ANTISEMITIC ANTI-MASKER ARRESTED WITH 65 ILLEGAL GUNS, $18 MILLION IN STREET DRUGS

Suspect in Toronto Police’s largest ever single-day firearms and narcotics bust was a COVID-conspiracist and antisemite who exaggerated credentials as a holistic therapist.

On December 16th, the Toronto Police Service issued a press release detailing what they called their “biggest single-day drug and firearm seizure” with Daniel Dubajic as the target. 

A November raid of Dubajic’s Etobicoke apartment included over 100 kilograms of cocaine, more than 60 kg of meth, roughly 15,000 rounds of ammunition, and a grand total of 65 firearms — six of which were loaded at the time of seizure. 

None of the firearms seized were possessed legally. Police estimate the value of drugs seized to be over $18 million.

ANTISEMITISM, HATE PROMOTION AND CONSPIRACY THEORIES

On January 6, domestic terrorists supporting outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump broke into the Capitol Building in Washington DC. The perpetrators were pushed by a conspiracy theory falsely alleging that Trump had won the 2020 Presidential Election and had organized the attack on social media.

Daniel Dubajic has shared support for the claim on Facebook, saying that “everyone who thinks Biden won is a fake news sheep,” and calling Biden’s electoral vote count “fake news” in comments made on Nov. 13.

Source: Facebook

 

The conspiracy theory is often cited along with others under the large web of QAnon, including the antisemitic trope that Jewish philanthropist George Soros is installing a “new world order” with a “shadow government,” which Dubajic has also spread on his Facebook page.

Source: Facebook

In July of last year, Dubajic defended Adolf Hitler’s use of conspiracy theories about Jews in Holocaust propaganda.

He alleged “They (Jews) think they are the chosen ones. They believe they are entitled to rule the world. That’s no conspiracy. That’s common sense.” In another comment he stated, “Hitler was also voted man of the year for the world. Look it up. Maybe even twice,” a likely reference to TIME Magazine’s 1938 Man of The Year designation, which was decided to be Hitler because of his prominence in the 1938 news cycle. 

Source: Facebook

In June of last year, Dubajic wrote that George Soros created the Black Lives Matter movement in order to start race wars, claiming “George Soros funds the Democratic Party. The same guy who created and funded BLM to intentionally incite race wars."

In the same post, he also affirmed belief in Pizzagate, a QAnon linked conspiracy that led to a man storming a restaurant in DC with an assault rifle in 2017. Dubajic has also shared posts including "#saveourchildren," a QAnon associated slogan.

Source: Facebook

CANADA’S ANTI-MASK COMMUNITY

Following the arrest, some Twitter users were quick to point out Daniel Dubajic’s membership in the Toronto COVID conspiracy organization Moms Against Distancing. MAD is an organization that’s goals have included the creation of an unregistered anti-mask community school with no social distancing mandates, no mask mandates, and a staff of volunteer teachers without proper qualifications.

Source: Facebook

When asked for a statement, Chris Saccoccia (who often goes by Chris Sky), the founder of Moms Against Distancing, commented, “I don’t know him. He has no involvement with me or MAD.” 

Chris emphasized MAD’s relatively open doors, saying, “it’s a private group where anybody can join,” and added, “Any attempt to connect this man to me or my non-profit is nothing but slander, defamation and lies.”

Prior to his arrest, Dubajic was vocal about his beliefs surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic on social media. Dubajic has described himself as “anti-mask”, and has shared content on Facebook echoing strong skepticism of the reality of viruses. In September he shared posts alleging that “a virus simply does not exist”, and that viruses “are not the cause of disease.”

Source: Facebook

In one comment to a friend, he states that although he knew people who claimed to have contracted the virus, he was skeptical that they hadn’t just gotten “the flu.”

Source: Facebook

HOLISTIC MEDICINE

In recent years, Daniel Dubajic worked as an aura therapist. According to one of his repeat clients, he would use techniques that involved touching a patient’s ‘aura’  —  the area surrounding a person, without physically touching their body. The client described Dubajic’s presentation as that of a “healing guru”.

On his Facebook page, Dubajic listed his most recent occupation as a Healer at Access Consciousness, a holistic therapy company with practitioners around the world and offices in Australia, Ireland, and the United States.

However, according to a media representative from Access Consciousness, Dubajic was “not an instructor nor a teacher in any way at all.” Access Consciousness said in no uncertain terms that “he (Daniel Dubajic) is not involved with our organization.”

Last year, Netflix series The Goop Labs featured an episode about “energy healing” that included New Age aura therapy techniques. The episode was the subject of controversy, as several studies have indicated techniques like the ones used on The Goop Labs are only effective as placebos.

Unproven holistic medical practises like aura healing play a key role in Canada’s anti-vaccine and anti-mask movements. Vaccine Choice Canada, the country’s largest anti-vaccine organization, was a major presence early on at Canadian anti-mask rallies along with partnered organizations like Moms Against Distancing. 

Vaccine Choice Canada frequently cites holistic medicines as alternatives to the use of COVID-19 vaccines. In an article from Vaccine Choice Canada’s resources page, they urge “the use of homeopathic remedies for prevention and treatment of COVID-19 symptoms.” The article also mentions preventing fighting the virus by exhibiting “positive emotions”, avoiding sugar, and avoiding seasonal flu shots, alleging that “the influenza vaccine can increase the risk of infection by other non-influenza respiratory viruses”.

Vaccine Choice Canada currently has over 16 thousand fans on Facebook and 25 thousand Instagram followers.

Daniel Dubajic has also affirmed confidence in holistic medical practices to combat COVID-19. In September he shared an infographic from anti-vaccine advocate Jodie Meschuk stating that “children and anyone healthy are extremely resilient and natural exposure to viruses helps build an even stronger immunity.” He has shared posts stating “vaccines are poison,” and “you will never meet someone that has truly researched vaccines and still vaccinates.”

Source: Facebook

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the anti-mask movement in Canada has been growing not only in size, but also in the volume of their actions. Calls for violence are becoming increasingly common. The suspected trafficking of illegal firearms involving an antisemitic covid conspiracist should be cause for concern.

On January 5, two suspects in Dawson Creek, British Columbia were charged with assault after restraining and repeatedly punching a Walmart employee who asked them to wear face masks while shopping in November.

Recently, a pharmacist who destroyed 570 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Wisconsin admitted that he was motivated by conspiracy theories about the vaccine.