Thousands march for women’s rights in Quebec City

On June 4, 1995, more than 15,000 women marched in front of the Quebec National Assembly to demand better working and living conditions. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)

Thousands marched to Quebec’s National Assembly thirty years after the first “Bread and Roses” women’s march initiated by the Fédération des femmes du Québec and its then-president, Françoise David, against poverty and violence against women.

The struggle is far from over for women around the world, but also in Quebec, said Julie Antoine, general coordinator of the Feminist Coalition Against Violence Against Women and co-spokesperson for the Marche mondiale des femmes.

“It is our duty to continue to fight for the women who came before us because true equality has not yet been achieved, and also for future generations, to denounce injustices and offer them a better world,” she explained in an interview with The Canadian Press.

The theme of the march in Quebec City was “still marching to transform the world.” Antoine expected more than 5,000 people would participate.

The collective mobilization once again aims to denounce poverty and violence against women, but also “the environmental crisis in order to oppose a vision of a just, united, and feminist world,” according to the event’s organizers.

For Antoine, it is not normal to still be protesting 30 years later to make the same demands as during the “Bread and Roses” march, which took place on June 4, 1995.

“This shows that the structures are deeply rooted and have been in place for much longer,” she said.

She is particularly concerned about the rise of certain virulent discourses on the place of women in recent years.

“There are concrete actions being taken against women’s rights and against their desire to speak out, which is still really dangerous in 2025,” she said.

Saturday’s march is just one of many events organized since March by the Coordination du Québec de la marche mondiale des femmes (CQMMF).

But Antoine does not feel that women’s voices have been heard.

“They are the experts on their own experiences. We must not make choices for them; we must listen to them,” insisted the co-spokesperson. “If people listened more, things would move forward more quickly.”

And it wasn’t just women who were expected at Saturday’s demonstration. Men were there too.

“The feminist struggle is not a solo effort; it is a struggle for equality. It is important for men to be there; they are part of the solution,” said Antoine.

Several unions, such as the CSN, CSQ, and FTQ, announced that hundreds of their members would be participating in the march, as would the Mères au front movement.

In 1995, the women’s march against poverty initiated by Françoise David, who later served as a Québec Solidaire member of the National Assembly until her resignation in 2017, took the form of a 10-day march from May 26 to June 4, 1995.

On June 4, 1995, more than 15,000 women marched in front of the Quebec National Assembly to demand better working and living conditions.

Of these, 800 women were part of three contingents that had walked 200 kilometres to get there during this march, known today by its theme at the time, “Bread and Roses.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French Oct. 18, 2025.

Audrey Sanikopoulos, The Canadian Press