The Canadian Anti-Masker Death Threat Meltdown Is Getting Weird Now

Canadian anti-maskers, furious their leader has been charged with threatening to kill politicians and a former-friend-turned foe, have mounted an attack against the alleged traitor, leading to yet another death threat charge.  

Last week, Chris Saccoccia, Canada’s most prominent anti-masker, was charged with threatening to kill his former associate Rob Carbone—and all the premiers in Canada—as well as attempting to run down a police officer during arrest. Unsurprisingly, Saccoccia’s followers believe the charges to be “fake news.”

In court documents, Toronto police allege that on May 12 Saccoccia threatened to kill Ontario Premier Doug Ford, along with all the premiers across 5,000-kilometre-wide Canada, and Carbone, his former pal who happens to be the leader of the nascent Republican Party of Canada. Police say they were made aware of the alleged threats last week and when they went to Saccoccia’s house to arrest him, he fled when they arrived, nearly hitting a cop with his car. 

Saccoccia eventually turned himself in to authorities and was released on bail last Thursday. He faces three counts of uttering death threats, one count of assault on a peace officer with a weapon, and one count of dangerous driving. 

Carbone claimed to VICE World News that Saccoccia was talking to him on the phone on May 12 when he snapped and threatened to kill him, Doug Ford, and others by shooting them in the head.

On social media and in speeches he’s given at recent anti-mask rallies, Saccoccia denied making these threats, and said he thinks he is being framed by the government who doesn’t want his self-published book to come out.

“I look forward to proving the allegations false and exposing Rob Carbone as a liar,” said Saccoccia in an email to VICE.

Until recently, Carbone and Saccoccia were tight, with Saccoccia being a high-profile booster of the Republican Party of Canada (in no way related to the Republican Party of the United States of America). Saccoccia held rallies attended by Carbone and the two appeared in several videos together. At one point Saccoccia even made a video where he claimed the dynamic duo controlled the Canadian banking system because they copyrighted the name of a bank act (they, in fact, do not control the bank system, which Carbone has said). But the pair had a falling out earlier this month for reasons unknown.

Since Saccoccia was granted bail,  anti-mask leaders have been waging an online campaign against Carbone. They’ve made videos accusing Carbone of “setting Chris up” and, in some cases, actively telling their fans to swarm him.

Carbone said he has been inundated with threats, phone calls, and messages since the campaign started. He showed VICE World News screenshots of his phone listing a deluge of phone calls from unlisted numbers and threats he’s received by text.

In one of the texts an anti-maskers is so irate with the allegations that their leader threatened to shoot people in the head, that they are themselves threatening to shoot people in the head. 

“You goof fraudster setting Chis up,” read one text message. “Do you need something between the eyes?”

Toronto police told VICE World News that on Tuesday they charged Marco Palhais, 47, with one count of uttering a death threat for texting Carbone. Palhais did not respond to questions sent to a Facebook profile that bore his name and had recently posted some of Saccoccia’s catch phrases. 

Carbone’s contact information has been shared widely by anti-maskers. Another anti-mask leader, Kelly Anne Farkas, made several videos attacking Carbone and inviting her audience to do the same.

“I believe that Rob Carbone left his phone number on his public things,” she said. “Why don’t you guys call him up? Go give him a call. Tell him what you think of him.”

When asked for comment about the situation and the new death threat charge, Farkas again targeted Carbone with a conspiracy by saying Carbone “set up Chris Sky in exchange for endorsements for his bs party from the inner circle of Doug Ford.” In an Instagram video released following a story covering Saccoccia’s original charges, Farkas called VICE “a cuck for the narrative” and made a blowjob motion. 

Carbone said that the threats are starting to slow down, but for a while they were coming in aggressively. 

“Police officers have been here at my home concerned about all these death threats I’ve been receiving,” Carbone said. “Phone calls, with people saying, ‘You’re fucking dead! Don’t ever fuck this guy or you’re fucking dead. You ever fuck with my girl, I’m going to fucking whack you.”

Aside from raging against Carbone after his release from prison, Saccoccia also went to social media to recruit “a driver” to jet him to British Columbia for the start of a cross-country tour—one of his bail conditions is he’s banned from driving . Saccoccia is also banned from attending anti-mask rallies in Ontario as part of bail conditions from previous charges. He also claims he’s been put on a no-fly list. 

Court documents reveal Saccoccia has a number of other bail conditions including surrendering his weapons,  as well as having to reside in Markham (a city just outside Toronto) every week unless he gets permission from his surety not to. (However, Saccoccia’s surety is a member of his anti-mask crew travelling with him.) Saccoccia also has to stay 500 feet away from Carbone and Ford. 

In several (confusing) videos posted to his social media, which have since been deleted, Saccoccia addresses the charges and alleges a screwjob is afoot. Saccoccia claims he left a laptop at Carbone’s home and that he believes Carbone used his laptop to send an email to himself, therefore breaking bail conditions that say Saccoccia can’t contact Carbone.

In a separate video Saccoccia “goes on the record” saying he has now changed his passwords so that he’s once again in control of his email account. Carbone told VICE World News that Saccoccia’s claims were false and confusing.

"There's no logic to anything that he's saying but I bet there's a lot of stupids that will actually listen to that,” he said.

Follow Mack Lamoureux on Twitter.