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Billing scam cloud billows over Canada's first
Muslim woman Senator
WSN Bureau
BRITISH COLUMBIA: Canada's federal New Democrats want B.C. senator and lawyer Mobina Jaffer, the first Muslim woman to be appointed a senator, to step down while she's under investigation by the Law Society of B.C. for allegedly over-billing, including an instance of charging for 30 hours of work in a single day. Jaffer has been called before the society after charging a client more than $6 million in five years, between 2000 and 2004.

NDP House Leader Libby Davies was quoted in The Province as terming the charges "very serious" and said she should step aside as a senator and as a lawyer "until this is resolved."

Jaffer, 58, who is in a position of public trust in both positions, was appointed a Liberal senator, in 2001. She was allegedly charging the Oblates of Mary Immaculate $450 an hour. The New Westminster-based missionary order had hired Jaffer to defend them against dozens of sexual-abuse claims from the time they ran residential schools.

But in April 2005, the Oblates sued Jaffer's firm, Dohm Jaffer and Jeraj, in B.C. Supreme Court for over-billing, which came to the attention of the law society. It seems the suit was settled out of court. The investigators will talk to Jaffer and her son Azool Jaffer-Jeraj, who is also a lawyer at the firm and worked on the file. B.C. Supreme Court documents show that on Oct. 15, 2004, Jaffer billed the Oblates for 30.3 hours, for a total of $13,000. Jaffer charged the Oblates a total of $52,000 for "finalizing accounts" - effectively a bill for billing.

Her son Azool billed 32.4 hours work, or more than $6,400, on Sept. 29, 2003. A senator is paid $125,800 a year, and is given 64 free return trips within Canada and living expenses of up to $20,000 a year. Senate ethics rules allow for senators to keep other jobs and run businesses.

Even if Jaffer, a former immigration lawyer, is found to have over-billed, she will have the entitlement to remain a Liberal senator. Jaffer's lawyers were quoted as saying that she and her son both will co-operate fully in any investigation conducted by the law society.

Uganda-born and UK, Canada-educated Mobina Jaffer is a Bachelor of laws (LL.B.) from London University in England. She was the first East Indian woman lawyer in British Columbia and was appointed to the Senate in 2001 as the first East Indian, first Muslim woman and first African by then-prime minister Jean Chrétien. She sits on numerous committees, including the senate's internal economy, official languages and human rights committees.  

30 January 2008
 

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