Quebec labour minister’s speech in Montreal cancelled due to protest

Quebec Labour Minister Jean Boulet’s speech to the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal was cancelled at noon on Friday due to disruptions caused by a group of demonstrators against his bill.

The minister was due to speak about his Bill 89, strongly opposed by the unions, which limits the right to strike by allowing arbitration to be imposed in certain cases.

The concept of essential services is also redefined as “services ensuring the well-being of the population,” the interruption of which would disproportionately affect “the social, economic or environmental security of the population.”

Several hundred demonstrators from all the central labour bodies and major public and private sector unions first demonstrated peacefully outside the building before Minister Boulet’s speech, including the FIQ, APTS, CSQ, FTQ, CSN, CSD, FAE, SCFP, SPGQ, Métallos, TUAC, blue-collar workers and construction workers.

The bill would completely change the balance of power, meaning that the Administrative Labour Tribunal, following a government decree, would be responsible for saying “what do we keep open? Is it a number of hours in schools? This completely changes the balance of power. This is the government’s way of taking revenge for what happened during the last round of public sector bargaining,” said Éric Gingras, President of the CSQ, in an interview at the protest.

The education sector would be affected, as would daycare services, school bus drivers and public transport, for example.

“It affects everyone in the private sector, too,” CSN President Caroline Senneville said in an interview. She explained that after a few months of strike or lock-out in a private company, the Minister of Labour could say: “I’m sending you an arbitrator who will decide your working conditions.‘”

“And that’s what makes people so angry, because it not only curtails our right to strike, but also our right to negotiate a collective agreement.”

The trade unions are planning to challenge the law in court if it is adopted as it stands.

However, the situation took a turn for the worse a few minutes before the minister was due to speak, when around 15 demonstrators blowing whistles entered the hotel on the floor where the minister was due to speak, making a thunderous noise.

Later, someone set off the fire alarm on the floor.

‘This is the first time in 16 years that this has happened’

Faced with the commotion and the delay, Chamber of Commerce President Michel Leblanc announced that he had to cancel the whole event, given the tense situation.

“The minister has just left, on the recommendation of the Sûreté du Québec, who were concerned,” he told the guests at the event. “The SQ asked us not to go out just now” and to wait for things to calm down, he added.

“This is the first time in 16 years that this has happened,” he said while apologizing to the audience.

The situation continued to heat up outside the hotel. While the vast majority of the peaceful demonstrators were standing far away from the hotel, in the middle of the street, a group broke away, approached the hotel’s glass doors and began banging on the windows. One window was broken by a thrown object.

The Montreal police service (SPVM) called in its riot squad, which drove the demonstrators, with their shields, several metres away from the hotel. The demonstrators remained on site for a few more minutes, but were kept at a distance from the hotel, before leaving.

Minister Boulet reacted to the events on social media. In a post on X, he wrote: “The behaviour of the labour activists today was unacceptable. Intimidation and violence have no place in a democratic society. I expect the union leaders concerned to condemn these totally inappropriate actions.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on March 14, 2025.