Meeting Mobina...
Today Camille and I met with Mobina Jaffer, one of the six British Colombian senators. We were able to meet with her for 30 minutes before the caucus meetings this morning.
She`s got an amazing story, having grown up in Uganda, but becoming a refugee in the 1970`s and ending up in Canada. She was educated in Law in England, and worked as a lawyer for many years in Vancouver.
As a senator, she was the first East Indian, first African, and first Muslim appointed to the Canadian Senate. Working as the Canadian Special Envoy for Peace in Sudan, she recently returned from the Sudan, and will be returning in a week for the remainder of the summer. Currently she`s working on the Anti-Terrorism Act (special), Official Languages, Internal Economy, and the Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament committees.
She was incredibly nice, and had some interesting insights and stories. One of the interesting things that Mobina had to say was that it`s a shame that more people in BC don`t speak French, and how it`s almost an educational tragedy. She was also very kind, thanking us for having made the effort to contact her, and making a point (several times) of telling us to stay in touch with her.