A ‘Terror Tour’ Found Safe Spaces in Small Communities Across Canada

[Editor’s note: This story includes descriptions of racist comments, including comments about residential schools, that may be triggering for some readers.]

The Township of Langley will investigate how an extreme-right group was able to book a community hall jointly managed by the township and a local Lions Club.

“We'll have to be reviewing that in the future, especially with this particular hall,” Langley Mayor Eric Woodward told The Tyee. “And seeing if there’s any assistance the township can provide and any policy updates to help these groups ensure that they don't mistakenly book something like this in the future.”

Diagolon is led by several livestreamers who spend hours online spouting racism against Jewish and South Asian people and other minorities, dwelling on violent fantasies of fighting against invading immigrants.

The RCMP has described Diagolon as a “militia-like network with supporters who subscribe to accelerationist ideologies — the idea that a civil war or collapse of western governments is inevitable and ought to be sped up.”

This June, the group started advertising for an in-person “Terror Tour” across Canada during the summer, promising stops in major Canadian cities from Halifax to Vancouver.

In reality, the meetings have been held in small venues in smaller communities. The Ottawa gathering happened in an agricultural hall in the village of Carp.

For the Kamloops stop, the group apparently met at a skating rink owned by the Falkland and District Community Association. The small community is about 70 kilometres east of Kamloops.

When Diagolon members showed up at the community centre venue they had rented in Sudbury, they found the doors locked.

In Kelowna, Diagolon held an informal gathering in a park rather than booking an event venue. A warning about the event was posted on a Kelowna Reddit group.

A social media account on X called Windward Antifascist drew attention to the Langley gathering at the West Langley Hall, a log-cabin style venue that often hosts weddings and is co-managed by the Langley Lions Club and the Township of Langley.

The image of Diagolon’s gathering at the hall that Windward Antifascist posted also appears in a video posted by one of Diagolon’s members, Derek Harrison, who goes by the online name Derek Rants. In the photo, around 40 people pose for the camera, holding one arm up to mimic the diagonal slash across the group’s flag.

During the group’s B.C. tour, Harrison also posted a photo himself at the Kamloops Residential School monument, making a joke about digging up the bodies of children who died at the school.

You can learn more about what Diagolon has been saying to their followers on tour by watching this TikTok video from Rachel Gilmore, a Canadian journalist who reports on the far right.

Woodward said the Lions Club, not the municipality, is responsible for handling venue rentals at the hall and he and his staff are assuming the club members weren’t aware of the true purpose of the Diagolon gathering on Friday.

The Lions Club did not respond to The Tyee’s request for comment. Woodward said he was not aware of Diagolon until he learned about the booking on the day of the event.

The Tyee also contacted the Falkland and District Community Association but did not hear back by publication time.

The Carp Agricultural Society previously said they were not aware of the “group identity nor intent of the rental” when the booking for their hall was made.

“It’s very concerning and a little scary,” said Ravi Kahlon, B.C.’s housing minister. In his previous post as parliamentary secretary for multiculturalism, Kahlon worked on an anti-racism strategy for the province.

“We know that these hate groups have been operating in Canada and B.C. We know that some of them tag along with the freedom convoy and were part of organizing there as well.

“It’s a scary reminder that we have these groups operating in B.C.”

Kahlon retweeted a post about the meeting at the West Langley Hall, asking Woodward “to find out how this happened.” In response, one of the leaders of Diagolon, Jeremy MacKenzie, told Kahlon “You’re not Canadian.”

Mackenzie has railed against South Asian politicians during hours-long livestreams on Rumble. Alex Vriend, another member of Diagolon, has filmed himself laughing at graphic videos of people being hit by trains in India. In recent social media posts, the group’s leaders have dwelled on the idea of mass deportations of all South Asian people from Canada.

Kahlon said it’s common for extremely racist comments to be directed at him online — some are from bots, while others appear to come from real people.

“We’re in this new culture of algorithms taking over our lives,” Kahlon said. “I see people who I grew up with, and I ask how did they get here? It’s what they’ve been exposed to.”

Kahlon is urging all political parties to acknowledge the threat of racism and for elected officials to call out racism when they see it in their communities.

“It’s all of our responsibility to push back against these hate groups in our communities,” he said.