Québec

While rights association proliferated in Ontario, there were surprisingly few associations in Quebec. Montrealers have always been active among rights associations, beginning with a chapter of the Canadian Civil Liberties Union in the 1930s and, years later, the Montreal Civil Liberties Association. There were also chapters of the League for Democratic Rights in Montreal and Quebec city, and the Jewish Labour Committee was headquartered in Montreal as was the United Council for Human Rights (an affiliate of the JLC). But except for groups associationed with the labour movement, the Ligue des droits de l'homme has been the only established rights association in that province.

For a brief period the LDH toyed with the possibility of having chapters. There was some correspondence with people in Sherbrooke as early as 1965 thinking of setting up a branch of the LDH but nothing materializing from the initiative. For the first time a branch was set up in 1973 in Quebec City which barely last a year. Little is known about the branch and why it failed except for difficulties it encountered in encouraging people to become active in the group. The most lasting branch of the LDH was a group in Sept-Ilses called the Comité Regionale du Côte Nord, which was active between 1976 and 1980. Inspired by the activities of the LDH, a group of residents fighting against exploitation by landlords decided to form the branch and spent most of its time sending letters to politicians on key issues, preparing teaching aids, distributing press releases and organizing petitions. Another branch in Estrie formed in 1978 also became defunct within a handful of years. From the minutes of the LDH it is clear the failure of the branches was likely a result of simple disinterest on the part of most members of the LDH executive council. The branches were a product of local initiative and not the executive; the LDH offered the groups no financial support nor a place in its own council, and took little interest in the initiatives these groups were undertaking. The LDH itself remains one of the largest and most active rights associations in Canada today.