hot rod guy, looked around. He didn't think of Waco, Texas. He saw Antelope, Oregon. Are you guys familiar with Antelope?

Oh, yeah. Wild Wild Country. Yeah. The Rajneeshis. Yes, the Rajneeshis. 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 called stockpiled ammunition, poison the population, the FBI got involved,

all in an effort to drive out the locals and take over the town. Was Richemound going to be the next Waco or Antelope or something? something else entirely. They're using the Canadian people, the people of the Republic as their labrots. And these actions will not go unpunished. 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. I purchased the property at the end of 20,

17 and I invited Queen Romana and team to come to Richmond. This season on the cult queen of Canada. If they want to come over and beat me up or shoot me or whatever, by all means, I'll do it. 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 just breaks my heart. Follow an election where everything hangs in the balance. Here's a fresh reality check that they are.

planning something for our upcoming election in November. And go inside the battle for Richmond. 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. 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. 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 Cannell. 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 Prupis. For CBC, the executive producers are Cecil Fernandez and Chris Oak. Tanya Springer is the senior manager, and RFNorani is the director of CBC Podcasts. That was the first episode of the Colt 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. For more CBC podcasts, go to cBC.ca.ca slash podcasts.