Who stands behind the “Riposte”

On the ground: against citizens who demonstrate

In 2024, the counter-mobilization against Quebec City's first March for Life was prepared by a committee launched by the Fédération du Québec pour le planning des naissances (FQPN), Quebec's family-planning federation, which asked other groups to help pay for buses. On the day of the March, smoke bombs were thrown toward the stage and toward people praying, and the speeches were drowned out by whistles and megaphones.

In 2025, for the second March, the Regroupement des groupes de femmes de la Capitale-Nationale (the region's women's groups network) organized the counter-protest: it invited people to form a "line of shame" to boo the marchers, while activists called for stopping the march from taking place and a pressure campaign led the Hotel Delta to cancel a banquet planned for the same day.

On May 30, 2026, the CSN, one of Quebec's largest union federations, claimed credit for launching the "Riposte pro-choix" rally in front of the National Assembly, saying on its website that it would be perfect if pro-lifers could be made to lose the urge to ever come back.

On October 4, 2026, at the Quebec City Life Chain, a collective moved its "riposte" to the exact address and time of one of the two announced sites. Some 100 to 150 counter-protesters surrounded a dozen people praying silently on a sidewalk, tore up their signs and blocked boulevard Laurier. Police had to be called twice. One participant, scratched on the face, filed a complaint.

Behind the façade: public money

The day before the first March, an FQPN open letter in Le Devoir, "Célébrons nos droits, refoulons les mouvements conservateurs" (Let's celebrate our rights and push back conservative movements), was signed by 161 organizations: women's groups, unions and, in the list of signing groups itself, the names of public health institutions (the CHUM, Montreal's university hospital, and several regional health authorities, or CISSS). A public institution has no business taking sides against a lawful demonstration. If those signatures were not authorized, who put them there? If they were, who decided?

We checked the organizations on that list against Quebec and federal public records. Setting aside unions and public institutions, at least 86 of the 126 signing organizations have received documented public funding since 2016: 45 from the Quebec government, 69 from the federal government, several from both. For more than 50 of them, this means at least one grant of $50,000 or recurring core funding. The Regroupement des groupes de femmes de la Capitale-Nationale received $458,433 from Ottawa between 2021 and 2024, partly for policy advocacy, before organizing the 2025 counter-protest.

The FQPN was among four pro-abortion groups that shared $1.4 million from the Quebec government in January 2024. In 2025, it published a report on Quebec's pro-life movement, paid for by the government's Secrétariat à la condition féminine (Status of Women secretariat), which frets over the progress of Quebec Life Coalition. The same report admits that most pro-life organizations receive no direct public funding. One side is paid by the State to monitor the other, which lives on donations.

This is no isolated case. According to a study published by the Cardus think tank on October 27, 2026, the Quebec government's "Promotion des droits" (rights promotion) program alone subsidizes 346 activist organizations, to the tune of nearly $41 million in 2024-25, and not one is classed as right-wing. A former coordinator of their umbrella group put it bluntly (our translation): "the organization must criticize the government so that the government will fund it."

What we are asking

The problem is not that the State supports civil society. The problem is that it funds groups that intimidate and silence peaceful citizens, while taking care never to be associated with them. The previous government would never have dared send its own agents to surround people praying on a sidewalk. It only had to subsidize those who do, and then talk about a spontaneous movement.

This state of affairs took hold under the CAQ (Coalition Avenir Québec) government, while Ottawa did the same on its side. A new government has just taken office in Quebec, and it has promised to review every dollar the State spends. We dare to hope it will not be like the last one.

We are asking it to make sure that not one public dollar go to a group that uses intimidation or violence to silence other citizens. Quebec Life Coalition lives entirely on the gifts of its supporters.

Write to my MNA ↑

Sources

• Augustin Hamilton, "Le gouvernement du Québec finance des organismes militants," Quebec Life Coalition (in French): cqv.qc.ca
• Étienne-Alexandre Beauregard, "Prestataires de services ou groupes militants ? L'institutionnalisation d'un lobbying circulaire au sein de l'État québécois," Cardus, October 27, 2026: cardus.ca
• Marie-Hélène Arruda, "Les organismes en défense collective des droits," Nouveaux Cahiers du socialisme, 2016 (in French): erudit.org
• "The right to abortion: Quebec funds four pro-choice organizations," January 29, 2024: Arab Canada News
• FQPN, report on the anti-abortion movement in Quebec, executive summary, 2025 (in French): BAnQ
• "Célébrons nos droits, refoulons les mouvements conservateurs," open letter by the FQPN and 161 organizations, Le Devoir, May 2024 (in French): ledevoir.com
• Government of Quebec, Secrétariat à la condition féminine, funded reproductive-health projects (2024) (in French): quebec.ca
• Check of the signatories against public records: Quebec's community-organization support program (Health ministry and regional health authorities), Secrétariat à la condition féminine, Secrétariat à l'action communautaire autonome, and the federal grants and contributions database (open.canada.ca), October 2026
• Government of Canada, grants and contributions, Women and Gender Equality Canada, Regroupement des groupes de femmes de la Capitale-Nationale, 2021-2024: open.canada.ca
• Frédérik Dompierre-Beaulieu, "Riposte pro-choix à Québec : les féministes et allié.es se mobilisent pour le droit à l'avortement," Impact Campus, May 29, 2025 (in French)
• Collectif Riposte Féministe, Facebook post of October 1, 2026, and participants' accounts gathered by Quebec Life Coalition (Life Chain, October 4, 2026)
• CSN, “Québec est une ville pro-choix et va le rester,” May 30, 2026 (in French): csn.qc.ca