Yahoo News: The fight against Bill C-51 is just beginning

We'll make sure as many of the parties as possible commit to repeal Bill C-51. Speak out now at KillC51.ca Article by Sheena Goodyear for Yahoo News  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.

- Read more at Yahoo News