The Rise and Fall of the QAnon Queen of Canada

In September 2024, police in Canada raided an old school in a tiny town called Richmound. Inside, a woman named Romana Didulo and about 15 followers had been living for nearly two years. Didulo told her followers she was the Queen of Canada and could erase debt and cure cancer. What police found inside the building shocked everyone.

Didulo was born in the Philippines in 1974 and later moved to Canada. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she began posting videos claiming the pandemic was fake. She said powerful groups had created it to control the world. She also declared herself prime minister of Canada, even though she never received a single vote.

Didulo joined an app called Telegram in 2021 and gained more than 70,000 followers. She shared wild conspiracy theories and wrote fake laws she called royal decrees. One decree said all debt was cancelled. Another threatened people with execution if they tried to collect money on behalf of a bank.

A factory worker named Frank Curtin became one of her most devoted followers. He delivered threatening letters to police stations and businesses across Canada. In 2022, he led a group to a police station to try to arrest officers. Instead, Curtin and five others were arrested. Didulo watched from a nearby RV.

In January 2022, Didulo traveled to Ottawa for a large protest called the Freedom Convoy. Her followers raised more than $100,000 to fund the trip. She gave a speech at the parliament buildings and tried to burn a Canadian flag. The crowd booed her. Police created detailed reports on 87 people connected to the event and called her followers the 'true threat.'

Throughout 2022, Didulo and her group drove across Canada in rented RVs. Her followers cooked her meals, planned her speeches, and did her laundry. Real harm was being done to people who believed her fake laws. Some followers lost their homes because they stopped paying their mortgages based on her false decrees.

In the fall of 2023, the group moved into an old school in Richmound, Saskatchewan. A local man named Ricky Manz had invited them in hopes of avoiding a tax payment. The group set up a fake courtroom in the gym, filmed daily livestreams, and put up a large metal fence around the building. They patrolled the area around the clock.

The village of Richmound was frightened. Mayor Brad Miller tried to speak to the group but was ignored. The Kingdom sent a letter threatening village officials with 'publicly broadcast executions.' The town office closed, and at least four families left Richmound entirely. The mayor and his wife slept with a rifle under their bed.

After many failed attempts to remove the group, the village plugged the school's sewer line. Later, officials found evidence the group may have illegally tapped into the town's water supply. A confrontation at the fence led to Manz being arrested for assaulting two officers and the mayor. Didulo was also charged with intimidation.

On September 3, 2024, police raided the school with a SWAT team, drones, and dozens of officers. Everyone inside was arrested. Police found 13 handguns that turned out to be realistic replicas. The building had 21 fire violations. Mayor Miller called the day of the raid 'the happiest day of my life,' and the village began working on new laws to prevent this from ever happening again.