On Sunday at 10:30 PM, after hours of an extraordinary session where MNAs debated all night long, the National Assembly adopted Bill 21 by 73 votes against 35, the CAQ government was supported by the Parti Québécois in its endeavor.  Bill 21 effectively bans the wearing of religious symbols by certain public servants in positions of authority, overriding their Charter rights.

The adoption of Bill 21 followed the adoption of another controversial measure at 4:10 AM on Sunday morning.  Bill 9 aims to reduce the processing time of immigration files, while allowing better selection of immigrants, to be chosen based on their economic profile and the workforce needs of Quebec.  Bill 9 also reduces the number of immigrants by 40,000 and eliminates 18,000 current cases, representing 50,000 people.  These people will have to re-apply and start from scratch under the new law.

Despite a barrage of opposition protests, both Bills, sponsored by Immigration, Diversity and Inclusiveness Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette, where adopted by using closure to suspend the normal democratic rules for adopting legislation.

Simon Jolin-Barrette, nicknamed Simon Jolin-Bâillon (Jolin-Gag) by Quebec Solidaire MNA Vincent Marissal, was not ashamed one bit to shut down debate and force it down the throats of the Opposition.  He even casually went jogging on the Plains of Abraham while debate was ongoing.

Jolin-Barrette also surprised everyone by bringing last-minute amendments to the secularism law, putting in place an enforcement mechanism, more or less setting in place a niqab police, in charge of being on the lookout for contravenors to the law, and imposing  penalties on government employees who contravenes the law.

This is basically the flipside of Iran's GaÅ¡t-e Eršād,  the religious police established to impose Islamic dress codes, particularity regarding the hijab, patrolling to find women who are deemed improperly dressed according to the dress code.

In Quebec, improperly dressed now means wearing any religious symbols for many public servants.  The law now prohibits teachers and public school directors, police officers, prison guards, lawyers and judges to wear these symbols.  But fear not, it doesn't actually apply to employees who held these positions at the end of March who have been grandfathered.  And everyone can still wear a wedding band, somehow.  Because not all religious symbols were created equally.  A two-tier secularism law, applying unequally to the same categories of employees, with some symbols excluded.

The law also contains the notwithstanding clause, exempting it from the application of the Canadian and Quebec human rights charters.  But if the Legault government believes this will stop all judicial recourse, it is wrong: a court challenge was already moving forward by Monday afternoon.

The Federal Liberals, meanwhile, are agitating again, denouncing Bill 21.  Quebec Liberal MP Anthony Housefather stated that it was "a sad day for Quebec" and that the law "violates individual rights and shatters some people's dreams."

Interestingly enough, Housefather also didn't issue his statement in french.  But the question is, after denouncing the Secularism Law so forcefully, as Prime Minister Trudeau did in the past, what will the Federal Liberal Government do about it?

Four months before the next Federal Election, chances are they will do nothing.  Liberal strategists know full well what happened to Tom Mulcair in 2015,  when he stuck his neck out to defend the rights of religious minorities.  The NDP became instantly the target of both Conservative and Bloc attacks, while Trudeau was hiding behind simple boilerplate statements about values, flying under the radar.

For Trudeau to step up now would require the usage of the power of disallowance to wipe it off the statute book.  This power has not been used by the Federal government since 1943.  The Federal Liberals' rhetoric about the Charter is apparently based on strong values, but the Liberals' strongest value is their hunger for power.