Rahim Jaffer - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Rahim Nizar Jaffer is a former Canadian politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

and a former Member of Parliament. He served in the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

from 1997 to 2008, representing the Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

riding of Edmonton—Strathcona

Edmonton—Strathcona

Edmonton—Strathcona is a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1953. It spans the south central part of the city of Edmonton.-Geography:...

as a member of the Conservative Party. He was the first Muslim elected to the Canadian Parliament. Jaffer became embroiled in a national controversy in 2010 after he appeared to receive special treatment, "a break," from the justice system after being charged with drunk driving and possession of cocaine.

Early life

Jaffer was born to an Ismaili Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

family in Kampala

Kampala

Kampala is the largest city and capital of Uganda. The city is divided into five boroughs that oversee local planning: Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division and Lubaga Division. The city is coterminous with Kampala District.-History: of Buganda, had chosen...

, Uganda

Uganda

Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

. When he was a young child, he and his family migrated to Canada to escape further persecution in Uganda after the government of Idi Amin

Idi Amin

Idi Amin Dada was a military leader and President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Amin joined the British colonial regiment, the King's African Rifles in 1946. Eventually he held the rank of Major General in the post-colonial Ugandan Army and became its Commander before seizing power in the military...

confiscated their business and their home. They settled in Edmonton

Edmonton

Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...

.

Jaffer completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Ottawa

University of Ottawa

The University of Ottawa is a bilingual, research-intensive, non-denominational, international university in Ottawa, Ontario. It is one of the oldest universities in Canada. It was originally established as the College of Bytown in 1848 by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate...

in Political Science

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

and Economics

Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

. He took his degree in the French language

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

. He also served as a legislative assistant in the House of Commons. After completing his degree he returned to Edmonton, where he operated a successful coffee shop in the heart of the Old Strathcona district.

Political career

Jaffer was elected to the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

for Edmonton-Strathcona on June 2, 1997, at the age of 25. He won the seat as a member of the Reform Party of Canada

Reform Party of Canada

The Reform Party of Canada was a Canadian federal political party that existed from 1987 to 2000. It was originally founded as a Western Canada-based protest party, but attempted to expand eastward in the 1990s. It viewed itself as a populist party....

(later the Canadian Alliance

Canadian Alliance

The Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...

, which later merged with the Progressive Conservatives

Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....

to form the Conservative Party

Conservative Party of Canada

The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...

).

In 2001, Matthew Johnston, an aide to Jaffer, impersonated him during a radio interview that Jaffer was himself unable to attend. Jaffer subsequently apologized for the stunt in the House of Commons, and was suspended from his caucus position for several months.

In the 2006 election

Canadian federal election, 2006

The 2006 Canadian federal election was held on January 23, 2006, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 39th Parliament of Canada. The Conservative Party of Canada won the greatest number of seats: 40.3% of seats, or 124 out of 308, up from 99 seats in 2004, and 36.3% of votes:...

, Jaffer was re-elected to serve a fourth term as the Member of Parliament for Edmonton—Strathcona. On February 8, 2006, he was named chair of the Conservative caucus

Caucus chair

A caucus chair is a person who chairs the meetings of a caucus. Often, the caucus chair is assigned other duties as well.-Commonwealth Nations:...

by Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Stephen Harper

Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...

.

Jaffer lost his seat in the 2008 election

Canadian federal election, 2008

The 2008 Canadian federal election was held on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons of the 40th Canadian Parliament after the previous parliament had been dissolved by the Governor General on September 7, 2008...

after he was defeated by New Democrat Linda Duncan

Linda Duncan

Linda Francis Duncan is a Canadian lawyer and politician, currently serving as a Member of Parliament for the riding of Edmonton—Strathcona in Alberta. She is a member of the New Democratic Party and, since 2008, she has been the only MP from an Alberta riding not a member of the Conservative Party...

. Jaffer was initially reluctant to concede defeat, but finally did so on October 16 after the results were officially validated by the riding returning officer. Jaffer was the only Alberta Conservative MP to lose his seat in the 2008 election.

In 2009, Jaffer expressed interest in re-seeking the Conservative nomination for Edmonton-Strathcona. However, he declined to do so after it was claimed that he was shut out of nomination process.

Jaffer was once voted "laziest MP" in an annual survey by the Hill Times

The Hill Times

The Hill Times is a Canadian weekly newspaper that covers the federal government and politics. Founded in 1989, this Ottawa based periodical is owned by Jim Creskey and Ross Dickson....

Personal life

On October 15, 2008, Jaffer married his former caucus colleague Helena Guergis

Helena Guergis

Helena C. Guergis, PC, is a Canadian politician. She has represented Simcoe—Grey in the Canadian House of Commons since 2004, and was appointed Minister of State on October 30, 2008, following the October 14, 2008 Canadian federal election...

, by then a Cabinet minister. This was her second marriage and his first.

Jaffer and Guergis became engaged in October 2007. Reportedly at the initiative of Guergis, the couple decided on the morning after the election to scrap their planned wedding date and to get married immediately. Their wedding was presided over by Ian McClelland

Ian McClelland

Ian G. McClelland is an Edmonton-based businessperson, who was a member of the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 to 2000, and a member of the Alberta Legislative Assembly from 2001 to 2004.-Business:...

, a former Member of Parliament and a licensed marriage commissioner, later that same day at McClelland's home. The marriage was witnessed by the couple's parliamentary colleague James Rajotte

James Rajotte

James Rajotte is a Canadian politician.As a member of the Conservative Party of Canada in the Canadian House of Commons, Rajotte is chair of Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance. Previously he was chair of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. He represented the riding...

, and by one of Jaffer's cousins.

Arrest and conviction

On September 11, 2009, Jaffer was stopped late at night by the Ontario Provincial Police

Ontario Provincial Police

The Ontario Provincial Police is the Provincial Police service for the province of Ontario, Canada.-Overview:The OPP is the the largest deployed police force in Ontario, and the second largest in Canada. The service is responsible for providing policing services throughout the province in areas...

, while he was traveling at a rate of 93 km/h in a 50 km/h zone, on Regional Road 50 in town of Palgrave, Ontario

Palgrave, Ontario

Palgrave is a suburban community, located in the Town of Caledon, Regional Municipality of Peel, Ontario, Canada. It is located about 10 km north of Bolton and about 50 km northwest of Toronto...

, located close to his wife's riding. The OPP officer noticed a smell of alcohol

Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....

, on Jaffer's breath, and after administering a breathalyzer

Breathalyzer

A breathalyzer or breathalyser is a device for estimating blood alcohol content from a breath sample...

test, found him to be over the Ontario legal blood-alcohol limit of .08. Jaffer's driver's licence was suspended for 90 days, and he was charged with drunk driving and possession of an undisclosed quantity of cocaine

Cocaine

Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

. The location of the cocaine is a source of contention between police and Jaffer. The arresting officer stated that the drugs were found in Jaffer's pants pocket, whereas Jaffer's defense team claimed that the cocaine was in his suit jacket. Earlier in the evening, He had met in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

with Nazim Gillani, an entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

and businessman. Gillani claimed he was a banker for the Hells Angels

Hells Angels

The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is a worldwide one-percenter motorcycle gang and organized crime syndicate whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Their primary motto...

.

Jaffer was initially scheduled to appear in court in Orangeville, Ontario

Orangeville, Ontario

Orangeville is a town in south-central Ontario, Canada, and the seat of Dufferin County.-History:Before European settlers, Orangeville was thought to be a native hunting ground...

on October 19, 2009. During the 2008 election, Jaffer's campaign approved radio ads accusing NDP

New Democratic Party

The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...

leader Jack Layton

Jack Layton

John Gilbert "Jack" Layton, PC was a Canadian social democratic politician and the Leader of the Official Opposition. He was the leader of the New Democratic Party from 2003 to 2011, and previously sat on Toronto City Council, serving at times during that period as acting mayor and deputy mayor of...

of being soft on marijuana use. The ads said, in part, "Edmontonians understand how difficult it is to make sure our children make the right choices, especially on serious issues like drug use. The Conservative Party supports drug-free schools and getting tough with drug dealers who sell illegal drugs to children. Don't let our schools go up in smoke. On Oct. 14, vote Conservative." On Tuesday, March 9, 2010, Jaffer pleaded guilty to one charge of careless driving and was sentenced to a fine of $500. The cocaine possession and drunk driving charges were withdrawn. Justice Doug Maund told Jaffer "I’m sure you can recognize a break when you see one." The light sentence and the dropping of the more serious charges triggered outrage across Canada, as well as more extensive investigation of events leading up to the incident prompting the arrest, which led to allegations Jaffer met with several escorts.

Electoral record

|-

|Conservative

Conservative Party of Canada

New Democratic Party

|Linda Duncan

Linda Duncan

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

Green Party of Canada

The Green Party of Canada is a Canadian federal political party founded in 1983 with 10,000–12,000 registered members as of October 2008. The Greens advance a broad multi-issue political platform that reflects its core values of ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy and...

Progressive Canadian Party

The Progressive Canadian Party is a minor federal political party in Canada. It is a centre/centre-right party that was officially registered with Elections Canada, the government's election agency, on March 29, 2004....

Marijuana Party of Canada

The Marijuana Party is a Canadian federal political party. Its agenda consists of ending prohibition of cannabis. With the exception of this one issue, the party does not have "official policy" in any other area...

Communist Party of Canada (Marxist–Leninist)

The Communist Party of Canada is a Canadian federal Marxist–Leninist political party.The party is registered with Elections Canada as the Marxist–Leninist Party of Canada...

Conservative Party of Canada

Liberal Party of Canada

|Debby Carlson

Debby Carlson

Debby Carlson is a former Liberal MLA in Alberta, who represented the electoral district of Edmonton Ellerslie from 1993 to 2004.Carlson won her seat in southeast Edmonton's Ellerslie area, and held it in the 1993, 1997, and 2001 elections until 2004 when she won a highly contested federal Liberal...

New Democratic Party

|Malcolm Azania

Malcolm Azania

Malcolm Azania , also known as Minister Faust , is a Canadian teacher, writer, community activist, radio host and political aspirant....

Green Party of Canada

Marijuana Party of Canada

Communist Party of Canada (Marxist–Leninist)

The Communist Party of Canada is a Canadian federal Marxist–Leninist political party.The party is registered with Elections Canada as the Marxist–Leninist Party of Canada...

Canadian Alliance

Liberal Party of Canada

New Democratic Party

Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....

Marijuana Party of Canada

Canadian Action Party

The Canadian Action Party is a Canadian federal political party founded in 1997. It promotes Canadian nationalism, monetary and electoral reform, and opposes neoliberal globalization and free trade agreements.- Background :The Canadian Action Party was founded by Paul T...

Communist Party of Canada (Marxist–Leninist)

The Communist Party of Canada is a Canadian federal Marxist–Leninist political party.The party is registered with Elections Canada as the Marxist–Leninist Party of Canada...

Reform Party of Canada

Liberal Party of Canada

New Democratic Party

Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....

Green Party of Canada

Natural Law Party of Canada

The Natural Law Party of Canada was the Canadian branch of the international Natural Law Party founded in 1992 by a group of educators, business leaders, and lawyers who practiced Transcendental Meditation....

Naomi Rankin

Naomi Rankin is the current leader of the Communist Party of Alberta in Alberta, Canada.She has been leader of the Communist Party since 1992 and has run in every provincial and federal election in Alberta since 1982, for the Communist Party or the Communist Party of Canada...

Canadian Action Party

External links

Rahim Jaffer (archived version of http://www.rahimjaffer.com retrieved on Jun 12, 2008)

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