The mayor of the Township of Langley says he’s looking into why a far-right group was allowed to host an event at the Lions Club last week.
Members of Diagolon gathered at the Langley Lions Society West Langley Hall on Friday as part of a national tour. The July 19 stop was part of the “Road Rage Terror Tour,” which includes various other events in the country.
The Langley Lions Club says on its website that it is “proud to partner with the Township of Langley in the care and management of West Langley Hall.”
However, Mayor Eric Woodward says the hall itself is owned by the township, but adds it is “completely operated independently by the Langley Lions Club.”
“We are following up with them to see how this booking occurred and see what we can do to prevent similar bookings in the future,” he told CityNews Tuesday.
On Monday, BC NDP MLA Ravi Kahlon called on Woodward to “find out how this happened.”
“This is very disturbing!!” Kahlon wrote on X.
“It’s all of our responsibility to push back against these hate groups in our communities.”
“I’d never heard of them before until the tweets that were shared and then Minister Kahlon’s concern — I share that concern, and we’ll get to the bottom of it and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” said Woodward.
“It’s important to note that it wasn’t the Township of Langley that booked this, it’s not a property that’s managed by the Township of Langley staff. We learned about it after the fact, just like everybody else, and I certainly don’t like that they’re convening these meetings and in assets that are owned by taxpayers but managed by a third party.
“And I don’t like it, I don’t support it, and certainly don’t want to see it occur again in the future,” he continued.
Although the group is not listed as a domestic terrorist organization in Canada, the U.S. government identifies Diagolon as a “Canadian far-right ‘extremist’ group.”
It was founded by Jeremy MacKenzie, who testified at the Emergencies Act Inquiry in Ottawa in 2022.
Woodward stresses he and township staff learned about the event on social media after it had happened.
“Obviously we don’t want those groups convening in Langley, we don’t support anything they stand for. The Township of Langley is very firm on that,” the mayor said.
Moving forward, Woodward says the township will have to ensure that its expectations are understood by groups that have similar agreements with the municipality.
“This hall, particularly, is wholly leased to this group to lease out as they see fit and manage as they see fit, and they generate the revenue from that. The benefit to the Township of Langley taxpayers is that they are the ones that are paying and managing that building and that property for community benefit,” he said.
“The process here will have to be looked at to ensure that they have a process in place, and any other group that has a similar arrangement with the Township of Langley to run a hall like that, has procedures in place to prevent these bookings,” he explained.
Woodward says the township will be “following up to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
“It’s really important that clubs, that everybody feels safe in their own community, and that when there are groups like this convening where they’re not welcome, that we just make it clear that it has nothing to do with us and we don’t support it, and we don’t want them here in the Township of Langley.”
-With files from Charlie Carey