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MONTREAL — When you walk into the Club Pays coffee shop in Montreal, the first thing you see are the posters with Quebec sovereignty slogans plastered on every wall.
Complete with comfortable couches, a polished-wood espresso bar, a small stage and even a conference room, Club Pays — country club in English — opened its doors to the public on Friday and is ready to become a hub in Montreal for the Quebec independence movement.
“Some countries are born out of celebration,” reads one of the posters on the wall next to where 32-year-old Camille Goyette-Gingras was sitting as she spoke to The Canadian Press.
She presides over a Quebec sovereigntist organization called Organisations unies pour l’indépendance (Oui Québec) that runs the new coffee shop.
Aside from coffee and snacks, Goyette-Gingras said the venue will also offer people a taste of separatist politics.
“We wanted to combine the spirit of celebration with the push for independence because, for us, creating a country is a moment of collective joy,” she said inside the café.
The shop is the latest niche café in a city that already has a range of venues for different tastes, including a coffee shop for cat lovers, another for ceramics as well as a café for gaming enthusiasts.
The operators of Club Pays say their own spot will be the first of its kind, showcasing how millennials and gen Z are adopting the independence movement amid renewed promises for a referendum. They also say it reflects an enthusiasm for Quebec sovereignty that goes beyond any particular political party.
Their space was actually open to their own members and other advocacy groups representing youth, seniors and feminists since October, before opening to the general public.
“People (were) banging on the window, for real,” said Goyette-Gingras. “You’d be surprised how often they come in to find out who this group of young people is that’s opening a café on St-Hubert (Street). Their curiosity is sincere and wonderful, and we regularly have really interesting discussions.”
Set up in a neighbourhood known for its Latino population, the café’s workers say they want to demystify the Quebec sovereignty movement, addressing questions and concerns of people from all walks of life.
“For some people it’s the first time they meet a separatist,” said Goyette-Gingras. “When you only see things on television, it’s true that you don’t feel like you’re being spoken to as a human being.”
Goyette-Gingras said Club Pays will also host events and serve as a working space, all dedicated to promoting discussions around Quebec culture and the independence movement.
Oui Québec members are also hoping their new café serves as an inspiration that will lead to a network of sovereigntist venues throughout Quebec.
Alex Valiquette, responsible for communications at Oui Québec, said he brought back the idea after a student exchange last year in Spain, where he visited a number of Barcelona bars and cafés supporting the Catalonian independence movement.
The proceeds of these spaces run by sovereigntists groups help them finance other political activities, he said.
“In Quebec, we’re already a society that invests and is known for its co-operatives and social economies. I was like, ‘Hey, there’s so much to do with that,’” said Valiquette.
The Catalonian sovereignty movement goes back to the 19th century. Spanish dictator Francisco Franco abolished Catalonian autonomy in 1938, and Catalonians held a referendum of their own in 2017. Leaders of the movement were jailed as political prisoners and pardoned in 2021.
Valiquette isn’t the first to draw comparisons between the Quebec and Catalonian independence movements. Politicians like Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchette and Québec solidaire parliamentary leader Ruba Ghazal have made their way to Catalonia to participate in conferences and distribute letters to political prisoners.
Quebec’s National Assembly also unanimously passed a motion in support of Catalonians in 2019.
But despite their dreams and hopes for the new coffee shop, public opinion surveys in Quebec suggest they have some work to do.
Although a CROP survey from last August suggested 56 per cent of those between the ages of 18 and 34 said they were favourable to the idea of independence, other polls in recent years have consistently indicated that only 30 per cent of Quebecers would vote yes in a referendum on sovereignty.
Valérie-Anne Mahéo, a political science professor at Université Laval, agrees that most Quebecers are not eager to push for sovereignty at this time, but she said grassroots spaces like the coffee shop can be a healthy part of democracy by promoting dialogue and countering polarization.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve had a proper debate on the pros and cons (of Quebec independence),” she said. “There is a new generation, one that has not experienced the high points of the ‘yes’ campaigns, that has not experienced the major societal debates on the future of Quebec.”
But Goyette-Gingras said there’s a “sovereigntist third wave” brewing among young Quebecers.
She said she embraced the independence movement after joining major social protest movements in Quebec, including in 2012 when tens of thousands took to the streets for weeks, banging pots and pans to protest proposed hikes in university tuition fees.
Explicitly separatist artists have also been rising in popularity, like rapper Kinji00 and singer Lou-Adriane Cassidy — who won four ADISQ awards, including best female artist, and was shortlisted for the Polaris prize. Meme pages promoting sovereigntist ideas gather more than 100,000 followers and separatist student organizations have cropped up in CEGEPs and universities.
It’s part of what is decentralizing the separatist movement and taking it out of the hands of political parties like the Parti Québécois and Québec solidaire, Goyette-Gingras said.
Goyette-Gingras said while politicians have their role to play, the independence movement needs to be larger and more inclusive.
“Quebec culture is enduring precisely because it is constantly changing. One of the things that has ensured that Quebec culture has always remained enduring is that it has become intertwined with the people who have settled in Quebec,” said Goyette-Gingras.
She adds that at Club Pays, everyone is welcome.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 14, 2026.
Erika Morris, The Canadian Press
