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Fight against new spy law just beginning, Muslim senator says

Sen. Mobina Jaffer leaves the Senate after being sworn in during a ceremony on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2001. CP PHOTO/Jonathan Hayward
Sen. Mobina Jaffer leaves the Senate after being sworn in during a ceremony on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2001. CP PHOTO/Jonathan Hayward

By Sheena Goodyear

It may have already passed into law, but the fight against Bill C-51 is far from over.

Sen. Mobina Jaffer, Canada’s first Muslim senator, says she’ll hit the ground running with organizations fighting the controversial anti-terror law this summer and work with whichever party is elected government in the fall to repeal the parts she believes are divisive and dangerous.

“I’m not saying be soft on terrorists, but let’s have a legislation that will truly bring us together in this country and not divide us,” Mobina told Yahoo Canada.

“Presently, there is a fear of Muslims in this country and you don’t feel very comfortable. This is not the Canadian way.”

C-51, which gives the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) increased powers to fight perceived terrorist threats, achieved royal assent last week.

It passed in the House of Commons in May with the support of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau. But Jaffer and her fellow Liberal senators — technically independent since Trudeau suspended his Senate caucus earlier this year — voted against it in the Senate earlier this month.

Jaffer has been speaking out on the bill, including in a recent interview with iPolitics in which she discusses her own experiences being profiled.

“We find the senator’s remarks extremely offensive,” Stephen Lecce, a spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said of the interview.

“It is clear that the international jihadi movement has declared war on Canada and terrorist organizations such as ISIS have directly targeted Canada.”

What offends Jaffer, however, is the anti-Muslim rhetoric she says the Conservative government has used to promote the bill.

Harper came under fire for a remark about radicalization in mosques when he first unveiled C-51 earlier this year.

And at the same time as they've been promoting C-51, the Tories have been fighting in court women’s right to wear a niqab, a Muslim face veil, during citizenship ceremonies. Harper said the garment is “rooted in a culture that is anti-women.”

“What’s that about? Why would you do that?” Jaffer said. “It breeds fear. I, as a Muslim woman, find it very difficult because many Muslim women identify with hijabs, and many of them tell me they face lots of challenges when they walk on the street. That didn’t happen before. I believe the rhetoric is dividing us.”

Dr. Baljit Nagra from the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of International Affairs, says it’s “no coincidence” the Tories were talking about hijabs and niqabs while pushing through Bill C-51.

“They create this discourse in the public to justify these policies. That’s a key weapon used in the war on terror,” she said.

“They paint this picture (that) this is a religious community that’s barbaric and it’s oppressive to women and we need to monger fear and monger hatred towards these communities. We need these laws to control these communities.”

Nagra is working on a nationwide study about how post-9/11 counter-terrorism measures have affected Canadian Muslims.

She’s been interviewing Muslim Canadians and organizations across the country, and says many feel harassed by and afraid of CSIS — a problem she fears will only get worse under C-51.

CSIS officials just approach the Muslim community as suspects. This community, they’re seen as potential threats, she said.

She says CSIS officials target prominent Muslim Canadians and coerce them to spy on their friends and neighbours.

"It's very disappointing to see the way they're specifically targeting what is already a very vulnerable community within Canada," David Christopher, spokesman for OpenMedia, said.

The organization, which actively campaigned to stop Bill C-51 from passing, is now fighting to have it repealed.

“We’re very much focused on the election and on making sure as many of the parties as possible commit to repealing the bill," Christopher said.

The Green Party and the NDP have promised to quash the legislation if elected. The Liberals have said they will amend it to bring in more oversight. But the Tories are holding strong.

“The first duty of any government is to protect its citizens,” Lecce said. “And that is why we are not sitting on the sidelines — as the Liberals and NDP would have us do — and are instead joining our allies in the international coalition in the fight against ISIS.”

Among the concerns voiced by Jaffer and OpenMedia are a lack of oversight for CSIS, the sharing of personal information among government agencies, the potential for Charter violations and the government’s ability to censor “terrorist propaganda,” which they say is too vaguely defined.

While the Tories did pass four amendments softening some of the bill’s more controversial elements before it passed, Jaffer says it’s not enough.

“You knowwhen there’s a basket of fruit and one or two are rotten and the whole thing gets tainted? It’s like that,” she said.

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