Quebec’s Secularism Minister Jean-François Roberge and Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette both seem to believe that Quebecers are fools that can be easily manipulated.

Their overreactions last week to the federal government’s decision to intervene in the upcoming Supreme Court case on Quebec’s secularism law, Bill 21, looked like political theatre. Their exaggerated outrage and vows to battle against an attack on Quebec’s values smack of a pathetic attempt to shore up their government’s sagging poll numbers. Ottawa’s intervention is anything but an attack.

Bill 21 bans the wearing of religious symbols by many public sector employees while on the job, including teachers. Suspecting that the law would be challenged as an infringement on fundamental freedoms protected by the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights, the government pre-emptively used the constitutional notwithstanding clause to shield the law.

The controversial clause was included in the Charter of the repatriated Canadian Constitution in 1982 at........

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