For years, Romana Didulo traveled across Canada in an RV, proclaiming herself the โQueen of Canada.โ She issued decrees on social media declaring that citizens no longer had to pay taxes, mortgages or utility bills. Some followers believed her โ and lost their homes, their savings, and their grip on reality.
This week, the 50-year-old Filipino Canadian conspiracy theorist was taken into custody by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after a raid on a former school in rural Saskatchewan. Didulo, who rose to prominence as part of the QAnon movement, streamed her arrest live to her followers.
Authorities say the compound in Richmound, a farming town of fewer than 200 people, had become a flashpoint of tension between Diduloโs group and local residents. Neighbors complained of sewage dumping, threats against officials, and a steady influx of her loyalists who referred to her as both their monarch and commander-in-chief.
Born in Naga City, Philippines, and raised in Canada since the 1990s, Didulo began as the little-known leader of an unregistered political group called the Canada 1st Party. During the pandemic, she found an audience online, mixing QAnon conspiracies, sovereign citizen rhetoric and spiritual mysticism. She told her followers that she had been secretly appointed by the U.S. military to rule Canada.
Experts say her decrees went beyond harmless fantasy. Some of her supporters stopped paying debts and utilities, convinced the queen had abolished them. Others attempted โcitizenโs arrestsโ of police officers and health workers after Didulo accused them of crimes against humanity.
โHer rhetoric may sound absurd, but the harm is real,โ said Amarnath Amarasingam, an extremism researcher at Queenโs University. โShe has cultivated an audience that is willing to put her proclamations into action.โ
Law enforcement has taken notice. In 2021, the RCMP detained Didulo under the mental health act after she encouraged violence against healthcare workers. Her recent arrest follows months of growing alarm over her groupโs activities in Saskatchewan.
Diduloโs followers continue to post online messages calling her the rightful ruler of Canada and demanding her release. But in Richmound, residents say they hope the arrest brings peace to their small town.
โShe called herself queen,โ one local farmer said, declining to give his name out of fear of retaliation. โBut all she brought here was chaos.โ
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