A regular fixture at protests against public health measures, Police On Guard For Thee and Constable Chris Vandenbos seem to have few qualms about sharing the stage with antisemites and conspiracy theorists willing to help share their message.
Canadian Anti-Hate Network
Source: YouTube
The leader of a group of active and retired police officers opposed to public health measures to combat COVID-19 recently interviewed Jeremy MacKenzie of the Plaid Army, a growing and antisemitic streaming collective of conspiracy theorists who recently claimed there is a race war taking place in America.
Chris Vandenbos is an active duty police officer with York Regional Police and a media forward face for the organization Police On Guard For Thee. Citing the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as the reason for opposing public health measures, a press release in January outlined their intention to challenge COVID restrictions in court with the aid of constitutional lawyer Rocco Galati.
Appearing on the group’s YouTube channel, Vandenbos regularly conducts interviews with figures from the anti-lockdown ecosystem. MacKenzie, a retired combat veteran from the Canadian Armed Forces, has been steadfast in his opposition to lockdowns and what he views as a larger conspiracy to use vaccines and the media to seize power and disenfranchise white Canadians.
Before the pandemic, however, MacKenzie's focus often drifted to supporting theories of secret Jewish plots, including perpetrating the attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.
“I don’t actually know what 9/11 was about. Like, none of us really believed it. So, what is the real story anyway?” he said during an April 2020 appearance on another Plaid Army member’s show. “And I ended up finding Ryan Dawson and some other people, and I did not like what I saw.”
Ryan Dawson is a Holocaust denier who believes that the pandemic and the September 11 attacks were planned by “the Jews” and Israel. He is known for his documentary “War by Deception,” in which he argues the attacks were planned by a “Zionist cabal” of Israeli and American Jews working in the US government used 9/11 to strengthen their grip on power.
MacKenzie is a regular host of anti-lockdown figures on his own stream, previously sitting down with Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament Randy Hillier (who has been interviewed by other members of Police Stand On Guard For Thee) and protest leader Chris “Sky” Saccoccia, who himself has a history of Holocaust denial and historical revisionism. Saccoccia and MacKenzie recently had a falling out, with the latter even taking to his chat to ask why Saccoccia no longer expressed his doubts around the Holocaust.
“What happened to the based guy?” MacKenzie wrote. “How come he doesn't talk about that stuff anymore? It all fell out of his head?”
After briefly appearing on MacKenzie’s show again to talk about their particular feud, Saccoccia appeared on both Rebel News and Islamophobic streamer Kevin Johnston’s show and restated his belief that the number of Jewish deaths during the Holocaust was based on religious prophecy, rather than historical research.
MacKenzie has also told his viewers that he thinks doctors involved in a medical program focusing on people of colour should be hanged, as well as his opinion that “politely” declining to speak with the media is “not the right attitude.”
“The attitude you should have is you’re wearing an Outlaws patch and you walk into a [Hells Angels] bar. ‘You’re in the wrong fucking place. You need to leave now, you understand.’ That’s how it should be.
“And if that doesn’t get their attention, take their camera and throw it in the goddamn lake. Fucking fuck up their vehicles, I don’t care. They don’t work for you, they work for the state. Their entire purpose is to make you look ridiculous and insane. Don’t bother with them, don’t engage with them. Chase them out, ‘get out,’ that’s what they deserve.”
According to reporting by ARC Collective MacKenzie has also tweeted, "You can't vote your way out of this...the only viable solutions are illegal and I'd be jailed publicly for saying them.”
Other episodes included him showing off his hard copy of Devon Stack’s “Day of the Rope.” The book is a modernized version of “The Turner Diaries,” by neo-Nazi William Luther Pierce, and inspired the Oklahoma City Bombing. The phrase “day of the rope” refers to the fictional day after the neo-Nazis win that they hang journalists, politicians, and white race traitors. Both books commonly appear on neo-Nazi reading lists.
In the same report by ARC Collective, audio can be heard of MacKenzie discussing the book “Day of the Rope.”
When a commenter said that the book had been banned, MacKenzie stopped the conversation and said “This is a great book; what a piss off. Check this book out if you can find it.
When reached for comment, the York Regional Police said they are "aware of the activities of this member."
"He is employed by our police service, however, his views and associations do not align with the values of York Regional Police and he does not speak on behalf of our organization. We will be investigating further."
Vandenbos' organization did not address specific questions about choosing to host MacKenzie, and told the Canadian Anti-Hate Network they "stand for all Canadians," before directing us to their lawyer.
Far from the first troubling guest to appear alongside the officer, other protest leaders with concerning racial beliefs have interviewed or been interviewed by Vandenbos.
Odessa Orlewicz, host of the west coast-based Liberty Talk Canada and anti-lockdown protest organizer, also trades in antisemitic theories on her stream alongside a slew of other conspiracies -- including “child meat” being sold at a local McDonalds.
In another segment in January 2021, Orlewicz claims that conspiracy theories around elites abducting children en masse and taking them to underground tunnels are rooted in Judaism.
“There was a religion where what we already know all the elite are doing with the tunnels and the children, back then it was just a certain group who did this, a massive group. And then, another leader came in who was of a different religion and he said, ‘you guys can’t be doing this with kids anymore. It’s disgusting what you do.’ He had the leadership role and he said to them, ‘here’s the three religions you can choose.’”
Naming the religions as Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. She adds that “they chose, on the surface, Judaism. They infiltrated themselves into that, and all the other religions.”
More antisemitism in the Vancouver & BC anti-lockdown protest movement
— Drew (@nolifeneet) January 6, 2021
Odessa Orlewicz of Liberty Talk Canada says an occult cabal of child-trafficking elites masquerading as Jews (evoking the Khazar hypothesis) control the world, while recommending a QAnon documentary. pic.twitter.com/nQvtsszmrG
Vandenbos founded the organization with another officer late in 2020, according to its website.
“After over 16 years of policing I now find myself in the fortunate position to advocate for positive change,” he wrote on the site. “I am using my experience as an Oath taking Police constable, and [the] platform I have, to stand up for my fellow Canadians.”
Other guests to the channel have included Laura Lynn Tyler-Thompson, a failed People’s Party of Canada candidate, Christian nationalist and former 700 Club Canada host who often uses her platform to attack the 2SLGBTQ+ community. She also has referred to Maxime Bernier’s leadership of the PPC as the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, according to Press Progress.
At time of writing, the official website of Police On Guard For Thee is down, despite functioning as late as Tuesday morning. Their Facebook page, which includes over 30,000 followers, remains up.
This article was updated to include comment from York Regional Police and Police On Guard For Thee.
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