Gary Schill had his gun license taken away after a court determined he may pose “a significant public safety concern” and the discovery of a “huge amount” of ammo stored next to a Nazi flag.
Canadian Anti-Hate Network
Photo illustration created using materials on Gary Schill's Telegram account.
A Diagolon supporter has been stripped of his firearms after the Ontario Court of Justice finds him likely to be a “significant public safety concern,” much like the group itself.
A two-year long investigation into the prominent white nationalist network resulted in an April 2024 hearing examining Gary Schill’s affiliation to Diagolon and its founder Jeremy MacKenzie.
During that time, law enforcement collected enough evidence to apply for a court order to prohibit Schill from owning weapons. The judge found that Schill was in Diagolon’s “inner circle” and ordered him not to possess weapons for five years.
The investigation into Jeremy MacKenzie and Diagolon began after the Canadian Anti-Hate Network published a story and made a complaint that a York Region Police officer had publicly associated with MacKenzie.
Initially intended to be a two-month “surface-level assessment” of Diagolon founder Jeremy MacKenzie, the probe grew to include a team of 10 to 12 investigators who found Schill, of Keswick ON, using his real name and photograph in the group’s online spaces. Testimony from a detective constable with the York Region Police (YRP) Tactical Intelligence Unit—which specializes in terrorism, ideologically motivated violent extremism (IMVE), and investigations with a “national security nexus”--- allegedly found Schill encouraging militia-type training.
Ontario Justice Rohan Michael Robinson ruled that “it is more likely than not that Mr. Schill poses a significant public safety concern” following an April hearing in an Ontario courthouse.
Justice Robinson barred Schill from possessing any firearm, crossbow, prohibited weapon, restricted weapon, prohibited device, ammunition, prohibited ammunition or explosive substance, for five years, according to a decision released online via the court database CanLII.
The judge also noted that there was ample evidence that Schill was a white supremacist, but that “distasteful and reprehensible” beliefs alone do not provide a basis for a firearms prohibition order. Instead, he pointed to evidence brought by a police officer with York Region Police as well as Schill’s former wife who categorized Schill as a “Diagolon member” spending “a lot of time online with like-minded people” and was a moderator of a Diagolon live stream.
According to the court documents, Schill was an administrator of at least two since-shuttered Diagolon Telegram channels, the content of which included “anti-vaccine, anti-government, white nationalist and white supremacy rhetoric” and included “talk about assembl[ing] a militia by acquiring weaponry and body armour and planning meet-ups.”
Schill had been reloading ammunition in his garage, which is a way to recycle and build bullets and a legal alternative to buying them commercially. “In the toolbox next to Mr. Schill’s reload station, the police located a large nazi flag with a swastika and iron cross on it,” the judge wrote.
Images referenced in court and provided to the Canadian Anti-Hate Network from sources show Schill with his facial hair shaved into Adolf Hitler’s signature pencil moustache and holding a plate adorned with an eagle holding a swastika in its talons. Called a Parteiadler, this is a variation of the official official symbol of the National Socialist German Workers' Party.
Image taken from a Diagolon group chat depicting Gary Schill. Source: Telegram.
The Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) obtained official court transcripts of the proceedings, which include testimony by DC Ernest Carmichael. The documents provide insights into the details of an investigation into Schill, Diagolon, and how organizing went “underground” following arrests outside of Coutts, Alberta.
“By virtue of the amount of attention they've, for lack of a better term, gone underground,” Carmichael told the court about his monitoring of Diagolon for two years. “They've closed down their Telegram channels. They've reorganized and reconstituted a lot of how they were functioning. They've hidden themselves behind a paywall now…They've made efforts to conceal and hide some of what they're doing and what their activities are.”
Diagolon is a network of far-right live streamers, content creators and their audience. Antisemitism and paranoia about a coming “war” over Canada, its racial makeup, and apparent communist infiltration of Western governments are common themes in Diagolon channels. Some of their leading content creators express extremist beliefs, share white supremacist content, and have created an environment where violent rhetoric is common.
Schill, according to transcripts of Carmichael’s testimony, was interested in recruiting ex-military members on behalf of Diagolon to build a militia. His ex-wife gave the same testimony to police.
Carmichael referred to images taken at a small Diagolon event at the start of the “Freedom Convoy” protests that included thanks to Gary Schill by name from Diagolon’s creator Jeremy MacKenzie. Calling the event a “Diagolon inner circle meeting,” Schill is shown in one of the pictures presented in court.
“At that gathering, Jeremy McKenzie stood up on a table to address the crowd. He identified himself as Diagolon’s leader and said ‘All my favourite people are here.”
“He mentioned Mr. Schill,” Carmichael said, “and then if I can add, too, at the end of the video, the way Mr. MacKenzie concluded his statement to his circle was, ‘There will not be any fucking surrendering as long as I am around.’”
CAHN was unable to locate images or video depicting the scene described during the hearing. Jeremy MacKenzie has repeatedly declined to provide comment to CAHN, including on the contents of this article. Gary Schill did not respond to a message delivered over Telegram and blocked the sender.
Diagolon supporters will claim that the community is merely a group of podcast fans joking about a fictional meme country that would run diagonally across North America.
Intimations of violence against ideological and racial enemies are frequent. Activists who oppose and journalists who report on Diagolon have become the target of harassment campaigns, had their whereabouts, addresses or addresses of family members posted in Diagolon chats, or had substantial sums of money offered for their personal information. One former white nationalist turned anti-fascist woke one day to find the flag of Diagolon—a black flag with a white slash running diagonally from right to left—spray painted on a lamp post outside his house.
At least two supporters of Diagolon were among four people arrested during 2022’s border blockade outside of Coutts, Alberta. While it is alleged that they were plotting to kill RCMP officers, two of the men pleaded guilty to lesser charges, including conspiracy to traffic firearms and unauthorized possession of a handgun. The remaining two, one of whom is a Diagolon supporter, are currently on trial.
Carmichael testified to having reviewed both Schill and MacKenzie’s devices during his investigation, offering unique insights into Diagolon’s structure and evolution since the convoy in 2022.
“There was indication that they were trying to formalize a leadership component, which [was] really just comprised of their closest inner circle,” Carmichael testified. “And they had implemented a hierarchy, so to speak, but it's intended to be a loose formation. In which case, Jeremy MacKenzie tables his ideology for his followers. And then he encourages everyone, to quote him, ‘Find your friends,’ and encourages his membership to form chapters, we'll call it, depending on their geography.”
It wasn’t confirmed what protests or Diagolon events Schill attended, but the court notes that he and a long-time Diagolon member did organize “Diagolon dinner parties” that took place at Schill’s home.
Other evidence presented from a since-shuttered group chat on the encrypted communication application Telegram could “reasonably be interpreted” as attempts by Schill to organize “tactical shooting and combat training outings,” Robinson said.
“ Viewed cumulatively, there is cogent evidence that situates Mr. Schill in the inner ideological circle of Diagolon and close to its founder, Jeremy McKenzie,” Justice Robinson said in his decision. “There is also cogent evidence of Mr. Schill’s intention to engage in the type of illegal activity espoused by Diagolon.”
Online posts presented in court also reportedly show Schill discussing his attempts to acquire Level IV body armour (armour rated for large calibre firearms). Part of a desire to be “protected against mil-spec (military specifications),” the court said this suggested he was seeking to engage in “active resistance against the government and not merely protection.”
A search of Schill’s home located his legally owned firearms and a “huge amount” of ammunition in buckets that included loose rounds and ammunition not compatible with Schill’s registered guns.
Another search warrant was issued for terrorism and seditious conspiracy, though Carmichael testified that they did not have “sufficient grounds to proceed with the criminal charges.”
Other aspects of the testimony discuss Schill’s use of guarded language and private chats to avoid detection by law enforcement, including the statement “We should move this to (direct messages) or in person, they'll accuse us of building a militia.”
DC Carmichael was also in the Diagolon chatroom when their discussion about conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and 5G mobile phone towers escalated.
“They were actively discussing means to cut down the towers. At one point, it was suggested, ‘an 18-volt Makita Angle Grinder [with a] cut off,’ to which (an individual using the username) Thomas Rhyno stated, ‘I've been eyeballing a portable plasma cutter for months now.’ So they were, from my perspective, they were discussing means to attack critical infrastructure.”
Carmichael confirmed in his testimony that targeting communication towers would constitute an act of terrorism.
Read the official court transcripts here. It is clearly marked where some identifying information has been redacted by CAHN:
Part 1
Part 2
Reasons for Judgment
The court also heard a breakdown by investigators that matched the location of a second video to a former schoolhouse in rural Quebec.
A 3D printer, a framed picture of Adolf Hitler, and a knife with Nazi symbols were found in Patrick Macdonald’s home.