Editing Roch Thériault (section)

==Ant Hill Kids==
In the mid-1970s, Thériault convinced a group of people to leave their jobs and homes to join him in a religious movement. Thériault formed the [[cult]] in 1977 in [[Sainte-Marie, Quebec|Sainte-Marie]], Quebec with the goal to form a [[Intentional community|commune]] where people could freely listen to his [[Motivational speaker|motivational speeches]], live in unity and equality, and be free of sin.<ref name="localmouth.com"/> He prohibited the group from remaining in contact with their families and with the [[Seventh-day Adventist Church]], as this was against his cult's values of freedom. Thériault's fear of the end of the world grew, claiming that God had warned him that it would come in February 1979, and used the commune to prepare for it. In 1978, in preparation, Thériault moved his commune by hiking to a mountainside he called "Eternal Mountain" in [[Hope, Quebec|Hope]], in the sparsely populated [[Gaspé Peninsula]], where he claimed they could all be saved.<ref>MacEachern, B. (February 28, 2011). MyKawartha Article: Former Burnt River cult leader killed in jail . Mykawartha.com | Your Peterborough and Kawartha Lakes online newspaper . Retrieved March 2013, from http://www.mykawartha.com/news/article/960359--former-burnt-river-cult-leader-killed-in-jail {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320075944/http://www.mykawartha.com/news/article/960359--former-burnt-river-cult-leader-killed-in-jail |date=March 20, 2012 }},</ref><ref>Kovalchik, K. (February 16, 2010). 4 Cults You Might Not Know About - Mental Floss. (n.d.). Random, Interesting, Amazing Facts - Fun Quizzes and Trivia - Mental Floss. Retrieved March 2013, from {{cite web |url=http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/47771 |title=4 Cults You Might Not Know About - Mental Floss |access-date=March 20, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118021718/http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/47771 |archive-date=January 18, 2012 }}</ref> There, Thériault made the commune build their town while he relaxed, comparing them to ants working in an [[Ant colony|ant hill]] and naming the group the Ant Hill Kids. In February 1979, when the [[apocalypse]] did not occur, people started questioning Thériault's wisdom, but he defended himself by saying that time on Earth and in God's world were not parallel, and that therefore it was a miscalculation. To expand the community as well as keep the members devoted, Thériault married and impregnated all of the women in the commune, fathering over 20 children with 9 female members of the group. By the 1980s, there were nearly 40 members. Followers were made to wear identical tunics to represent equality and their devotion to the commune.

In 1984, the group relocated from Quebec to a new site near [[Burnt River, Ontario|Burnt River]], a hamlet in [[Central Ontario]] which is now part of the city of [[Kawartha Lakes]].

===Abuse===
Following the cult's formation, Thériault began to move away from being a motivational leader as his [[Alcoholism|drinking problem]] worsened, exerting an increasingly [[Totalitarianism|totalitarian]] control over the lives of his followers and becoming irrational in his beliefs. Members were not allowed to speak to each other when he was not present, nor to have sex with each other without his permission.<ref name="localmouth.com"/> Thériault used his charisma to cover for his increasingly abusive and erratic behaviour, and none of the other members questioned his judgement or openly blamed him for any physical, mental or emotional damage.<ref name="localmouth.com"/> Thériault began to inflict punishments on followers that he considered to be straying, by spying on them and claiming that God told him what they did. If a person wished to leave the commune, Thériault would hit them with either a belt or hammer, suspend them from the ceiling, pluck each of their body hairs individually, or even defecate on them.<ref name="blogs.ottawacitizen.com">Dimmock, G. (November 14, 2011). Revealed: Murder of Canadian cult leader who performed ritual killings and beat children to death | Ottawa Citizen. (n.d.).Opinion - Blogs - ''Ottawa Citizen''. Retrieved March 15, 2013, from {{cite web |url=http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2011/11/14/revealed-murder-of-canadian-cult-leader-who-performed-ritual-killings-and-beat-children-to-death/ |title=Revealed: Murder of Canadian cult leader who performed ritual killings and beat children to death &#124; Ottawa Citizen |access-date=March 20, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130408092346/http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2011/11/14/revealed-murder-of-canadian-cult-leader-who-performed-ritual-killings-and-beat-children-to-death/ |archive-date=April 8, 2013 }}</ref> The Ant Hill Kids raised money for living by selling baked goods, and members who did not bring in enough money were also punished.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/23978/4-cults-you-might-not-know-about| title=4 Cults You Might Not Know About| work=Mental Floss| date=February 16, 2010| access-date=March 20, 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130413031206/http://mentalfloss.com/article/23978/4-cults-you-might-not-know-about| archive-date=April 13, 2013| url-status=live}}</ref>

Over time, Thériault's punishments became increasingly extreme and violent, including making members break their own legs with [[sledgehammer]]s, sit on lit stoves, shoot each other in the shoulders, and eat dead mice and feces. A follower would sometimes be asked to cut off another follower's toes with [[Diagonal pliers|wire cutters]] to prove loyalty. The abuse extended to the cult's children, who were [[Sexual abuse|sexually abused]], held over fires, or nailed to trees while other children threw stones at them. One of Thériault's wives left a newborn child, Eleazar Lavallée, outside to die in freezing temperatures to keep him away from the abuse. Thériault attempted to backtrack to the original religious mission of the commune, beginning to strongly believe in [[Ritual purification|purifying]] his followers and ridding them of their sins through abusive purification sessions where the members would be completely nude as he whipped and beat them. Thériault claimed to be a holy being, and started performing unnecessary amateur surgical operations on sick members to demonstrate his healing powers. These "surgeries" included injecting a 94% [[ethanol]] solution into stomachs, or performing [[circumcision]]s on the children and adults of the group. In 1987, [[social work]]ers removed 17 of the children from the commune. However, Thériault faced no repercussions for his abusive acts.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kaihla |first1=Paul |title=Savage Messiah: The Shocking Story of Cult Leader Rock Thériault and the Women Who Loved Him |last2=Laver |first2=Ross |publisher=Doubleday Canada Limited |year=1993 |isbn=0-385-25440-7}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=November 2022}}

In 1989, when follower Solange Boilard complained of an upset stomach, Thériault performed another amateur surgery without [[Anesthesia|anaesthesia]]. He laid her naked on a table, and punched her in the stomach, then forced a plastic tube into her rectum to perform a crude [[enema]] with [[molasses]] and [[olive oil]]. He cut open her abdomen with a knife and ripped out part of her intestines with his bare hands.<ref name=":0" /> Thériault made another member, Gabrielle Lavallée, stitch her up using needle and thread,<ref name=":0" /> and had the other women shove a tube down her throat and blow through it.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}} Boilard died the next day from the damage inflicted by the procedures.<ref name=":0" /> Claiming to have the power of [[resurrection]], Thériault had his followers saw off the cap of Boilard's skull and he [[Ejaculation|ejaculated]] onto her brain.<ref name=":0" /> When Boilard did not return to life, her corpse was buried a short distance from the Ant Hill Kids' commune.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}