QUEBEC — Prince William and his bride-to-be, Kate Middleton, are not welcome in Quebec, says a separatist group that is planning a less-than-friendly reception for the couple’s royal visit this summer.

The Reseau de resistance du Quebec (RRQ) promises to do all in its power to make the royal couple’s first official Canadian tour as “unpleasant as possible.”

The visit is slated to kick off in Ottawa, with Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill. The couple is to then travel to Alberta, the Northwest Territories, Prince Edward Island and Quebec — with rumoured stops in Quebec City and Montreal — between June 30 to July 8.

“We’re setting up a welcoming committee,” said Patrick Bourgeois of the newspaper Le Quebecois and president of the RRQ.

“We are not going to let the British monarchy walk upon our territory with complete impunity,” he added in a telephone interview Monday.

Some of the RRQ members are radical separatists who organized a demonstration in Montreal against the visit of Prince Charles in 2009.

Threats of violence from RRQ members also contributed to the cancellation of a planned re-enactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 2008.

Bourgeois said the royal couple will be met with opposition, but stressed the anti-monarchists are not looking for confrontation.

“The farthest we’ll go is civil disobedience. During the demonstration for Prince Charles’ visit, we sat down in the street when the police took out their batons. That’s not what I would call terrorism,” he said.

Results of a poll conducted just prior to Prince Charles’ visit in 2009 suggested Quebec is the Canadian province where anti-monarchy feelings are the strongest, at 60 per cent. Another poll conducted at the same time showed almost 80 per cent of Quebecers think the monarchy is a relic that should be abolished.

The nationalist Societe Saint-Jean Baptiste de Montreal (SSJBM), which took part in the demonstration during Prince Charles’ visit, is considering joining forces with the RRQ this summer for the latest royal stopover.

“The intense media attention that this visit will attract could be an opportunity for us to get our message across and refresh Quebecers’ memory on the monarchy wrongdoings,” said SSJBM president Mario Beaulieu.

He said Britain has never apologized for the assimilation of French-speaking people outside of Quebec and the deportation of 12,500 Acadians in 1775.

Bourgeois and Beaulieu said they don’t expect to attract hundreds of demonstrators, noting Quebecers are growing indifferent to the monarchy.

“Even if people are indifferent, that doesn’t make them any more in favour of monarchy,” Beaulieu said. “They just tolerate it.”

The sovereigntist group Jeunes Patriotes du Quebec said Monday some of its members may take part in the demonstration, but stressed the royal visit is a non-issue for them.

Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, skipped Quebec when they visited Canada in 2010. The Queen made her last visit to the province in 1992 for a brief reception at the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau.

But her 1964 trip to Quebec City is the one that stirred the biggest controversy. Mass demonstrations were organized and dozens of protesters were arrested.

mwhite@postmedia.com

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