After its first-annual pro-life banquet dinner was cancelled by Delta Hotels Quebec following threats from pro-choice activists and movements just three days before the city’s March for Life, Quebec Life Coalition is now looking to adapt how it operates future events in the face of ongoing local push back. 

“ It is imperative that we have to adapt; that is something that is now absolutely clear. We cannot just nonchalantly walk into the maelstrom anymore. We have to realize that this reality will not go away and that this was not some kind of freak incident. I have seen it happen before, and the situation in Quebec is that this (behaviour) is tolerated,” said Georges Buscemi, president of the Quebec Life Coalition. 

While the March for Life itself was still able to operate with keynote speeches and personal testimonies, the event was not without its continued challenges. Buscemi said that of the 600 to 700 in attendance, an additional 500 to 600 counter-protesters were present on-site in front of Quebec’s National Assembly during the event. 

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Quebec City police had also informed QLC days before the march that the group was no longer able to install a stage for the event, stating that it could complicate event management. To the president of the coalition, the ruling added to the hostility seen on May 30. 

“ It did impact the event in a way that was counter to what the police were claiming. Apart from monetary complications, the stage afforded us a certain protection and buffer between us and potential mobs, but the police deemed it not expedient. What turned out was that we were on the same ground level as everyone else, of course making (participants) all the more vulnerable,” he said. 

The news of the stage cancellation came on the same day that the QLC was told that, due to threats towards the hotel, and due to hotel staff being frightened, all bookings made with the Delta Hotels Quebec were cancelled as well. This included the Rose Dinner itself as well as the 30 hotel rooms reserved for the organization.

The president of the coalition points to the Instagram account of “Quebec Anti-fascist” as a main cause of the threats. The account had shared the news of Delta Hotels Quebec’s plans to welcome QLC and called for people to call the hotel and express their disagreement.

The next day on May 29, Buscemi began speaking with a lawyer to discuss various avenues for legal action. He said he initially suggested forcing the hotel to honour the event booking, citing a breach of contract, before ultimately seeking a new venue due to timing constraints.

He revealed that the coalition still holds the possibility of suing the hotel for breach of contract and for damages, both reputational and monetary. The decision for next steps remains up in the air, with Buscemi’s disillusionment with the province’s court system being one of the main factors. 

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Buscemi hopes that in the future,  institutions will better understand the examples they set when making such determinations. 

“ Freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are not things that only the government has to foster, it takes institutions to say that people are allowed to speak. When they don’t, what kind of consequences does this have on civil society? It is a problem of being in a valueless, secularist society where there's no notion of the common good beyond comfort and maintaining an air of pleasantness,” Buscemi said. 

Quebec Life Campaign was able to quickly find an alternate venue to host a post-march dinner with volunteers and organizers, but chose to leave the location anonymous, fearing any reprisals against the venue. 

“The modus operandi of these protesters  is to intimidate any group or supplier of goods that interacts with us. After the march, the sound people were harassed and mocked while they were dismantling their sound system and speakers,” Buscemi said. 

“Some even stayed until the bitter end in the rain to see out the people dismantling the tents and event infrastructure to give them the middle finger and to tell them they are horrible because of their interactions with us.” 

Quebec Life Coalition is looking at planning, developing and implementing broader strategies to build resilience against these sorts of intimidation tactics and to ensure that similar marches can continue to operate safely. 

Buscemi says the current political climate in the province simply does not allow for a sizable Ottawa-style March for Life, citing known counter-protestor and Quebec’s own minister responsible for the status of women, Martine Biron’s comments calling it unfortunate that the march exists. Still, his co-organizer hopes to  double down and plan for shorter, punchier marches and feature speeches while the march is happening, as opposed to a static location. 

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“We are going to have to adapt the march to the current situation,” he said. “This certainly isn't a liberal, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly attitude we have been seeing. We are stepping into an age of illiberalism, both right and left, and I think that left-leaning illiberalism is in full force here in Quebec.” 

The Catholic Register reached out to Delta Hotels Quebec for comment on specifics regarding threats and the subsequent decision to cancel the gala dinner, and is yet to hear back.