All charges against Jeremy MacKenzie have been dropped in a Quebec court, making it the third province to abandon its prosecution against him. Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia courts also dropped charges against him.
On Friday, the Crown in Gatineau, Que., stayed charges of criminal harassment and uttering threats against MacKenzie and the judge granted defence’s request to hold a hearing on prosecutorial misconduct and abuse of process.
“By proceeding this way, Mr. MacKenzie unfortunately cannot prove his innocence at trial,” Toronto criminal defence lawyer Sherif Foda, told SASKTODAY.ca. “He is disappointed that he will not have the opportunity for vindication in the dignified and public forum of a jury trial.
“He was looking forward to exposing the Crown's principal witness – a wanted fugitive – who is now shockingly shielded entirely from scrutiny,” added Foda.
There is a strict court-ordered publication ban in Quebec and Saskatchewan on identifying the complainant.
A jury trial would have exposed the complainant’s lack of credibility and reliability as well as his relationship with police, court documents show.
“After the complainant cooperated with RCMP National Security team, his charges in one province were withdrawn and he wasn’t arrested on another warrant, despite his continuous contact with police and prosecutors in relation to MacKenzie," said Foda.
“It is undisputed that at the time of the filing of these applications, this witness was a wanted fugitive on an outstanding warrant that the authorities have known about for years,” added Foda. “It is also undisputed that this witness has a longstanding criminal history for violent behaviour against both women and men, although it appears most of his victims are women. I am genuinely shocked this individual is allowed to roam free in the circumstances.”
Court documents show that MacKenzie’s lawyer had filed motions in Quebec and Saskatchewan courts compelling the Crown to disclose any financial benefits, considerations, or immunity offered to the complainant by various law enforcement agencies across multiple provinces, including the RCMP and the Crown, in exchange for testimony against MacKenzie. The Crown didn’t provide the disclosure, and instead, on Oct. 27 the Crown in Gatineau, Que., stayed all of the charges against MacKenzie.
“Mr. MacKenzie wanted to obtain the evidence establishing what we have suspected for quite some time: the principal witness for the government in two prosecutions against Mr. MacKenzie is a state agent who poses a serious threat to public safety,” said Foda. “In layman's terms, we suspected the government had made a deal with the devil.”
Foda said defence doesn’t have any procedural route to obtain the evidence against the complainant because the Crown abandoned the prosecution in Quebec without any explanation.
MacKenzie feels that the Crown's conduct throughout the proceedings has been high-handed and abusive, said Foda.
“We are hopeful we can hold the Crown to account with respect to behaviour we view as unfair towards Mr. MacKenzie during the proceedings in Quebec,” he added.
Foda said that similar motions for disclosure about the complainant were filed in Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench. The disclosure wasn't provided to defence and the Crown in Saskatchewan stayed all charges against Mackenzie on Aug. 21, including assault, pointing a firearm, using a restricted weapon in a careless manner, and mischief.
Foda said they didn’t litigate further against the Saskatoon Crown because of the peace bond resolution.
“At the time, Mr. MacKenzie was hopeful that he could still proceed with these motions in Quebec, where he had outstanding charges in relation to the same witness.”
MacKenzie felt targeted
In September 2022, a Canada-wide warrant was issued for MacKenzie’s arrest. He was arrested in Nova Scotia and flown to Saskatchewan to face charges of assault, pointing a firearm, using a restricted weapon in a careless manner, and mischief. In August, all the charges were stayed by the Crown. They stemmed from an incident near Viscount, Sask.
MacKenzie believes that he was targeted and questions the timing of the charges being laid and him being flown to Saskatchewan on a national warrant.
“A lot of people's eyebrows were raised about that,” he told SASKTODAY.ca in September 2023. “And I was denied bail. Right? I have no (criminal) record. And there's no reason to do this.”
He said when he was arrested, the media acted like they had captured Osama bin Laden.
“It was on the ticker of the local news in Saskatoon. It was in all the newspapers in the jail, and the whole week it’s like ‘the terrorist leader is gonna be interrogated.’
“They flew me out to Saskatoon in ankle chains and wrist chains and belly chains on an RCMP flight with four or five cops like I’m Pablo Escobar,” said MacKenzie. “It was crazy. It really felt like I was being treated a little differently than some other people.”
MacKenzie was held in the Saskatoon Correctional Centre on remand for two months before he was finally granted bail after he had fired his Saskatoon lawyer and hired high-profile Toronto criminal defence lawyer Sherif Foda.
Feds use 'Diagolon' to justify Emergencies Act
Justifying the use of the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14, 2022, then Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, without naming a specific group in comments to reporters, alluded to a far-right extremist group and the Ottawa protesters having ties to the Coutts arrest.
Mendicino had said: "It could have been deadly for citizens, protesters, and officers. We need to be clear-eyed about the seriousness of these incidents and indeed several of the individuals at Coutts have strong ties to a far-right extreme organization with leaders who are in Ottawa.”
Mendicino’s comments were later proven to have referred to Diagolon, Foda told the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC), in November 2022.
On Feb. 14, 2022, just hours before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act, the Alberta RCMP arrested 11 people and seized weapons at the Coutts, Alta., and Montana, U. S., border.
“Jeremy had never been to Coutts, nor was he in communication with any of the accused leading up to their arrest,” said Toronto lawyer and independent journalist Caryma Sa’d. “He was nonetheless repeatedly connected to the weapons cache by media outlets citing Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN). Documents obtained from the RCMP reveal heavy reliance on open source intelligence, including news articles. Government officials took their cues from both the media and law enforcement.”
The media had labelled MacKenzie as the leader of a dangerous militia group.
Allegedly, two 'Diagolon' patches were found on body armour in the Coutts seizure.
WATCH FEBRUARY 2022 VIDEO of Jeremy MacKenzie's reaction to the Coutts arrests.
The inquiry heard that the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act largely because of Diagolon’s perceived threat to national security. Even though the two-week blockade at the Coutts, Alta., border to the U. S., in protest of COVID-19 mandates, was resolved before the government invoked the Emergencies Act, the POEC commissioner also mentioned the Coutts situation as a reason for justifying the Emergencies Act. The media had alleged protesters at the Coutts blockade were linked to Diagolon.
A House of Commons report labelled Diagolon as an ideologically motivated extremist group. The report stated that the group consists of former Canadian Forces members who have real combat training and capabilities, and have "grown increasingly radicalized.”
The RCMP, however, had admitted that they didn’t perceive Diagolon as a group, a militia, or a security threat. This was revealed through Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIPOP). Independent journalists Caryma Sa’d and Elisa Hategan had obtained 1,000 pages of internal RCMP documents on MacKenzie and Diagolon.
“Diagolon does not pose a criminal or national security threat," said the RCMP in the released FOIPOP documents. "The Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) is cited as the main authority on the group by all mainstream media outlets; due to the fact that all information traces back to one source, triangulation and the verification of facts is almost impossible at the current time.”
The RCMP report also said it was difficult to understand how CAHN can confidently assert that Diagolon is an "accelerationist" movement and it was difficult to understand how University of New Brunswick professor David Hoffman (as cited by CBC) can assuredly purport that Diagolon is an "American-style militia movement."
In fact, numerous videos played at the POEC inquiry showed MacKenzie urging his Diagolon fans to remain peaceful during the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa.
At one point during the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa, MacKenzie said he became concerned about some individuals who could potentially become violent and he had called the RCMP to notify them, the inquiry heard.
MacKenzie is a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces from 2003 to 2017 who retired as a master corporal. He is a podcaster and founded the online group Diagolon. On social media, he describes himself as “unacceptable and extreme alt-right,” a sit-down comedian, and anti-government.
Diagolon was a joke: MacKenzie
Testifying at the POEC inquiry in November 2022, MacKenzie said Diagolon was created as a joke and he didn’t think any reasonable person who consumed his content would consider Diagolon to be an organization. He said it was an analytical commentary on current events and politics after he noticed that the Mid-Western states of Texas, Florida, South Dakota, along with Alberta, Saskatchewan and Alaska, formed a geographical oblique line of states and provinces that were resistant to government-imposed mandates and were traditionally Conservative areas.
Fans of his podcast say he is a comedian known for his satirical and humorous takes on social and political issues and his controversial statements and actions are part of his comedic persona, rather than indicative of any real-world threats.
in November 2022, when Tom Marazzo, a 25-year veteran of the Canadian Forces, testified at the POEC, he said, “Diagolon is a joke. It’s not even a real thing.”
He said MacKenzie created a fictitious meme on the Internet known as Diagolon and that the "Vice President" of Diagolon was a time-travelling, cocaine addicted goat.
Marazzo testified that the government were "citing this fictitious goat that time travels, as justification for invoking the Emergencies Act," and that MacKenzie and his friends were “laughing hysterically showing clips of the government actually talking about Diagolon as being a real thing,” when “everybody knew it was a joke.”
Charges outstanding in two more courts
Charges in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia court against MacKenzie were also resolved earlier this year by way of a common law peace bond. He still has outstanding matters in Pictou and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
"Mr. MacKenzie has no criminal record and has never been found guilty of an offence," said Foda. "The Crown has now abandoned three of five prosecutions in relation to him, after having him spend months in custody in pre-trial detention. Unfortunately, Mr. MacKenzie will never regain the liberty he was deprived of. He is eager to proceed with the remaining charges he faces in Dartmouth and Pictou in Nova Scotia and prove his innocence in courts of law."
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