The pro-abortion protesters stormed the stairwell leading to the conference hall, but were stopped short by the conference doors that had just been barricaded.

"One of our people physically blocked the doors to prevent the protesters from entering," said Buscemi.

The pro-abortion groups provided free transportation to what they told participants would be an "action pacifique théâtrale" (peaceful action drama).

Buscemi said that about 20 young people from the ages of 16 to 25 showed up outside the conference building around 8 a.m. with banners that supported "reproductive choice".

Upon reached the barricaded doors of the conference hall, the protesters clapped and stamped, shouting slogans for 10 minutes before police reinforcements arrived and were able to intervene.

Behind the barricaded doors, conference attendees heard the protesters chanting the equivalent in French of "It's my body, my choice".

They also heard chanted a French pro-abortion sing-song against the Virgin Mary: "Ah si Marie avait connu l'avortement, on n'aurait pas tous ces emmerdement.s" ("Oh, If Mary had known about abortion, we wouldn't have to deal with all this nonsense.")

Pastor Stéphane Gagné, who was in the midst of his presentation when the protester stormed the building, expressed outraged over the "commotion and shouting".

"So much for their 'peaceful' demonstration and to Hell with [their notion of] respect... I myself was delivering my lecture when the commotion and shouting prevented me from continuing," he wrote on a blog.

Once police reinforcements arrived, the protesters were expelled from the church building.

"Although the official report says that the protesters did not resist, the fact is they refused to obey the officers who at first asked them to leave the building," wrote Gagné.

An unmarked police car was seen by Buscemi to have trailed the protester's bus as it left the area.

The annual Quebec Life Coalition conference has the goal of "forming citizens to act consistently with the values upon which Quebec was founded". MP Stephen Woodworth delivered the keynote on his efforts to introduce into Parliament a motion that would have set up a committee to examine the humanity of the unborn child. M-312 failed to pass with only 91 MPs voting for it.

Buscemi said that he became concerned a few days prior to the conference after he saw an "Action Alert" posted online by Le Comité femme du Cégep de Sherbrook (Women's Committee of Sherbrooke College) and de la faculté des lettres et sciences humaines de l'université de Sherbrooke (Faculty of Humanities at the University of Sherbrooke) that encouraged people to come out and protest what the groups saw as an "anti-choice and homophobic" conference.

Buscemi said that he was "not surprised" by the protesters. "Can you really expect people who advocate for the death of babies in the womb to be polite and respectful of property?"

"It's only going to get worse in the future," he said.

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