The fate of Quebec’s controversial secularism law, Bill 21, is now in the hands of Canada’s highest court. But there is much more at stake.

After four days of hearings last week, the Supreme Court of Canada’s justices are not only deliberating on whether a ban on state employees in positions of authority wearing religious symbols is discriminatory, but also under what circumstances legislators can use a constitutional override to circumvent rights, if extinguished rights cease to exist or are simply set aside, and whether the courts should still weigh in if the notwithstanding clause of the Constitution is invoked.

These are highly technical legal questions that go beyond whether the rights of police officers, prison guards, prosecutors and teachers have been trampled by Bill 21.

But while the parties involved in the case, dozens of interveners, other provinces, the public and politicians wait to see how the Supreme Court rules on the original secularism law, the Quebec government has also tabled other legislation that doubles down on the restrictions imposed by Bill 21.

Bill 94, adopted last fall, extends the ban on religious symbols to all school staff, including lunch monitors, janitors, cafeteria workers, librarians and parent volunteers.

And Bill 9, tabled in November, proposes to expand the dress code to........

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