The video, dated mid-October, is addressed to members of YouTube’s “carnivore” group — a gaggle that espouses the supposed well being advantages of an all-meat weight loss program
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The digital camera pans throughout a pile of straw bales and zooms in on a person and a girl sporting cowboy hats, smiling, a black and white canine at their toes.
“Hello everybody,” the person says into the digital camera, a turquoise neckerchief tucked beneath his white beard. “It’s Mac and Maggie right here. We simply wished to have a second to say thanks.”
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The person explains how donors raised hundreds of {dollars} to cowl bills on the couple’s central Alberta ranch. Maggie pats the pile behind her, her eyes glistening.
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“That is the primary load of pea-straw that has are available in, because of your contributions,” the person continues. “The cows are going to be high quality. We’ve got sufficient feed organized for, and we’re paying it off because the donations are available in. It appears to be like like every part’s going to be simply high quality and we are able to’t thanks sufficient.”
The video, dated mid-October, is addressed to members of YouTube’s “carnivore” group — a gaggle that espouses the supposed well being advantages of an all-meat weight loss program. It was posted by an American YouTuber in response to a fundraiser organized by a meat diet-espousing physician, which introduced in over $63,000 to assist Mac and Maggie winter their cattle.
Nowhere do the YouTube video or the fundraiser give Mac’s full title, or any trace about his previous.
Mac is Don Macintyre, the previous Alberta MLA convicted in 2019 of sexually interfering with a younger woman.
The sufferer, whose title is roofed by a publication ban, says she was distressed to see her abuser obtain on-line adulation — and cash — beneath a unique title.
“(The video) was form of like, ‘Really feel unhealthy for native farmers, we have to assist native farmers, all people rally round Maggie and Mac,’ ” she stated. “I used to be studying by means of the feedback and everybody was saying how a lot they love them, how a lot they love Mac. I really feel like anybody referring to him as Mac should simply be realizing him from these movies. They don’t know who he truly is.”
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‘Devil’s plan’
MacIntyre was elected MLA for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake beneath the Wildrose banner in 2015. The then-59-year-old teacher with NAIT’s different power program informed supporters he was a “small-c” fiscal conservative who would search to “uphold our historic values that make for robust households and well-knit communities.” He joined the United Conservatives when Alberta’s two conservative events merged in 2017.
On Feb. 2, 2018, MacIntyre abruptly resigned, telling social media followers he was leaving politics “to concentrate on our household.”
It quickly emerged MacIntyre was dealing with sexual abuse expenses. Then-UCP chief Jason Kenney stated he was “shocked and disgusted” by the costs and stated these discovered responsible of sexual offences towards kids “should endure essentially the most extreme authorized penalties doable.”
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A yr later, MacIntyre pleaded responsible in a Crimson Deer courtroom. The disgraced former MLA admitted to sexual interference, a sexual touching offence towards an individual beneath the age of 16 that carries a most of 14 years in jail.
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In an agreed assertion of details, MacIntyre admitted to sexually touching the younger sufferer 5 to 10 instances between 2010 and 2011. He informed her God accepted of the abuse. The sufferer, who was 10 on the time, informed court docket it took time for her to grasp what he had achieved to her. She solely realized the time period “molest” later in life and didn’t understand there was a phrase for what occurred to her. She had suicidal ideas and questioned her personal reminiscence. She accused MacIntyre of destroying her childhood.
Defence lawyer Ian McKay depicted his consumer as a person of deep religion who dedicated the abuse throughout a “darkish interval” of despair and nervousness. MacIntyre apologized in court docket, framing his actions as a part of “Devil’s plan” to guide him astray. He talked about Maggie and the way she must take care of the farm on her personal throughout his jail time period.
Court docket of King’s Bench Justice Debra Yungwirth in the end sentenced MacIntyre to a few years and ordered him to register beneath the Intercourse Offender Info Registration Act for 20 years. MacIntyre was granted day parole in August 2019, simply over seven months into his sentence. A parole board report deemed him a “very low” threat to reoffend.
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‘Among the greatest individuals’
Followers of the carnivore weight loss program shun any non-animal meals, together with fruits, greens, grains, nuts and seeds. Proponents declare it’s chargeable for exceptional transformations, together with weight reduction and nearly miraculous well being enhancements, however mainstream medical doctors and nutritionists typically dismiss it as pseudo-scientific.
A BBC nutritionist, for one, stated whereas the carnivore weight loss program would possibly result in short-term weight reduction, it’s “unbalanced and probably unhealthy for the long run.”
“There may be restricted high-quality analysis to assist its claims, and the long-term results of the weight loss program require additional examine. The weight loss program lacks key micronutrients in addition to fibre and protecting plant compounds, and could also be unsafe for sure teams.”
Final yr, Don MacIntyre and Maggie, his spouse of six years, had been visited on their ranch by Kerry Mann Jr., an American YouTuber making a documentary concerning the carnivore weight loss program. Maggie, who’s in her early 80s, gained the eye of carnivore influencers for her youthful look, which they attribute to her weight loss program. She additionally began an Instagram account and YouTube channel.
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“Maggie and Mac are superior,” Mann stated in a video. “They’re a few of the greatest individuals I’ve ever met, unbelievable carnivores, correct people, simply nice throughout individuals.”
Mann stated he believes supporting impartial farmers and ranchers is “some of the vital issues on this planet proper now.”
Mann additionally highlighted the fundraiser began by Dr. Anthony Chaffee, a medical physician and well being influencer residing in Australia who promotes the carnivore weight loss program. In 2023, Chaffee stated he has not eaten a vegetable in 5 years.
The fundraiser recognized Maggie as an “82-year-old lifelong carnivore from Canada” in bother as a result of “hovering hay costs” that made it too costly to winter her cattle. With out assist, she confronted shedding half her herd or being compelled to promote land, the fundraiser said. Individuals who donated $1,000 or extra had been provided a five-day farm keep within the ranch’s visitor cabin together with meals with Mac and Maggie.
The fundraiser initially referred to Maggie’s companion “Mac.” Postmedia contacted Chaffee for remark however didn’t hear again. References to Mac had been later faraway from the fundraiser web page, which, together with the video, has since been deleted.
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Mann stated he got here to Canada to function Maggie in his documentary however was unaware of her husband’s full title or historical past with the justice system.
In an e mail, Maggie MacIntyre stated “Mac” has been her husband’s nickname all his life (the sufferer disputed this). The fundraiser was launched unbeknownst to her, she stated, including that she is the ranch’s sole proprietor and the fundraiser’s “sole beneficiary.”
She stated the farm bumped into powerful instances because of drought and hailstorms in 2021 and 2022, which compelled her to make use of her reserve feed.
“NONE of this has ANYTHING to do with Mac,” she wrote. She claimed questions concerning the fundraiser had been a part of a “witch hunt” towards herself and her husband by the sufferer’s mom.
MacIntyre’s sufferer, now an grownup and residing in one other province, stated she was shocked to see his face on YouTube.
“They wish to be Instagram, YouTube homesteader stars. To me, it’s completely weird, to proceed to pursue a really public life. My stance is that if we should stroll the identical earth in any case that has occurred, I might anticipate him to stroll humbly and in disgrace together with his head low.”
She didn’t imagine the video confirmed any proof of a modified particular person and famous that MacIntyre was blaming Devil for his actions as not too long ago as 2019.
“I principally need his new group to know that this charisma you’re seeing, this management? That man I noticed within the video is the very same man I knew again in 2010-2011.”
jwakefield@postmedia.com
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