The Nova Scotia founder of a group that has been described as a U.S. militia movement was one of two people arrested Tuesday in connection with recent protests at the home of the province’s health chief.
The RCMP and Halifax Regional Police said in a press release on Wednesday that they have charged 36-year-old Jeremy Mitchell MacKenzie of Pictou, NS, and 31-year-old Morgan May Guptil of Cole Harbor, NS, with criminal harassment, harassment, harassing phone calls and intimidation of a health professional.
The charges come after three days of protests outside Fall River, NS, home of Dr. Robert Strang, who started Sunday. Strang also said people making fun called him until 6 p.m. 02.00 that morning.
The police said they arrested Mackenzie and Guperil at Pleasant Street in Woodside area in Dartmouth Tuesday evening, while the protests continued outside Strang’s home. When police informed the protesters that the couple had been arrested, they left.
MacKenzie and Guptil are due in Dartmouth Provincial Court on Wednesday.
Diagolon a white nationalist movement, says prof
MacKenzie is the founder of Diagolon. Prof. University of New Brunswick David Hofmann, who studies extreme right-wing movements, told CBC News in February that the group’s goal is to establish a “diagonal” white nationalist state.
He said those who believe in the Diagolon movement say a civil war is needed to create a new state that will run diagonally from Alaska, through the provinces of western Canada, all the way south to Florida.
Earlier this year, the RCMP raided MacKenzie’s home and seized several firearms after a video was posted on social media showing MacKenzie pointing a gun at a man’s head.
Two of the four men in southern Alberta who are accused of conspiring to murder RCMP officers at the border blockades at Coutts, Alta., Last month have ties to Diagolon.
Houston speaks out against protests in Strang’s home
On Monday, Prime Minister Tim Houston stopped the protest activity in Strang’s home and suggested that steps be taken to stop future protests at the homes of government officials.
Last weekend’s protest is not the first to take place outside Strang’s home. In September, a small group protesting against public health restrictions protested outside Strang’s home. At the time, Houston approached them in a video telling them they were “going to grow up.”