Gun charges against Diagolon leader Jeremy Mackenzie stayed in Sask.
CBC
Saskatchewan-based weapons and assault charges against the leader of the controversial Diagolon movement have been stayed.
Last year Jeremy Mackenzie was charged with assault, pointing a firearm, use of a restricted weapon in a careless manner and mischief in connection with a 2021 incident near Viscount, Sask., a community approximately 75 kilometres southeast of Saskatoon.
He was arrested at his home in Cole Harbour, N.S., on a Canada-wide warrant before being released on bail in November 2022.
The Saskatchewan-based charges against Mackenzie were stayed in a hearing late last week.
In a statement provided to CBC News, Saskatchewan's Ministry of Justice said a prosecution can only proceed when there is a reasonable likelihood of conviction or when it is in the public interest to use the criminal justice system to address the matter.
A change to circumstances can require the prosecutor to re-assess that standard, the ministry said.
Crown attorneys believed the situation in this case changed to the extent it was no longer appropriate to prosecute the charges, the statement said.
Instead, the Crown believed a "just resolution" was to have Mackenzie sign a peace bond.
Mackenzie is the leader of an online group known as Diagolon.
A House of Commons report from June 2022 identifies the organization as an ideologically motivated violent extremist organization.
"It's made up of former members of the Canadian Forces, individuals with real combat training, with real capabilities and who have grown increasingly radicalized, especially because of COVID," the report says, quoting Mubin Shaikh, a professor of public safety at Seneca College.
Shaikh is quoted as saying Diagolon is one of the groups that he considers to be "real and significant threat to Canadian public safety."
The report also notes a connection between Diagolon and extremists who were arrested at the Coutts, Alta., border crossing during convoy protests in February 2022.
Mackenzie and his followers have scoffed at the suggestion this group is some sort of American-style militia group, arguing they are simply trolling, or intentionally fooling, a gullible media.
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