It’s a café with a cause, and it’s being dubbed Montreal’s first pro-independence coffee shop. When you walk into Le Club Pays, you can’t order an Americano or a Canadiano, but you can try the Quebecano. Le Club Pays calls itself a sovereignist meeting place and an initiative of the United Organizations for Independence, known as OUI Québec. “The goal for us is to have a space to discuss the long-term vision for Quebec,” said Camille Goyette Gingras of OUI Québec. She added the café is a citizen-run project. “Being nonpartisan is really our DNA and is so important for us. So it’s going to contribute to this vision that the independence project should be led by citizens and civil society.” Ideas include decentralizing health care. For example, she said Ottawa promotes a hospital-centred vision, while Quebec tends to favour investing in proximity services such as CLSCs. Goyette Gingras admitted that, in the past, political parties led the call for Quebec independence and says this effort is more grassroots. “The third wave of independence is now led by civil society as a nonpartisan project.” Yet are they brewing up old debates at this café? Alex Valiquette says the space is meant for conversation and information. “People are going to look at independence in a different way than just being scared and nervous and now being like imposed a referendum and not being informed and just voting ‘no’ because it’s too stressful.” The café will also host evening performances and conferences to talk about independence — but not political rallies. “Our goal is not to act on the policies. That would be the role of the political parties,” said Goyette Gingras. Volunteer-run and citizen-funded, Le Club Pays is located at 6900 St-Hubert Street, in a building belonging to the Mouvement national des Québécoises et Québécois.
