To the Editor:

According to Martin Patriquin (Op-Ed, Nov. 13), Quebec is living a “Tea Party moment.”

We’d rather say it’s living a “Jefferson moment,” since the proposed legislation the writer thinks is regressive would in fact enshrine into law Jefferson’s “wall of separation between church and state.”

Quebec was a very religious place until the 1960s, when it gradually moved toward secularization. For the majority of Quebecers who support the legislation, declaring gender equality paramount when considering religious-based requests for accommodations or asking public employees not to wear conspicuous religious symbols on the job are just logical next steps.

These steps are taken at a time of growth of Islam in Quebec, as everywhere else. But the legislation is not specific to any religion. And, in order to make this even clearer, our party, the Parti Québécois, now proposes the removal of the crucifix that hangs in the legislature.

In this and many fields, Quebec’s independent-minded choices occasionally ruffle feathers, especially among multiculturalists, still strong in Canada. But feather-ruffling is what trend-setters do. Don’t ask the Tea Party. Ask Jefferson.