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The “Queen of Canada” and her inner circle splinter a prairie community
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The Walrus | Canada's Conversation
Wednesday, June 5, 2024

From the author: “What happens when a cult built on conspiracy theories descends on a small town? To answer that question, in March, I travelled to Richmound, Saskatchewan, to report on Romana Didulo, the self-proclaimed Queen of Canada who had taken up residence there with some of her closest followers. Tensions in town have been high since she arrived last fall. Richmound residents protested her arrival, horrified by the conspiracy theories she promotes and the actual violence she sparks. The town council and a cohort of locals have been trying to oust the group for months, turning friends into enemies and neighbours into ideological rivals.

This is a story of one small town that serves as a warning for how close we, and our communities, are to being pushed to the edge.”

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The Walrus publishes reporting and commentary from coast to coast to coast. While our office is in Toronto, we make great efforts to ensure every province and territory, city, and corner is represented. We draw upon a brilliant cohort of reporters and writers who live across the country, from Victoria to St. John’s to Whitehorse. And we also fly reporters to where the story is emerging, and that reporting—interviewing sources face to face and painting a fuller portrait of a moment and a place—comes with a cost.

To send contributing writer Rachel Browne to rural Saskatchewan to investigate and report on the conspiracy theorist and self-proclaimed Queen of Canada Romana Didulo was an investment we felt would produce a compelling, nuanced story that readers like you care about. In the end, it was worth it: Browne uncovered a story that was so much more resonant and compelling and complicated than anything we could have imagined.

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Harley Rustad
Senior Editor, The Walrus

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