Queer McGill’s counter-protest against Ensemble pour protéger nos enfants (EPPNE)’s anti-transgender demonstration began at 9:00 a.m. on Sept. 20, as protesters gathered in preparation for the arrival of EPPNE demonstrators at 11:00 a.m. Some EPPNE members arrived early in response, holding signs which read, “Protect children.” One counter-protester held a banner which stated, “Don’t be your child’s first bully.”

EPPNE is a right-wing organization petitioning to remove any mention of queer identities from Quebec’s K-12 curricula on the grounds that teaching youth what they describe as “gender ideology” infringes on parents’ rights to pass on their own religious or moral beliefs to their children. EPPNE further argues that children having knowledge of homosexuality or transgender identities erodes their innocence, and that this knowledge is used to indoctrinate adolescents into the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

Celeste Trianon, a front-line advocate for the counter-protest and founder of a legal clinic that helps trans individuals change their legal genders and names, outlined how EPPNE’s petition—and others like it—would affect queer children in an interview with The Tribune. She stated that this movement would hinder self-acceptance among youths while increasing anti-transgender violence in educational and residential spaces. 

“Schools are already unsafe as it is for trans kids,” Trianon said. “[Schools having] the right to out students to their parents [could] literally put kids in situations of homelessness. So, will [schools] actually protect children, or will [schools] put them in further danger?”

The counter-protest was held in honour of Sam Nordquist, a 24-year-old transgender man from Minnesota who was kidnapped and tortured for a month by his former online girlfriend and six others before dying in February 2025 from his injuries. Despite evidence that the extensive violence towards Nordquist was hate-based, the case was not ruled a hate crime, a distinction which could potentially influence sentencing severity. 

Trianon shared with //The Tribune// that Canadians should be especially concerned for trans safety considering the current backsliding of queer rights in the United States, demonstrated by such violence against transgender individuals and the way this violence is disregarded. 

“Sam Nordquist […] was effectively killed because of transphobia, and his death has basically been left completely unaddressed by most authorities,” Trianon said. “It’s a sign of what’s coming right now. Even in death, trans people often don’t have dignity.”

Once the EPPNE demonstrators assembled, counter-protesters followed them, from rue Guy and rue St. Catherine to McGill’s Roddick Gates. Meanwhile, the Service de Police de la Ville de Montreal blocked several streets from entry along the way, and then pepper-sprayed one counter-protester who attempted to bike past. 

In an interview with The Tribune, one pair of counter-protesters who wished to remain anonymous stated that while they were happy to have some separation from the demonstration created by the police presence, their past experiences being tear-gassed by police forces made it difficult to see the authorities as protection. 

“Police should be protecting us, not looking as if they were targeting or suspicious of us,” one said. “They have a mission to keep the peace, but there is no peace when someone pepper sprays you in the face.”

“I have been chased before during demonstrations, so [their presence] is a trauma,” the other said. “If they come near you, you have to run.”  

At noon, the last remaining EPPNE demonstrators left the Roddick Gates, with over 50 of the 200 originally assembled counter-protesters still present. Despite this, police remained, surrounding the crowd on all sides. 

In a written statement to The Tribune, Queer McGill event coordinator Juno Adams stated that group solidarity through counter-protests is necessary in the fight against transphobic legislation, explaining that what transgender individuals at McGill want from their fellow students is solidarity through actions like these.

“We are victims of an oppressing society that seeks to deprive us of basic human rights and we do not need pity, we need action and support,” Adams wrote. “Banning trans identities from both curriculum and culture within schools will cause kids to perpetrate more harm towards others and themselves. Simply put, removing queer identities from schools will kill kids in more than one way.”