Mobina Jaffer

Mobina S. B. Jaffer KC (Bengali: মবিনা জাফরী) (born August 20, 1949) is a former Canadian Senator representing British Columbia. Jaffer was the first Muslim to be appointed to the upper house as well as being the first senator who was born in Africa, and the first of South Asian descent. She retired on August 20, 2024 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.^[1]

Jaffer was born to a family of Nizari Khojas living in Uganda. Her father had been a member of the Parliament of Uganda and fled in June 1972, joining the rest of the family in England, after a senior military officer warned him that he was to be killed. In August, Idi Amin expelled the Asian population making the entire Jaffer family refugees. The family decide to seek refuge in Canada.^[2][1]

Jaffer was educated in England and Canada. She earned a law degree from the University of London in 1972 and attended the Executive Development program at Simon Fraser University. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Jaffer is a past member of the Girl Guides of Canada who held many volunteer roles including as a Brownie, Guide, and Pathfinder Leader, and as an elected Commissioner.^[3]

Jaffer has practised law in British Columbia since 1978 at the firm Dohm, Jaffer and Jeraj. She was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1998. Since 1997, Jaffer has been vice-chair of the Canadian membership committee for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and, since 1993, a member of the board of governors of the Trial Lawyers of British Columbia. She has also been active with the Immigrant and Refugee Board.

In 2014, Jaffer was one of the recipients of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards presented by Canadian Immigrant magazine.^[4]

In 2002, she was appointed the Special Envoy to the Peace Process in Sudan by the Government of Canada and served in that role until 2006.^[1] The same year, she was Chair of the Canadian Committee on Women Peace & Security.

Jaffer served as a Vice-President of the Liberal Party of Canada from 1994 to 1998 and as President of the National Women's Liberal Commission from 1998 to 2003. She also served on the board of the Liberal International in 1996. Jaffer ran unsuccessfully in the 1993 general election as the Liberal candidate in North Vancouver, and again in the 1997 election as the party's candidate in Burnaby--Douglas.

She was appointed to the Canadian Senate on June 13, 2001, on the advice of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. She sat as a Liberal.

On January 29, 2014, Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau announced all Liberal Senators, including Jaffer, were removed from the Liberal caucus, and would continue sitting as Independents.^[5] The Senators refer to themselves as the Senate Liberal Caucus even though they are no longer members of the parliamentary Liberal caucus.^[6]

On December 20, 2018, Jaffer left the Senate Liberal Caucus to sit as a non-affiliated senator.^[7] On June 12, 2019, Jaffer joined the Independent Senators Group.^[8]

She sat on the Standing Senate Committees on National Security and Defence, Finance, Official Languages and Internal Affairs, and the Senate Subcommittees on Veterans Affairs and Diversity.

The Vancouver Sun reported on January 22, 2008 that the B.C. Law Society was investigating allegations of overbilling by Jaffer and her son for allegedly charging a Catholic missionary order, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, fees of $6.7 million for work they did between 2000 and 2004 defending the Oblates against abuse claims made by former residents of the Canadian Indian residential school system. Allegations included evidence that Ms. Jaffer's son had billed 32.4 hours of work in a single day.^[9] In 2009, the Law Society of British Columbia's Discipline Subcommittee ordered Jaffer and her son to appear before separate conduct review subcommittee panels. At its regular meeting in March 2010, the Discipline Subcommittee agreed with the recommendations of those panels that no further action should be taken.^[10]

• Official website
• Parliament of Canada profile