The Guardians of Humanity at a BC Town Halls political rally in Kelowna, March 14.

(MARSHALL JONES / iNFOnews.ca)

They call themselves the Guardians of Humanity.

They made an accidental debut at a BC Town Hall rally in Kelowna last week when four members appeared wearing uniforms with their official crest, tactical gear, partial stab-proof vests, two of them storing handcuffs in their belts. Two had the words “security” Velcroed onto their backs, two others with the words “emergency response”.

They weren’t there in any official capacity because they are still in training, an organizer says.

Training for what?

"The way we see it is we think within five years all hell is going to break loose,” team leader Marcus Ray told iNFOnews.ca. “Like, riots in the streets. And we believe that law enforcement is going to need a helping hand.”

There are “dozens” of members across BC and more starting to join in Alberta with “hundreds” more expressing interest. Ray says they are mostly older professionals, 90% former police, military, security, fire and other emergency responders. While many members, including Ray, say they are trained security officers, others are still training and getting licenced. They are also learning First Aid, getting fire training and other certifications.

They have no affiliations with official agencies like the RCMP or BC Wildfire, but they're hoping to become partners down the road.

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"What I wanna do with this group is I wanna be able to be at the other end of the phone when that call comes and hope to God it never comes,” he says. "That's who we are."

He stresses they are not active currently but they expect to be in roughly a year. They train on land in Beaverdell. He says he has informed the RCMP about training activities and even worked with the RCMP in a limited capacity and “they’re good with it,” he says.

Kelowna RCMP did not respond to a request for comment.

Ray, from Kelowna, started organizing with Alison Koch from Vancouver some time after the Freedom trucker rally in Ottawa in 2022.

They both have roots in the Freedom movement but he says he has since splintered off after what he says he witnessed in Ottawa when police shut it down.

“I saw something I would never, ever think that I would see in Canada, which is the beatings. The bludgeoning of elderly people. We saw the most disgusting things… The law enforcement. They were right in front of us. Now you can't get that out of your head. You just can't.

"There was this one fella and he was holding his wife, him and his wife were down on their knees and they had their little girl... in front of them, just saying ‘please don't do this, please don't do this.’ And now, they didn't beat those people or anything, but I'm saying the visual that I had of seeing a mother and father down on their knees holding their child while all these guys were advancing….”

Team leader Marcus Ray, in Guardians of Humanity uniform. He says the group isn't active yet and won't be for another year when they are officially trained.

(MARSHALL JONES / iNFOnews.ca)

He said he moved from protest to preparation. They have land and have been stockpiling food. They hosted 22 evacuees from the 2023 wildfires and shared their resources.

They’re worried about government intentions and what will happen with further overreach.

“Our leaders… they are pushing society in a direction that the majority actually doesn’t want to go,” he says. “And I mean everybody was pretty complacent when the COVID thing came and lock down. They're not going to do that again.”

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“Our feelings are that's going to cause some big trouble down the road. I think if you try and lock people down again, I don't know what's gonna happen. I don't even like to think about it.”

Koch, the founder, has similar feelings.

“I think the government's changing substantially. I think our laws are changing substantially. I think there's a lot of things going on behind closed doors that we're not even aware of. And the things that we are aware of are not looking good,” she says. “Now, what direction that goes in…, we don't wanna get into politics and that type of thing, but we're just here to react to whatever happens.

“So if something like that does happen, we obviously are setting this up because we feel that that may happen. So if it doesn't happen, great. If it does, then we'll be here prepared to help. And otherwise prepare to help in whatever helps along the way.”

They registered as a Canadian charity in January 2023, under the category of “relief of poverty”. Ray says they have plans to do outreach and hand out food. Their website allows for donations but Ray says they haven't asked for, nor accepted any yet. He says they pay for their materials and training themselves. He says they all felt a desire to do something "positive" about the changes they see in society.

But he generally has trouble articulating their intentions as they prepare for "something" to happen in the future and try to find ways to help until then. Their hope is that the RCMP or search and rescue or other first responders might call on their trained members when the time comes, perhaps in a wildfire situation.

What does that have to do with crime and training to be security guards? He said he hopes his volunteers will be able to “actually help people” but can’t explain how.

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“I mean, crime has just gone through the roof. Kelowna is actually probably one of the worst crime places in Canada. So we just thought, you know what? Why don't we train and just get ready? We're not pushing our way into anything. We're not asking to be anything…. And so we just wanted to lend a helping hand.”

He said he has heard from other people Kelowna is a hub for child trafficking. “Probably because we've got like an international airport, I don't know.” But again, if or how they plan to intercede as security guards, he didn't say. 

He says they have no intention of patrolling streets on their own. He was asked for his reaction to those who might say they look like a militia.

“I'm going to tell you our intention is to look like we mean business, but no, we're not a militia,” Ray says. “We've stayed right within the law in our training and everything else. We do not train with firearms. We are doing everything the right way because what we want to be is accepted as the backup. We're not trying to replace the police.”

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