In a small central Albertan town sits a home with a collection of purple flags featuring a sword bifurcating a maple leaf hanging from it.
The flags are for Romana Didulo, a QAnon conspiracy theorist with a cult-like following who believes she's the true Queen of Canada. The home belonged to a woman who we're going to call Bonnie, and she’s one of Didulo’s most dedicated followers.
“I've been showing off all of mine since it arrived in early December ,” she once wrote to her leader about the flags. “I have lots in my house too!! I bought all 3 dif one and garden flags too!!”
Bonnie posts on Didulo's Telegram pages religiously, never failing to thank her Queen for all she does. She's proud to display her loyalty to her leader with the flags. But, in yet another sad story of the devastating real-world impact of the QAnon conspiracy, the Didulo memorabilia will have to be packed up in short order.
The bank has foreclosed on Bonnie and her husband. According to court documents seen by VICE News, the Didulo fan owes over $150,000 on her mortgage which she stopped paying because her Queen told her the banking system was fake and the debt would eventually be forgiven. It's an ending that's left Bonnie in a state of shock.
“Queen Romana said the White Hats (forces Didulo followers believe fight alongside them) are in charge of the banks. So I was shocked when I was foreclosed on at end of October,” she recently wrote in a Didulo chatroom. “Going on 3 months now with them trying to get access to list my house, giving me til Jan 31 to comply or remove us with force.”
“The kids were really great when we had the power and gas disconnected,” she added. "They went with the flow....but to have them removed from their home is not right.”
While Bonnie doesn’t go into significant details on her children in her posts, she did mention that she has several adult-age children, including one who is 18 and is also a Didulo believer.
Didulo came to prominence among the QAnon crowd in early 2021 by claiming she's the true Queen of Canada waging a war against the so-called “deep state.” Since early 2022 Didulo and a collection of her closest followers have been endlessly touring Canada in an RV, stopping to preach in Wal-mart parking lots and the like. Former followers who traveled with her alleged serious abuse occurred when they were on the RVs.
One of Didulo's most damaging actions is her "royal decrees"—a series of proclamations she made about rules that exist in her version of Canada but obviously have no impact in reality—decrees which include statements that rent, power, and utilities are all free. Didulo's fans celebrated these decrees and the most diehard declared they stopped paying their bills. Now many of the very same followers are discussing their power being shut off or homes being foreclosed.
Bonnie recently begged Didulo that the “royal decrees need to be enforced" before she loses her home. Court documents indicate on Jan. 31 Bonnie and her family will be forcibly removed and the property listed by a real estate agent on behalf of the bank. Bonnie and her family have owned the property since 2011.
Christine Sarteschi, an extremism researcher who closely follows Didulo, shared the documents with VICE News. She says they're important because they show the true devastation that can be wrought by people blindly following Didulo and other conspiracy figures.
"She's telling people things that aren't true and people are believing it. They are adjusting and living their lives according to things that aren't true," said Sarteschi. "They are being harmed by it—losing their utilities, their homes, their families are suffering. And I think what people are upset about oftentimes is like there's nothing done about it."
Sarteschi hopes there may be a warning issued by the authorities about Didulo's lies because she's "actively hurting people."
VICE News went through hundreds of posts Bonnie made on Didulo’s Telegram page, where she interacts with her followers. Bonnie’s posts paint a picture of an extremely dedicated individual who entrenched herself in Didulo's online community. She spends a significant amount of time following Didulo, posting almost every day, typically more than once.
"It's lonely being awake, thank heavens for our telegram family!!" she wrote recently.
She often speaks of her $200 “monthly donation” to Didulo she’s been paying since last January. Didulo routinely asks her followers for money to pay for her never-ending road trip and Bonnie, like many others, obliges. She’s introduced her family, including her children to Didulo and even brought them out to meet her Queen when she rolled through town. But more than anything, Bonnie appears willing to suffer for their beliefs. Several times she's written that her power and gas have been shut off—for weeks on end at times—because she refused to pay.
“I stood up last year as soon as queen Romana said electricity is free, water is free, taxes are no more, banks are fraudulent, etc. But it's starting to drain my energy, dealing with these utilities being cut off,” she wrote in July.
“I can't wait til the militaries (are) done arresting these pieces of shit,” she added later, referring to the utility companies.
VICE reached out to the companies she named but did not receive a response.
The court documents show the Canadian legal system giving little mercy for Bonnie’s beliefs in the Qanon Queen’s parallel legal system. On one of the ruling applications Judge J.R. Farrington wrote, in pen, at the bottom of an order to vacate the home that “any reference to Queen Romana Didulo as a ground for non-cooperation with the realtor is dismissed.”
"This is a clear repudiation of her edicts,” said Sarteschi. “It's a rejection. It's just like saying that these don't work, her edicts are ineffective."
Didulo has currently hunkered down for the winter in her RV on a believer’s property in Nova Scotia. She still has several of her closest followers, who have essentially given up their lives at home to serve Didulo, staying with her.
Online, Bonnie commiserates with other Didulo followers who are feeling the impact of the faith they placed in Didulo in their bank statements and credit scores. Many have been pushed to the brink, only to be dragged along by a small semblance of hope given to them by Didulo. The latest false hope is called Nesera, a conspiracy that an new banking system will come about and wipe out their debt.
This is at least the second time Didulo has been outrightly discredited in the Canadian legal system. In October, she was mentioned in an employment insurance (EI) tribunal over the dismissal of a nurse who refused to get vaccinated. The nurse brought up one of Didulo’s decrees as to why she should get $3,000 per month of EI.
“I don’t agree with this argument,” read the Tribunal’s decision. “The so-called decree wasn’t passed by the Parliament of Canada. It has no legal force and doesn’t change the EI Act. Under that Act, she isn't entitled to benefits.”
The nurse did not win.
VICE News reached out to Bonnie in the summer of 2022 when she first started speaking about her power being shut off. Bonnie was less than happy with the interview request.
“You are a liar and wrote a fake article ON QUEEN ROMANA, you should be sharing Queen’s live stream from yesterday if you were a true honest reporter for WE THE PEOPLE .... You are a DISGRACE,” she wrote. “And a TRAITOR to the KINGDOM OF CANADA”
Bonnie did not respond to another recent request for an interview.
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