Langley Township is investigating how one of its community halls, managed by the Langley Lions Club, hosted a far-right organization's recent gathering.
On Friday, July 19, the Road Rage Terror Tour, organized by major figures in the Diagolon movement, held its Metro Vancouver event in West Langley Hall in Walnut Grove.
The event featured a number of far-right extremist podcasters and livestreamers, including Jeremy MacKenzie, who is usually identified as the founder of Diagolon.
A photo MacKenzie posted on his X account (formerly Twitter) showed the hall hung with black flags crossed with a single white slash representing the Diagolon movement. People in the foreground, and a crowd of dozens of people in the background, posed with one arm raised across their chests in the "Diagolon salute."
When the photo was shared by an X account called Windward Antifascist, which called attention to the fact that the group had met in Langley, it drew widespread attention, with B.C. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon re-posting it.
"It’s all of our responsibility to push back against these hate groups in our communities," Kahlon wrote.
Township Mayor Eric Woodward said the Township will look into why the Lions Club rented the hall to the organization.
"The Township of Langley will conduct an internal investigation to identify how facility rentals in contravention have been permitted by the lessee [the Lions Club]," Woodward said in a statement.
"The Township will also reinforce lessee booking policies, including stricter vetting procedures and additional oversight mechanisms to prevent such occurrences in the future," he said.
Renting a Township facility requires adhering to rules on conduct.
"While at the facility, the licensee and all of its officers, directors employees, servants, agents, contractors, volunteers, and guests must behave in a safe and appropriate manner and treat all facility users with respect, courtesy, fairness, and equality," the policy says.
"Everyone at our facilities has the right to be treated with respect, courtesy, fairness, and equality; feel safe in an accessible and welcoming environment; and be free from harassment, discrimination, physical or verbal abuse, and toxicity in relationships. Everyone at our facilities has a role in treating each other with respect, courtesy, fairness, and equality, respecting everyone regardless of diversity or ability, and in using the facility and equipment in a safe and respectful way."
One question is whether the Lions Club had any idea who they were renting to.
"How do you prevent someone from booking it when they don't necessarily represent who they are?" Woodward said.
The Road Rage Terror Tour has been promoted by far-right media outlets as a comedy tour, and Diagolon is known to police agencies, but is not as high-profile as other recent far-right groups such as the Proud Boys.
The Township has also had issues in the past with Hells Angels gang members renting space at the George Preston Recreation Centre, claiming to be organizing a year-end party for a soccer team, or a retirement bash.
Township staff would then find the facility full of Hells Angels wearing their gang colours, and bringing in exotic dancers.
READ ALSO: Hells Angels barred from booking Langley rec centre after booze fuelled stripper parties
The group using West Langley Hall sold tickets to the events online for $60 to $80, and did not specify exact locations. The Langley event was their "Vancouver" stop. According to the Diagolon website, ticket buyers were to be emailed the address only 24 hours before it took place. Previous Diagolon-related events have seen protests and event cancellations by venue owners.
Diagolon emerged from the alt-right movement in the 2010s, and like many other far-right movements at the time, it was steeped in ironic humour.
The name "Diagolon" began as a joke about created a country that ran diagonally through North America from Alaska, through Western Canada, to Florida.
As a movement, it is a group of connected right-wing influencers and their fans.
The current tour, which headed back to Alberta after stops near Kamloops and in Langley, features MacKenzie, Morgan Guptill, Derek Harrison, and Alex Vriend.
Vriend has promoted anti-Semitic documentaries and has expressed doubt about the Holocaust, according to several news reports.
MacKenzie, the most prominent among the group, has faced criminal charges including criminal harassment, assault, pointing a firearm, and using a restricted weapon in a careless manner. A series of charges laid in Saskatchewan were dropped in 2023 when MacKenzie agreed to accept a peace bond. Charges in Nova Scotia were dismissed when the case took too long to bring to trial.
MacKenzie was also investigated by the RCMP after he discussed raping Pierre Poilievre's wife during a livestream in 2022. Poilievre referred to MacKenzie and the other man as "odious" and "losers," but there do not appear to have been any criminal charges laid.
MacKenzie's X feed repeatedly blames social ills and crime on immigrants, especially South Asians, saying "these people are not Canadian." He dubs opponents communists or "goblins," and makes non-specific but threatening statements such as "we can't coexist with these people."
Patches with the Diagolon symbol were seized along with weapons when the RCMP raided the Coutts border blockade in 2022. Two men involved with that blockade are now on trial for conspiring to murder RCMP officers.
