Three observers (two on the roof) stand behind a roped off area, making sure participants of a protest stayed at a safe distance and away from the school where Romana Didulo is occupying with members of her group.--SOUTHERN ALBERTA NEWSPAPER FILE PHOTO
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After spending more than a year dealing with a “cult” setting up in a former school site in Richmound, Sask., two out of three members of that local council are running for re-election.
“It’s out of love for this town,” said Mayor Brad Miller, who is one of two candidates who registered Wednesday on nomination day ahead of the Nov. 13 vote.
The third told the News that controversy and divisions in the town are becoming too much and she declined to submit her name for re-election.
“Harassment has really become unbearable, and it’s time to take a new direction in my life,” said Barbara Koch, who served two terms as a town councillor starting in 2016.
The arrival of followers of Romano Didulo last year caused a deep split in the community, with many demanding action be taken to push them out of town, while others are supportive or neutral toward their presence.
Koch said the community has become highly “polarized.”
“I put in eight years and contributed to the community and done my best to ensure that everyone is treated fairly,” said Koch.
“Some people have worked hard to discredit honest people, and … it seems standard now for people to tear other people down.”
Incumbent councillor Wade Welte is one of three people seeking two councillor positions on the three-person council. He will face other nominees Kathy Bullock and Lorne Lowry, according to a release from the village office Wednesday. Nominations become official today.
Miller will seek another mayoral term, filing paperwork ahead of a nomination deadline Wednesday.
Also running for the mayoral position, which is part of the three-person village council, is Jody Smith, who lives next to the former school site where the group has set up residence and built fencing.
Previous comments to the media suggest he feels the controversy is overblown.
On Sept. 26, 2023, residents of the town formed a convoy of farm and other vehicles to protest the arrival of Didulo at the village’s former school site that had been sold to a private resident.
Earlier that month the group was chased out of Kamsack, Sask. by counter protesters, and that summer, arrests were made by the Peterborough, Ont. police after Didulo supporters attempted to make citizens arrests of actual officers.
The B.C. Woman claims to be the “Queen of Canada” and says she has the power to cancel property tax and utility debts, make military orders and will punish those who administered the COVID-19 vaccine.
A criminologist interviewed by the News at the time said the edicts are nonsense, but the use of violent language and anti-government conspiracy theories are cause for concern.
“It takes away from the potential seriousness of it, and the real people who are being harmed by believing in these false ideas,” said Christine Sarteschi, a Pennsylvania-based researcher who has followed the group.
Miller said that administering a small village of about 120 residents should be relatively simple. However, the presence of Didulo supporters and the unrest in the community has been challenging.
At the same time, he is not sure if council candidates will be able to make promises to remove the camp, or keep them in the next term.
“Those are questions that should be put to SUMA and the provincial government,” he said, referring the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, to which Miller said he has requested help on the issue.
He said his own campaign will consist of his record and a five-page “letter to residents about what’s been accomplished over my term … because there is a lot,” he said.
