The North Shore's only member of the Senate says she was surprised by Liberal leader Justin Trudeau's announcement that all Liberal senators will sit as independents - but not upset.
Senator Mobina Jaffer, a Blueridge resident appointed to the red chamber by Jean Chrétien in 2001, learned only minutes before Trudeau issued his statement Wednesday morning that 32 Liberal senators were no longer part of the party caucus and would no longer be expected to vote along partisan lines.
"Mr. Trudeau and the head of the senate caucus came and told us what he was going to read to the media and left," she said. "We were surprised but after two hours of reflection, we were all feeling very liberated. This is what we wanted. This is what
Canadians want - that we act independently. This is what we've been hearing and so I feel really, really happy today."
While the senators have typically had more autonomy than members of parliament, Jaffer said she had many disagreements with the party line over the years.
"Senate business has never been like the House of Commons. It's been pretty independent but now I can do what I hear British Columbians want and I'm independent to decide on my position," she said.
Most recently, Jaffer rejected the party leader's request that Liberal senators abstain from the vote on whether to suspend senators Patrick Brazeau, Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin before a complete investigation into their misspending of public funds had been done. "I worked very hard to see that every Canadian deserves due process so I didn't agree with him and so I voted according to my conscience," she said.
Similarly, Jaffer has wanted to put up more of a fight in the Senate when it came to reviewing the Prime Minister's tough-oncrime bills, which included mandatory minimum prison sentences that take away a judge's ability to decide what sentence is appropriate.
"Before Trudeau, often, we supported what the House of Commons wanted because that's what they thought was important," said Jaffer, also a former criminal lawyer. "I'm absolutely against mandatory minimums and now I can fight really hard against that," she said, noting it was a hot topic of conversation during a recent trip to the United States. "People were saying 'What's the matter with Canada?' We know mandatory minimums are wrong. We made the mistake. Why are you doing this now?"
Trudeau's exile of Liberal senators doesn't restrict them from being party members or supporting party legislation. They remain the official government opposition in the Senate and late Wednesday, somewhat perplexingly, the senators declared they would be known as Senate Liberals.
Even with the change, Jaffer said the Senate is still badly in need of reform that goes beyond one party casting its senators out of caucus. "I truly believe that there needs to be reform. When people have no more respect for an institution, it's hard to be part of that institution," she said. "I'm absolutely a believer in reform but I don't want piecemeal reform."
Ultimately, that will involve amending the constitution, a difficult process requiring the support of the government and the provinces. "You'd have to. Otherwise, we're just tinkering, right?"
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