Controversial podcaster Jeremy Mackenzie is free and clear after the final outstanding charges against him were stayed.
Charges against Mackenzie, a 14-year military veteran who served in Afghanistan, and his girlfriend Morgan Guptill, were stayed by a Nova Scotia judge who found that the 19 months between their arrests and a trial was an unreasonable length of time.
These were the last remaining criminal charges against Mackenzie after charges in Quebec and Saskatchewan and others in Nova Scotia were similarly stayed or dropped.
In the latest one, Mackenzie and Gultipp were charged with criminal harassment of Nova Scotia chief medical officer Dr. Robert Strang. They were arrested on the third day of protesting on a public street near his residence.
Each of the 23 charges thrown at Mackenzie across three separate provinces has been dropped, stayed, or resolved, including a series of firearms charges in Saskatchewan.
Mackenzie created an online community called Diagolon, which he describes as a fictitious meme country represented by a black flag with a diagonal white line. In an interview, he told True North that although he is “relieved” the criminal cases are behind him, he was disappointed that he didn’t get a chance to defend himself in front of the public and a jury.
“In a way we’re relieved and just thankful to have that real estate in our heads back. This is just another problem we don’t have to deal with anymore. But this never should have happened in the first place. And it’s just a travesty of justice and our resources,” Mackenzie said.
Mackenzie, who testified before the Public Order Emergency Commission remotely from jail in 2022, said the way that he and his girlfriend have been treated by the justice system has been disproportionate to what “real criminals” face.
Mackenzie said that on top of having his bail denied, he was placed in solitary confinement multiple times. He also said he faced physical attacks because of the media’s and the Liberal government’s characterization of him.
Mackenzie and Diagolon were singled out by the Liberal government during the Freedom Convoy as a national security risk, a position partially relied on to justify the use of the Emergencies Act.
An investigative report by lawyer Caryma Sa’d, who has represented Mackenzie, alleged that the government knew that Diagolon was not violent or even a traditionally definable group.
“We have criminals running around this country doing whatever they want,” he said. “In the time that it took to have this case in Nova Scotia finally thrown out, four cases of pedophiles and people luring children were tossed out because they ran out of time to prosecute.”
Despite being free of criminal charges, Mackenzie still maintains that he was targeted for his political views.
“It lends more weight, not less, to the idea that people in this country who are political dissidents and unhappy with the way our rulers are conducting business are targeted by the state and punished for dissenting,” he said, “It doesn’t paint a good picture of our legal system and doesn’t do anything to dispel that.”
Mackenzie also took aim at the relative media silence about his charges being stayed.
“A lot of things were said. Media had printed a lot of out of context things and headlines. They really went to town to slander my reputation,” Mackenzie said. “Now that it’s all over, they have nothing to say. And there’s no one here to apologize and say ‘We jumped to conclusions and painted you as this person without getting the facts.’ None of them showed up.”
The RCMP launched an investigation into Mackenzie at the request of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre over comments Mackenzie made on a podcast threatening to rape Poilievre’s wife, Anaida. Mackenzie said the distasteful comments were made as a joke. The RCMP never laid charges.
