UPDATE - 4:50 p.m.: A pro-gun lobby group is backtracking on a plan to hold a rally at a memorial site for the 14 women who were killed at Ecole polytechnique in 1989. A spokesperson for the group says on Facebook the event will be held elsewhere on Saturday.
A pro-gun demonstration is being organized days before the anniversary of the Montréal massacre at a park that commemorates the 14 victims.
Claiming to be "fighting feminism," Marc Lepine gunned down the women at the École Polytechnique in Canada's worst mass shooting on Dec. 6, 1989.
Guy Morin, vice-president of All Against A Quebec Firearms Registry which is organizing the rally, defended choosing the controversial location.
"We would have liked to have the demonstration in a basement of a church in Maniwaki, but nobody would have talked about it," Morin told La Presse in a French interview.
He said the goal is to attract attention and counter Poly Remembers, a group that advocates for limits on firearms.
"[Poly Remembers] uses the Polytechnic event every year to raise money for defend an agenda — gun control — by saying that they want to defend lives. We, too, want to defend lives," Morin said.
'... it's really provocation'
Via Twitter, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the scheduled demonstration "a he Status of Women minister and Montreal's mayor responded with outrage.
Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante said the demonstration displayed a "lack of judgment" and "unacceptable disrespect for the victims of this tragedy and all female victims of violence."
With files from The Canadian Press and Catherine Lévesque/HuffPost Quebec