A military officer who gave a speech at a anti-mask rally and urged his fellow soldiers to not distribute COVID-19 vaccines is now facing mutiny charges from the Canadian military.
In December, Officer Cadet Ladislas Kenderesi was introduced to a large anti-mask crowd in Toronto’s Yonge and Dundas Square. Lamont Daigle, one of the rally’s organizers and an influential Canadian anti-masker, gave the man an introduction fit for an action hero.
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“He’s qualified in chemical and biological warfare,” said Daigle with gusto. “He has a license to drive tanks and cars, from machine guns to all weapons, with over 25 years of military experience, hand to hand combat, nine years of ninjutsu, wrestling, and other types of martial arts.”
Kenderesi, introduced under his real name, strolled on stage wearing his military greens—complete with a knife sheathed in a shoulder holster—to the applause of hundreds.
“I’m asking the military, right now serving, truck drivers, medical, engineers, whatever you are, do not take this unlawful order in distribution of this vaccine,” he says to a cheering crowd. “My job is to protect you, not just from forgien (threats) but also from domestic.”
“I might get in a lot of shit for doing this. But I don’t care any more.”
The Canadian military is responsible for the handling of federal vaccine distribution in Canada in an operation called Project Vector
Kenderesi ended his speech with a popular refrain from the anti-lockdown crowd by saying he wouldn’t “stand for” Canada becoming a communist or socialist country because “Canada is democratic and is going to stay that way.” He left the stage to chants of “rise up” from an adoring crowd.
The video of Kenderesi’s speech where he warns of “killer vaccines” has been seen nearly 30,000 times and has been shared in multiple uploads across various platforms. The Department of National Defence (DND) was quickly made aware of his speech.
“An investigation was initiated shortly thereafter (his speech), and Officer Cadet Kederesi was removed from performance of military duties,” said a DND spokesperson in an email to VICE World News.The spokesperson said, on May 12, Kenderesi was charged with one count to endeavoring to persuade another person to join in a mutiny and one count of behaving in a scandalous manner unbecoming of an officer.
Kenderesi is part of the Reserve Cadet Instructor Cadre at a large military base in Borden, Ontario. The responsibility of his unit is overseeing the instruction of cadets.
“The member was not currently active with a cadet corps/squadron, and was therefore on the Cadet Instructor Supplementary Staff list with the Regional Cadet Support Unit, which is located at CFB Borden,” said the spokesperson.
A GoFundMe for Kenderesi was created in mid-May to help the soldier pay for his legal fees. While the fundraiser has since been deleted a Google cache of the site showed it only raised a paltry $500 of it’s $50,000 goal. The campaign described vaccines as “experimental gene therapy.”
Michel Drapeau, a lawyer who studies military law, told the Ottawa Citizen that mutiny charges haven’t been laid in Canada in over 80 years. “You would have to “go back to the late 1940s in the Royal Canadian Navy for anything that might be similar,” he said. The mutiny charge has a maximum sentence of life in prison, whereas the second charge, scandalous manner unbecoming of an officer, has a punishment of five.
Despite the introduction fit for John Rambo, DND told VICE that Kenderesi is only an Officer Cadet, which is the most junior rank for officers in the Canadian army, as it is used for military students and beginning officers.
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