Opinion

from July 29 - 2021

GOVERNMENT ALBAS: some border certainty

This week I will give Prime Minister Trudeau some well deserved credit.

The Federal Government announced:

“August 9, 2021, Canada plans to begin allowing entry to American citizens and permanent residents, who are currently residing in the United States, and have been fully vaccinated at least 14 days prior to entering Canada for non-essential travel.”

These fully vaccinated travelers will also not have to quarantine upon arrival in Canada, provided they comply with the required pre-entry COVID-19 molecular test with a negative result.

The Federal Government also announced they intend to expand this relaxing of restrictions to fully vaccinated international visitors on September 7th, with the same criteria for pre-entry with a COVID-19 molecular test and a negative result.

Why do I commend the Prime Minister for this announcement?

It is not because it means the border will be re-opening.

The reason I commend the Prime Minister is that providing clear dates and criteria in turn helps create certainty.

Many small businesses here in the Okanagan, to some extent, depend on visits from US citizens.

Over the past months there has been a growing frustration as many receive calls for bookings, orders and/or reservations, leaving small business owners in a challenging situation of DAN ALBAS

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FAITH COLUMN: A gospel for the Olympians

One of the favourite clichés, used mostly by political leaders promising election goodies, is: “Make no mistake.” I, too, have some of my own such catch-all statements, one of which could confidently be asserted as: “Make no mistake, Christianity is not just for the weak but satisfies both the weak and the strong.” Two great Olympic events have just started in Tokyo. It’s in the second event though, the Para Olympics, that the contestants pride themselves in their ‘real’ strength, almost to the point of their invincibility. Many easily despise and discard a faith that speaks of strengthening the weak and lifting up the fallen. Haven’t many of us have heard such snide remarks as: “I don’t need Christianity. It’s a crutch only for the weaklings?” Perhaps we have grown so accustomed to the crutches of our society that we hardly recognize them for what they are. • The mad quest for intimacy to still the ever-present pain of loneliness. • The activism with which we fill our lives because we dare not stop and ask who we are and where we are going. • The dependence on alcohol and drugs because of the pressures around and within us has got to be too great. • The attempt to prop up our lives with material things. Other props are less obvious, but just as much crutches for the weak – power over other people, fame, wealth and beauty. There seems no end to the props people use as they go limping through life. Is Christianity another crutch? In one sense, it is. It is for people who do not pretend they are invincible but know they have got something broken within themselves. Our world, our lives are fractured by greed and lust, by cruelty and selfishness. Christianity is unashamedly a ‘religion’ of rescue. That is why so many self-satisfied people steer clear of it. Set side by side the two estimates of human nature, we think we have hearts of gold. But over three thousand years ago, Prophet Jeremiah said: “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately corrupt.” Which evaluation is closer to the mark? How does God react to all this? By pretending it does not matter? Of course it matters. The evil in our lives spoils our characters, ruins relationships, and alienates us from Him. Moreover it has an uncanny grip on all of us. Which of us does not long to be free of the moral weakness which pulls us down? The Christian good news is that God has acted to restore the situation. He has come to this world to show us what He is really like, to show us how we could live life at its best. And that isn’t all. He came to build a bridge over the troubled waters of our alienation and selfishness. He came to construct a path back to Himself. And He did this, against all human logic, by dying for us. It is, therefore, a radical reshaping of human nature that Christ offers. He liberates us from the shackles of the past and sets us free to be the people we were intended to be. He enables us to make the contribution toward other people and society at large. We know what is the right thing to do, but we don’t get around to do them because of our unhealed self-centredness. The wood of Jesus’ cross is like a splint for our fractured lives. But that splint is applied with the intention of effecting a cure to enable us to stand, walk, and run. Let us just review what happened to some of the ‘weak’ who availed themselves of this ‘crutch’ : Saint (Mother) Teresa came out

of her nunnery to love the helpless and the homeless, the poorest of the poor, on the streets of Kolkata; Alexander Solzhenitsyn, rotting in the Gulag and surrendering his whole intellect and being to Jesus, gains the strength to challenge a totaliNARAYAN MITRA You Gotta Have FAITH tarian regime on behalf of human dignity and freedom; George Foreman, former world heavy weight boxing champion, whose scarred face turned full of the love of Christ, might mutter gently in our ears: “What was that I heard you say, that Christianity is a crutch for the weak?” They are just some examples among millions who have thrown away the pathetic crutches with which they used to limp along the road of life. They have come for healing to the seasoned wood of the cross and they have been transformed. If we think Christianity is a crutch for the weak, let us make sure our accusation is not a smoke screen to deny our own inadequacies. Let us make sure that it is not an excuse to evade the claims that the living God has on our lives. His remedy is radical, but very effective. He takes the wounded, the fractured people, and makes them whole.

Narayan Mitra is the pastor of Merritt Baptist Church at 2499 Coutlee Ave., Merritt, BC. merrittbaptist@gmail.com

Clear dates ahead for travel into Canada

From Page 6

having to refuse business and not knowing when the situation might change.

The announcement from the Prime Minister fixes that and also provides an opportunity for families who have been separated by the border closure to be reunited.

However, it must also be pointed out that the announcement made by the Prime Minister only applies to US citizens coming to Canada.

Unfortunately, the Federal Government did not coordinate this re-opening with the United States, so Canadian citizens will not be in a situation to receive reciprocal approval for non-essential travel at the US border.

Strangely, when the Prime Minister was directly asked if he had contacted President Biden to advocate for a reciprocal treatment for Canadians at the US border by a reporter at a news conference earlier this week, the PM refused to answer the question.

That leads to my question this week:

Should the border re-opening have been coordinated on a reciprocal basis or do you support the current approach by the Prime Minister?

I can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca or call toll free 1-800-665-8711. From the Herald archives: July, 1977

LIGHTNING SPARKS FOREST FIRE NEAR MERRITT

A forest fire burned 70 acres of timber in the upper Coldwater Valley on July 25, 1977, according to Merritt B.C. forest Service sources. Approximately 20 people - including several volunteers - battled the blaze, believed to have been caused by a lightning strike.

Warm weather and little precipitation have forced the fire hazard rating in Merritt’s Ranger District to high.

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