Firearms trial with connections to alleged anti-government militia, to extremist group Diagolon, ends before it begins

Landon Preik of Chilliwack asked court to convict him on all charges in a move that ends the trial, leaves open ability to appeal convictions on Charter grounds

With no fanfare, trial, guilty plea, or public explanation about the facts of the case, 41-year-old Landon Preik was convicted in Chilliwack provincial court on Tuesday (Sept. 16, 2025), of 10 criminal code charges connected to illegal firearms possession, and storage.

Preik might be tangentially connected to the Diagolon movement, more of a white nationalist meme nation that gained prominence in the pandemic and the "Freedom Convoy" that was created by Jeremy Mackenzie of Nova Scotia.

Diagolon is more of an idea than an organization, a concoction by Mackenzie of a fake country after looking at a map of North America and noting an diagonal line of more conservative states and provinces from Alaska to Florida, including Alberta, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, other red states.

Mackenzie is an anti-Semitic podcaster who says the Nuremberg Trials were a “kangaroo court.” After Diagolon flags were seen in the “trucker convoy” in Ottawa and in Coutts, Alberta, the extremist, right-wing populist, anti-vaxxer movement got more attention, including with images of Mackenzie grinning and shaking hands with Conservative leader Pierry Poilievre. The latter also proudly walked with far-right extremists on a street in Ottawa, chatting with James Topp who appeared on Mackenzie's podcast not long before.

Mackenzie has faced firearms charges in three provinces for being found with caches of real firearms, but in each case the charges were dropped. In the case of his arrest in Nova Scotia, Preik was arrested in Chilliwack one day after Mackenzie was. Mackenzie was let go, charges dropped.

This has led to conspiracy theories, particularly in far-right circles, that Mackenzie is either a government plant or is working for the government.

The connection, as tangential as it seems, is that Mackenzie claimed that he is the reason Preik got arrested. Mackenzie has been claiming he alerted police about Preik to avoid an armed conflict.

“This is an important trial,” an individual by the name of Bryan Trottier in Quebec told me in an email on June 30 about the Landon Preik case. Trottier said he is the one that informed police about Mackenzie's firearms in Saskatchewan and Quebec. “The information to charge him came from a bad actor from the ‘hate group’ Diagolon. Who are an obvious organ of the security services.”

This conspiracy theory runs deep, and is shared by several individuals watching closely.

“The obvious conclusion one can draw is that Jeremy ratted on him in January 2022 in order to get himself released,” Trottier told me. “It stands the ‘public hero’ narrative he tells on its head. He's just a prison rat.”

Preik was present in the courtroom with his lawyer, David Ferguson, on Tuesday at what was supposed to be the first day of a three-day trial. Preik wore running shoes, blue pant and untucked shirt, had a large scruffy beard, and longish hair.

Judge Peter Whyte was handed a lengthy "major exhibit flow" document as part of an agreed statement of facts, there was some discussion of the many voir dire hearings leading up to the trial and with that, Crown closed its case.

Defence counsel David Ferguson said Preik would be calling no evidence and he "invited the court to convict."

While an accused inviting the court to convict him seems like an admission of guilt, it is, sort of. A guilty plea would be a more fulsome admission of guilt. An invitation to convict suggests that he did not have a good outcome of the voir dire hearings before trial regarding his alleged Charter violations, so he knew he would be convicted with that evidence included.

Since he invited the court to convict rather than plead guilty, he is telling the judge: "Let's not waste everyone's time, find me guilty,and then I can appeal your Charter decisions to a higher court."

And with that, after reading the exhibit flow chart during a short break, Judge Whyte found Preik guilty of all 10 firearms charges.

The case was put over for sentencing at a later date, possibly to be determined at a fix-date court appearance on Sept. 23.

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Paul J. Henderson
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