Local residents warned as extremist speaking tour books Kamloops stop

The events are meant to raise funds as much as they are to exchange ideas, according to Dan Collen, a researcher with Insight Threat Intelligence who has probed alt-right and conspiracy movements for the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.

“(Extremist speaking tours are) not necessarily uncharted territory — there are white power movements, like neo-Nazi skinheads, who have had concert tours going across Canada and the United States,” Collen told CFJC Today via Zoom Tuesday (June 18). “They act as both fundraising events and networking events.”

Some tour stops, like one planned July 15 in Kelowna, are no-charge, less formal meet-and-greet gatherings.

Potential attendees are kept unaware of the host venues until 24 hours before the events are held. The gatherings may be held at public venues or in private homes.

“Whether or not [they are] in people’s houses or whether or not they are (public) events, there is going to be quite a challenge for safety for people in marginalized groups who may live or work around these areas,” noted Collen. “That is grave cause for concern on its own.”

Diagolon is not a formal organization as much as it is a loose fandom revolving around MacKenzie and his cult of personality, said Collen, and its fans are typically against democracy because they prefer the idea of living in a white ethno state.

“It is difficult to prove without a doubt exactly what the movement stands for — beyond specific white ethno-nationalism, anti-Semitism, extremely strong anti-immigrant sentiment — because there is somewhat diversity of opinions and diversity of religions within the movement, and because the movement started as a very decentralized fandom,” said Collen. “Not everyone necessarily agrees with everything.”

What they do agree on is MacKenzie, who initially dreamed of a new white nationalist empire stretching diagonally across the North American continent from Alaska to Florida, encompassing Canada’s three most western provinces.

Both MacKenzie and fellow podcaster Alex Vriend, who is also appearing on the speaking tour, have made appearances on Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) podcast episodes.

This week, the U.S. State Department declared NRM a ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist’ organization for its penchant for ethnically motivated violence.

An RCMP intelligence report on ideologically-motivated violent extremism (IMVE) stemming from the massive convoy protest against COVID-19 mandates in Ottawa said Diagolon followers could become violent. MacKenzie, himself, frequently uses violent rhetoric.

The loose organizational structure makes it difficult to determine if the movement is shrinking or growing, or if it is gaining a foothold in certain locations such as Kamloops, said Collen, who added adherents can travel from far and wide to attend in-person events. They come to network, but also to prepare for a race war.

“This is a very dangerous time if this tour seems to go unimpeded,” warned Collen. “It’s alarming that something that is this [extreme] can be not only spread throughout parts of Canada offline and that this kind of messaging is being deemed acceptable somehow, by some people, and that people are comfortable showing their faces and being associated with this kind of messaging.”

Collen advises residents to take note of venues that are willing to host explicit white nationalists.

by James Peters

Local residents warned as extremist speaking tour books Kamloops stop

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