Miracle 562-Jan 14, 2022

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Volume 21 Issue 562-January 14, 2022 - Jamadi ul II 11,1443 H, $1

BC, CANADA First Muslim

Biweekly & Bilingual

THE

sign of Time: 03 The Surat al Asr

07

10 Omicron?

Think you may have

08

15 an impact in Canada

8 Muslim youth making

11

Most B.C. students return to the classroom MLA Harry Bain running for Mayor J. Masjid Aulia Allah & Fiji Islamic Centre

05 05 06

Govt bringing ‘tsunami of taxes’ through mini-b Canada has enough vaccines for all Canada North Korea fires suspected ballistic missile,

When will Canada’s Omicron wave peak ? What we know so far ?

T

he Omicron variant’s spread may be slowing slightly, at least in some provinces where a government website monitoring virus projection estimates shows peak infections could be reached within a week.

In Manitoba, where the test positivity rate is now 48 per cent, this province is outpacing the rest of Canada in active COVID-19 cases. But infections could peak soon.

According to a government website that estimates trends in COVID-19 prevalence based on existing epidemiological information, Winnipeg is expected to start seeing cases decline

in the next seven to 10 days. The tool is designed for the Canadian Armed Forces to understand their risk level in different areas of Canada and internationally, and isn’t used to advise other aspects of government.

“The tool was made available globally to provide easy access to CAF medical advisors irrespective of their location and as part of the Government of Canada open data initiative,” a spokesperson told CTV News in an email.

“It is important to note that the numbers found in this model are not case numbers, but rather estimates based on existing epidemiological To be Continued at page 4

Canada extending repayment of COVID-19 business aid loans to 2023

T

he federal government is extending the deadline for small businesses to pay back their Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loans to the end of 2023. The government introduced CEBA in April 2020 as an interest-free loan program, offering initially up to $40,000 to small businesses and non-profits who have experienced a loss of revenue due to COVID-19. An expansion was then offered, seeing businesses able to apply to receive up to $60,000 loans.

Prior to Wednesday’s update, if claimants repaid the balance of their loan on or before the end of

2022, the government planned to forgive up to one-third of their loan. Now, eligible businesses “in good standing,” will have until Dec. 31, 2023 to repay and be eligible for up to $20,000 of debt forgiveness.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development Mary Ng made the announcement on Wednesday, noting that given new restrictions many businesses are facing due to the current Omicron surge, they may need more time to pay back their loans.

To be Continued at page 4

Death toll due to heavy snowfall in Pakistan’s Murree goes up to 23 The death toll due to unprecedented snowfall and rush of tourists in Pakistan’s popular hill station of Murree has gone up to 23 after a minor girl suffering from severe cold and pneumonia died. he death toll due to unprecedented snowfall and rush of tourists in Pakistan’s popular hill station of Murree has gone up to 23 after a minor girl suffering from severe cold and pneumonia died as she could not be rushed to the hospital in time.

Thousands of people visited Murree after the

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picturesque town in Rawalpindi in Punjab province received a record-breaking snowfall, leaving the local administration helpless and freezing to death over 20 people in their stranded vehicles.

The death of a four-year-old girl has pushed the toll to 23. The minor girl died in Jhika Gali. She was suffering from severe cold and pneumonia, according to rescue sources, adding that she lost her life as she could not be rushed to the hospital in time. Rescue officials told Geo News at least 23 people have died thus far as vehicles continTo be Continued at page 4

lhamdulillah, the Miracle is BC’s first Muslim bilingual and biweekly newspaper, and is now completing its 21 years in publication. We have undoubtedly record numbers of regular local Writers and have continued publishing for the past 21 years despite personal and community challenges.

To make this occasion memorable, a Special

edition will be published on Friday, eb 25, 2022.

If you have any message, well wishes or feedback for the 21st anniversary that you wish to be published, please send as an email reply, in Word Document, InPage, or JPG by Feb 10, 2022 at miraclenews@telus.net.

Please also send your picture (if preferred)

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Jamadi ul II 11,1443 January 14, 2021

f a i t h

The Prophet Muhammad ‫ ﷺ‬said: “The one who guides to something good has a reward similar to that one doing it.” [Muslim]

The sign of time: a reflection on Surat al-‘Asr

Now when Allah swears By Time, He doesn’t require us to have a scientist’s take on time, or that of a philosopher’s. Rather, the oath is taken to impress on us to see time unfold through the

By: Shaykh Abu Aaliyah Surkheel Sharif

I

n one of the shortest chapters or surahs of the Qur’an, we read: By Time! Verily man is in [a state of] loss; except those who believe and perform righteous deeds, and enjoin one another to [follow] the truth, and enjoin one another to patience. [103:1-3] This chapter, orsurah, is known as Surat al-‘Asr. I hope to keep my reflections fairly brief, and also hope to look at the surah from three perspectives. The first of these perspectives will be exegetical – that is, to look at what our classical commentators (mufassirun) have said concerning it, so as to get a general sweep of its meaning and message from those qualified in textual interpretation. The second will be theological; so as to flesh out any important points of belief or doctrine embedded in the surah. Lastly there’s the homiletical perspective, the one that focuses on the spiritual and moral counsels of the surah and the lessons it wishes to impart to us about how best to live the religious life.

Exegetical Perspective: Classical interpreters of the Qur’an (tracing their views back to the early religious authorities; the salaf) differ over the meaning of the opening oath: wa’l-‘asr. Some say ‘asr refers to the period from the declining of the sun until sunset; others, that it refers to the actual ‘Asr prayer; yet others say that there is no reason to limit it to a specific period of time, or act in time.

Instead, ‘asr should be taken to refer to time (dahr) in general – this being the opinion of Ibn ‘Abbas.1 In this reading, Allah swears an oath by Time, this enigmatic creation of His which we all know something about, but about which no one knows its true nature or exact significance. An appeal is made to time, for it is in its never-resting grasp that our destinies unfold, the events of our lives are played out, and where we encounter Allah’s signs in the world and are asked to contemplate their meanings.

The next verse hits us like a thunderbolt: Verily man is in [a state of] loss. This no holds barred declaration, although it uses the word man (al-insan) in it singular form, refers to mankind generically (a case of wahid bi ma‘na al-jami‘ – “employing the singular to mean the collective.”).2 A few commentators, however, suggest that the man referred to here as being in loss is one of the chief disbelievers of Makkah: Abu Jahl, Walid b. al-Mughirah, or Ubayy b. Khalf.3 Most deemed it best to keep the term generic,

given that there is nothing textually explicit to particularise it. So Allah swears

By Time that all mankind are in loss.

The Qur’an, in voicing this loss, could have simply said: al-insanu fi khusr – ‘Mankind is in [a state of] loss.’ But instead it added the particle of emphasis, inna, as well as the world la: two separate words of emphasis and forcibleness. Its literal translation could then read: Verily man is truly in [a state of] loss – the double emphasis being there so as to drive home, in no uncertain terms, the gravity of the matter.

As to what such loss is, al-Suyuti glosses it as: fi tijaratihi – “in his [life] transactions.”4That is, time is man’s capital which he can invest wisely and piously, or else squander. But Man misuses his capital, and fritters it away, by turning his back on Allah and the Afterlife and plunging himself head on into worldly distractions. The Qur’an depicts life as a being like a commerce or business transaction (tijarah) in the following verse:O believers! Shall I show you a commerce that will save you from a painful torment? That you believe in Allah and His Messenger, and strive for the cause of Allah with your wealth and your lives. That is better for you, if you but knew. [61:11] If life’s metaphor is a series of business transactions, man, by attending solely to his material gains, shall lose. For when he comes to tally up his account at day’s end, it will not show a profit; but only a spiritual loss – not so those possessed of the following four qualities: Except those who believe with true and sincere conviction in Allah’s Divinity (ilahiyyah) and Oneness (wahdaniyyah), and in what was revealed to His Final Prophet, peace be upon him; and perform righteous deeds, those conforming to the Sacred Law (shari‘ah) and sincerely done seeking His good pleasure and acceptance; be they obligatory acts (fara’id) or recommended ones (mustahabbat); or be they rights related to Allah (huquq Allah) or those connected with others (huquq al-‘ibad). Some exegetists point out that these two qualities relate to an individual’s piety and perfection.5 The other two of the four qualities that exempt one from loss: and enjoin one another to [follow] the truth in terms of Allah’s tawhid and all other revealed realities, as well as any other firmly established matter, the truth of which cannot be denied; and enjoin one another to patience, in terms of Allah’s worship and obedience and, given that the majority of the commentators hold that this surah was revealed in Makkah, patience in terms of the insults, abuse and harms Muslim minorities will have to endure from hostile, offensive or unsympathetic non-Muslims.6 If the first two qualities speak of bettering the individual, these last two bespeak of the duty to help better others.7 So this surah insists we partake in the necessary salvation of our own soul, as well as the much needed healing of society’s soul.

Given this surah’s comprehensive message and mandate, it is no wonder that Imam al-Shafi‘i said about it: law tadab-

bur al-nas hadhihi’l-surah la was‘athum – ‘If people were to ponder over just this surah, it would suffice them.’8 Moreover, the surah’s invitation to faith; action; spreading and standing up for truth; and being patient and steadfast in this, became a motto of sorts among the Prophet’s Companions. One report states: ‘Whenever two of the Prophet’s Companions would meet, they’d not part company until one had recited to the other: By Time! Verily man is in [a state of] loss. Then they would give salams to each other [and part].’9 Theological Perspective: ‘Time and tide wait for no man,’ said Chaucer. Shakespeare wrote in one of his Sonnets about how ‘Time’s fell hand’ eventually brings to ruin even the hugest of buildings and boastful of monuments. We speak about taking time out, wasting time, loosing track of time, time whizzing past, time being of the essence, or of experiencing time; and so on. We all have an idea about time.

But ask someone to explain what time actually is … well that’s another matter.

We experience time as a long string of moments that flows from the past, through the present and into the future. Or wanting to be on a more secure footing, time is simply the measure of the duration for processes or events to occur, and the interval between them (measured in seconds, or any other suitable units). By the time Newton gave us the laws of gravity and motion, time was understood to be something absolute, true, universal and flowed at a constant rate, independent of all else. For a while, his laws and notion of time formed the basis for our whole understanding of the universe. But by the beginning of the 20th century, and because Newton’s laws couldn’t account for the peculiar nature and motion of light, a new and deeper understanding of light and time was needed. Enter Albert Einstein.

Essentially, what Einstein showed in his Theory of Relativity was that objects travelling at high speeds experience time slower than objects at rest. This is called time dilation; and it has been conclusively proven experimentally. In particle accelerators, certain subatomic particles have a longer lifespan when travelling at speeds close to the speed of light than they do when they’re travelling much slower or are at rest; atomic clocks in planes run slower than their counterparts down on

the ground; and GPS satellites have to be constantly recalibrated for time dilation.

Time, according to the insights of Einstein, isn’t constant or uniform; instead it depends on where you are and how you move relative to others.

Now when Allah swears By Time, He doesn’t require us to have a scientist’s take on time, or that of a philosopher’s. Rather, the oath is taken to impress on us to see time unfold through the eyes of faith.

In other words, to infer from the events of our lives; and from life’s lessons; and from the world in which this all takes place, Allah’s power, knowledge, beauty and wisdom. Our lives, and our world, point to something beyond themselves; to the divine glory and greatness: that you may know He has power over all things and that He encompasses everything in knowledge. [65:12] In a rather intriguing hadith, the Prophet, peace be upon him, was once occasioned to say: la tasubbu’ldahr fa inna’Llaha huwa’l-dahr – ‘Do not curse time, for indeed Allah is time.’10 According to al-Munawi, some Arabs had a habit of cursing time whenever something disagreeable occurred or would unexpectedly go wrong. To put and end to such reviling is what occasioned the above warning.11 For to revile time; to implore blessings or barakah be removed from it, would be tantamount to shooting oneself in the foot … repeatedly!

Imam al-Nawawi filled in further detail for us in his commentary to the hadith which says that Allah is time. He wrote: ‘The scholars say that this is a metaphor.

The reason being is that it was the custom of the Arabs to revile time whenever some misfortune occurred; such as death, senility, or loss of wealth, etc. They would say: ‘woe to time!’ or other phrases that cursed or inveighed against time. So the Prophet, peace be upon him, said: ‘Do not curse time, for indeed Allah is time.’ Meaning, do not revile He who makes these things happen. For your inveighing against time is actually cursing Allah, since He it is that brings about these misfortunes and sends them down. As for time, it is only a period of duration (zaman) that cannot do anything in or of itself. Rather, it is just one of so many things created by Allah, exalted is He.’12......Note: for more detials visit at Source: The Humble “I” https://muslimvillage.com/

Prayer Schedule in Greater Vancouver Jan 14-28, 2022, Jamadi ul II 11-25,1443H Isl. Dt. Day Date Fajar

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thus Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thus Fri

Sunr

Zawal Dhuhr Dhur Asar Shafi / Asar Hanfi Maghrib

Isha

For such Prayers are enjoined on believers at stated times: Quran ,n 4:103 Source: BCMA

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Jamadi ul II 11,1443 January 14, 2021

E d i t o r i a l

Foresight can make the difference between life and death when it comes to weather conditions By: Khadija Naseer

E

Miracle’s Editorial Board Member

very aspect of Canadians’ lives are affected by the coming and going season of winter and here in the Lower Mainland, we’re famous for the amount of snow we get.

But as winters get harsher and colder, it’s important to take proper precautions to keep us all safe.

Some preparation in advance can go a long way to help you stay safe during wintry conditions.

Wearing winter gear is always recommended. Dressing in your layers will keep you warm and protected from wind, water, and snow forecasts and to avoid frostbite, cover exposed skin as much as possible. This means to wear outerwear

such as hats, scarves, and gloves on top of regular clothing such as sweaters, hoodies, and jackets.

With stormy weather, power outages are always a possibility so it’s important to be prepared for up to a week without power by developing an emergency plan and emergency kit for home.

Salt and shovel your driveways and sidewalks to avoid slipping and have your phones charged, flashlights at hand, and maybe even candles. This season, the government is also making sure to provide additional emergency shelter spaces for those experiencing homelessness or looking for safe, warm places to go.

Try to stay at home if the weather is bad but if ab-

solutely necessary, always make sure to check the forecast before heading out and ensure that your vehicles have a full tank of fuel, some sort of snow clearing tool, food and water, a first aid kit, and other emergency supplies. The public has also been advised that if stuck or stranded, to stay within their vehicle until roadside assistance can reach them.

Without taking more than you need, stock up on necessary items in case of a larger snow storm of some sort.

Food, grocery items, daily use materials, and gasoline are good to have stored in case it’s harder to get out when you need them.

In contrast, unpreparedness in Pakistan has lead to 92 total deaths so far. Heavy

snowfall, avalanches, and freezing temperatures have caused devastation across usually warm regions. In the hilltop town of Murree, 22 deaths and up to 1000 vehicles were stranded as people rushed to view the snowfall. Roads hadn’t been cleared and citizens weren’t wearing the proper clothing recommended for the weather.

Unfortunately, foresight can make the difference between life and death when it comes to weather conditions as dangerous as the ones that reach us.

That’s why it’s very important to stay up to date with forecasts and safety precautions.

Laysa Lil Insana illa ma’ sa’aa That man can have nothing but what he strives for.

When will Canada’s Omicron wave peak? What we know so far?

News Cont from Pg 1

information.”Projections on the website are similar for Toronto, Montreal and Halifax, where cases are also expected to drop in the coming weeks. B.C.’s top doctor says the COVID-19 peak there is a few weeks away.

“We may be entering soon into the place where we will see a decline,” Dr. Bonnie Henry said in an update Tuesday.

PEAK INDICATORS University of Toronto epidemiologist Colin Furness told CTVNews. ca it is difficult to know when a peak is happening until it has ac-

tually passed.

“You can only find the peak in the rear-view mirror. We can make some guesses based on modelling about when we expect peaks to happen. But really, you don’t know until you’re past it,” Furness said in a telephone interview Wednesday. Furness said there are some signals, known as leading indicators, which can show when a peak is nearing. He says these factors include adequate testing, positivity rates, and wastewater analysis.

However, with recent changes to COVID-19 testing criteria across

the country, Furness says this indicator, as well as the positivity indicator, are skewed.

“If you say that only symptomatic people can get tested, your positive is going to go up. So you have to look very carefully if you want to interpret positivity as what changes if anything happens to the testing strategy, so that’s dicey,” he said. While wastewater sampling can be a good leading indicator, Furness says the technique is still new and caution has to be taken on how the data is interpreted.“When people are very sick, are they excreting

a large amount of virus so it can look like there’s more or could we confuse two really sick people with 10 only very slightly sick people? There’s a lot we don’t really know about wastewater testing,” he said. Furness noted that modelling data in December showed that the peak of this wave was expected to hit mid-January.

With this in mind, Furness said Canada is likely close to reaching the peak of the Omicron wave.

However, he said it is important to remember that models are just estimates.....

Source: ctvnews.ca

PM reviews Pakistan’s ‘gas situation’, asks officials to fast-track licences......

Cont. from Pg 1

ue to remain trapped in several feet of snow. The toll was later confirmed by Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed in a statement on Saturday night. The minister said that the situation can only be described as a “natural calamity” and that the area had witnessed “extreme snowfall”.

The cars were prevented from moving on to Murree, people began proceeding there on foot, and they too were stopped, he said.

The minister said that the deaths were caused due to “suffocation”.

The prime minister’s aide on political communication Shahbaz Gill said people left their cars on the roads to seek shelter in hotels when it began to snow heavily which resulted in hampering the flow of traffic.“The administration remains active and is trying its utmost to ensure all roads are clear for traffic,” he said.Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said unprecedented snowfall cou-

pled with a record influx of tourists made it next to impossible the local administration to handle the situation.He said the process of evacuating people from the affected areas was underway and the entire nation mourned the loss of precious human lives. It was obvious that such a huge influx of people could not be managed easily, he said.

The Punjab Police on Sunday said that more than 500 families in the calamity-hit Murree were rescued and taken to safety in the

last 24 hours. Heavy snowfall on Murree’s main highways caused 20 to 25 large trees to fall which had blocked roads. All tourists were rescued before nightfall and taken to safe places, said Punjab Police spokesperson. Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar will visit the snow-affected regions of Murree on Sunday after the area was declared calamity-stricken, The Express Tribune reported.

Source: business-standard.com/

France orders mosque closed after ‘unacceptable’ preaching Cont. from Pg 1 As workers and small businesses and people across the country face renewed uncertainty and with new lockdowns, rising case counts, and the Omicron variant, we continue to know what the best thing for our economy is to support our workers and busi-

nesses through this pandemic,” said Ng. The government is also extending the repayment deadline for the partial forgiveness for what Ng called the “CEBA-equivalent lending” provided through the Regional Relief and Recovery Fund to Dec. 21, 2023.

“We’ve heard from businesses

that they’re looking for this flexibility, and that’s what today’s announcement is about. This additional year will help businesses get that flexibility to work together through this pandemic, to the end of this pandemic.”

Outstanding loans after the new deadline will be converted to two-year term loans with a five

per cent interest rate, starting on Jan. 1, 2024, with the loans due in full by Dec. 31, 2025.

While applications closed for these loans in mid-2021, since its launch 898,254 businesses have been approved for these loans, totalling $49.17 billion in federal assistance.

Source: ctvnews.ca

THE

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Contents

Pak/Can. News Ediorial/Opinion Faith

5 6 3 Int.News /M.East 9 Locals 7,9,11 Politics 8 Sports 16 Health 10 Women 15 Youth 15 Pakistan/ 16 Urdu 17-24

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Letters to the editor and Articles do not reflect the opinion of the Miracle media group. We do not publish anonymous letters or the letters of the people who do not disclose their identity to ‘The Miracle.’ A writer can use a pen name or request ‘The Miracle’ to withhold his / her identity. Please include your daytime telephone number for the confirmation of your letter.

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5

Jamadi ul II 11,1443 January 14, 2021

canada/PAKISTAN

Canada has enough vaccines for all Ca- Govt bringing ‘tsunami of taxes’ through nadians to get fourth dose, Trudeau says mini-budget, says Bilawal in NA speech

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday the government has secured enough COVID-19 vaccine doses for all eligible Canadians to receive a booster as well as

a fourth dose, according a statement from Trudeau’s office. Trudeau made the comments in a call with Canada’s provincial and territorial premiers, as the country grapples with rising infection and hospitalization rates due to the highly infectious Omicron variant. Trudeau said the government also plans to deliver 140 million rapid COVID-18 tests to provinces and territories in January, according to the statement.

This month, Canada broke its one-day record for the highest number of people hospitalized with COVID-19. Last Friday, officials said new daily cases had soared by 65% in the previous week, threatening healthcare systems.

Official data show that as of Dec. 18, 87.3% of Canadians aged 12 and older had received two shots while the figure for children aged 5 to 12 was just 1.3%.. Source: ctvnews.ca/

‘Now is not the time to get injured’: Front-line workers warn B.C. hospitals precariously understaffed On the same day the health minister announced plans are underway to establish a field hospital, front-line health-care workers are baffled at how the province will staff the facility when B.C.’s existing hospitals are already critically understaffed.

Last week, Health Emergency Management B.C. wrote in an internal memo obtained by CTV News that Vancouver General Hospital is facing “critical staffing shortages due to staff becoming ill through community exposure” of COVID-19. But now, dozens of health-care workers are speaking up to say the entire hospital system is precariously short-staffed.

Nurses and doctors working in various wards and capacities expressed frustration, exhaustion and despair at the situation; being reassigned to units where they have little to no experience, 12-hour and double shifts without enough time to use the bathroom or eat, barrages of text messages pressuring them to pick up more overtime shifts, feeling abandoned by managers they feel don’t recognize the intense mental and physical

strain they’re under every day.

The biggest concern is the ability to deliver adequate patient care while tending to double or triple as many patients as their training and guidelines require them to. Several people described the working conditions as unsustainable for staff and “dangerous” for patients. One doctor bluntly warned the public, “Now is not the time to get injured,” whether it’s taking risks like speeding or engaging in high-impact sports, because B.C.’s health-care system is already tenuous.

Source: bc.ctvnews.ca

TORONTO -- The Omicron-driven surge in COVID-19 infections is worsening the shortage of nurses at Canadian hospitals.

But there are thousands of internationally trained nurses who say they can ease the strain on the health-care system if they are given the chance to work. “We can help.

Like, come on guys. We’re here. And we’ve been trained and been working for so many years. We just hope that they could consider us,” Antonette Licuanan told CTV News.

Licuanan was a nurse in the Philippines for seven years before moving to Ontario, but she can’t work as a nurse until she completes a lengthy, complex and expensive certification process. ”Every country, they have different standards. But at (the same time) …

I know for a fact how hard it is for all the health care teams in the whole world,” she said. There’s good news for some internationally trained nurses in Ontario. The prov-

ince on Tuesday announced that 1,200 of these nurses will be matched with hospitals and long-term care homes to deal with immediate staffing shortages.

But some nurses, even after acquiring the appropriate certification, still can’t practice due to immigration processing delays.

Karla Ducusin is a registered nurse in Ontario and previously worked as a nurse in the Philippines for four years. But even though she has the right credentials, she’s still waiting on immigration officials to process her permanent residency application, which she submitted in October 2020.

“It’s very, very frustrating, honestly. I see the news, I read in articles that nurses are burned out. Nurses are tired. They’re exhausted from working overtime,” she told CTV News. “We are here. We can help.” Ducusin had worked hard to get her nursing credentials in Ontario, a process that depleted all of her savings. But pandemic-related delays in immigration processing have continued to leave her in limbo. “With immigration documents, I don’t have it. I’m just left out. It feels like my life is put on hold. I’m just waiting and waiting and nothing’s happening. It’s very frustrating,” she said.The shortage of nurses was an issue prior to the pandemic. But the rise of the Omicron variant has led to a surge of infections among nurses, who would have to isolate and be unable to work. .........Source:aljazera.com

PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari lashed out at the PTI government in the National Assembly on Wednesday, saying it was bringing a “tsunami of taxes” through the mini-budget.The government is seeking the approval of the finance supplementary bill, generally known as the mini-budget, while the opposition has vowed to resist it.

The approval of the finance supplementary bill seeking to amend certain laws related to taxes and duties and the State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill 2021 is necessary to ensure that Pakistan’s sixth review of the $6 billion Extended Fund Facility gets cleared by the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) executive board to take a decision on the disbursement of about $1bn tranche.

Speaking on the floor of the NA, Bilawal said that the burden of the PTI government’s agreement with the IMF would fall on the common man, warning that it would lead to “economic slaughter” across the country.

He also criticised the government over the SBP bill, which was approved by a National Assembly panel on Monday, saying that the IMF had demanded the central bank’s autonomy during the eras of PPP and PML-N as well but neither party had agreed.

He said Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif had talked about a national dialogue on the country’s economy but the government refused because of its “stubbornness”.

“The people of Pakistan can see what happens as a result of your decisions,” the PPP leader said. Bilawal said the government could have used the opposition’s rigidity on the matter to inform the IMF of its inability to accept its demands. “But because of your stubbornness and ego, you took decisions that are a robbery of the common man’s pockets,” he lambasted.

He said the government was presenting a new budget with a new finance minister .....

Source: dawn.com

ISLAMABAD: A senior leader of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has been killed in eastern Afghanistan, a counterterrorism official said on Monday. The official identified the terrorist as Mufti Khalid Balti, also known as Mohammad Khorasani.

He was reportedly killed over the last weekend by unidentified gunmen in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. It appeared from some of the pictures circulating on social media that he was shot in the forehead. Specific details of the incident were not available.

A source separately claimed that Balti’s mutilated body was found in a sack.

Balti, who was in his late forties, remained TTP spokesman and the head of its media cell for some time after his predecessor Shahidullah Shahid left the group and joined the militant Islamic State group. Balti held the position for almost a year till his arrest in 2015 by the then Afghan government.

Mufti Khalid Balti was said to be planning terrorist attacks in Pakistan He had moved to Afghanistan after the start of Operation Zarb-i-Azb in 2014.

Many in the media confused Balti with the TTP’s current spokesman, who too holds the same alias of Mohammad Khorasani.

The TTP in a statement said that its current spokesman was alive. It further said that the wellbeing of Balti was being inquired.

Balti, who hailed from Gilgit-Baltistan’s Ganchhe district, however, was an important figure in the TTP hierarchy.

The official described him as a “vital core member” and “an active high-level terrorist commander”, who was busy planning terrorist activities in Pakistan.

He was said to be having contacts across the TTP hierarchy and was also involved the unification of the group’s splinter factions.

Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies Director Amir Rana told Dawn that investigations in last July’s attack on the bus of Chinese workers in Dassu revealed that Balti was linked to its planning. Mr Rana was, however, skeptical that Balti’s elimination would have any major impact on the terrorist group.

A security official said Balti was a regular visitor to Kabul since the Taliban assumed control of the war-ravaged country on Aug 15 last year. He said the terrorist was planning attacks in Pakistan.Source: dawn.com

ISLAMABAD: Holding the federal and Punjab governments directly responsible for the Murree tragedy, the opposition parties in the National Assembly on Monday rejected the inquiry committee formed by Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and called for constituting a judicial commission to fix responsibility, besides asking Prime Minister Imran Khan to step down over his alleged failure to protect the lives of innocent people at a distance merely two-hour drive from the capital.

The lower house of parliament on the opening day of its new session again saw the members from both sides indulging in a blame game over the Murree incident as Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, while responding to the opposition’s criticism, alleged that the previous rulers did nothing

for promotion of tourism and their focus remained on building “palaces” for themselves.When Leader of the Opposition and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal BhuttoZardari in their hard-hitting speeches demanded formation of a judicial commission, lone Awami National Party (ANP) MNA Amir Haider Hoti and Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) MNA Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali asked the speaker to form a bipartisan parliamentary committee comprising members from both houses of parliament to investigate the matter. It was on the opposition’s demand that Speaker Asad Qaiser suspended the whole agenda, which also included a debate on the controversial Finance (Supplementary) Bill 2021, generally known as mini-budget, in order to allow the members to have a debate on the last week’s tragic incident in which 23 people, including women and children, lost their lives in their stranded cars during heavy snowfall in and around the picturesque and famous hill station of Murree. ...Source: dawn.com

Senior TTP leader killed in Afghanistan: official

‘We can help’: Internationally trained nurses in Canada eager to work

Opposition in NA rejects Punjab govt body probing Murree tragedy

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Polish official fired after calling Holocaust law ‘stupid’

Diplomat for Jewish diaspora sacked for taking aim at Warsaw’s attempts to distance Poland from from WWII-era crimes against humanity.

A Polish diplomat charged with improving contacts with Jews worldwide has been fired after he criticised his own government’s approach to regulating Holocaust speech, the country’s foreign ministry said on Monday.

Jaroslaw Nowak, the plenipotentiary for contacts with the Jewish diaspora described a Holocaust speech law passed by his country’s governing party as “stupid,” in an interview last week with Jewish News, a weekly newspaper published in the United Kingdom. Nowak also said Poland should pass a law on property restitution, a statement implying further criticism of the ruling authorities, who recently passed a law cutting off the chances for restitution or compensation for those who had properties seized by the communists. Among those affected are Holocaust survivors and their heirs.

Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau fired Nowak on Saturday, the ministry spokesman, Lukasz Jasina, announced on Monday on Twitter. He did not give a reason.

The development came days after Poland

recalled its new ambassador to Prague after that diplomat criticised his own country in an interview – in that case, in relation to Poland’s approach to a dispute with the Czech Republic over a state-run coal mine.

Ambassador Miroslaw Jasinski spoke of “arrogance” on the Polish side, something the government spokesman called “extremely irresponsible”. Nowak’s dismissal followed him telling Jewish News that he believed legislation passed in 2018 seeking to ban certain statements about Poland and the Holocaust “is one of the stupidest amendments that was ever done by any law”.

The legislation sought to fight back against claims that Poland, a victim of Nazi Germany, bore responsibility for the Holocaust.

The law outraged Israel, where many felt it was an attempt to whitewash the fact that some Poles did kill Jews during the German occupation during World War II.The legislation originally called for prison terms of up to three years for falsely attributing German crimes to Poland. It was later amended to remove the criminal provisions.

Last year, Poland also approved a law that sharply restricted the rights to reclaim property seized by the country’s former communist regime, including Holocaust survivors and their families.That law also provoked a serious diplomatic dispute with Israel, which still remains unresolved.

Nowak said he believed that Poland will, at some point, “have to do something about” restitution.....Source:AP. aljazera.com

North Korea fires suspected ballistic missile, second in a week

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy raises sanctions on Russia in conversation with Trudeau

OTTAWA -- Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the West must be ready to impose further sanctions against Russia for its military buildup on his country’s eastern border. Zelenskyy delivered that message to Trudeau in a Tuesday morning telephone call, which came on the eve of a key meeting in Brussels between the 30-country NATO alliance and Russia. The meeting is aimed at defusing the ongoing tension between the West and the Kremlin as the Russian military is massing on Ukraine’s eastern border, stoking fears of an invasion Russia has called on NATO to guarantee it won’t expand eastward into Ukraine, a demand the alliance and Ukraine itself flatly reject.

Iran says won’t officially recognise Taliban after Tehran talks

Iran has been in constant contact with the Taliban since its August takeover, but has called for an inclusive government.

Tehran, Iran – Iran is still some time away from officially recognising the Taliban as the government of neighbouring Afghanistan, its foreign ministry says, after a meeting with the group in Tehran. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Sunday’s high-level talks with Taliban representatives were “positive”, but Iran is still “not at the point of officially recognising Taliban”.

“The current condition of Afghanistan is a major concern for the Islamic Republic of Iran and the visit of the Afghan delegation was within the framework of these concerns,” he added in a press conference on Monday.

The Taliban delegation, led by the group’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, met their Iranian counterparts led by Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian. It was the first such visit by a Taliban delegation since the group caused the collapse of the country’s Western-backed government amid the chaotic withdrawal of the United Statesled forces in August. Since the fall of Kabul, Iran’s official position has been that it will only recognise the Taliban if they manage to form an “inclusive” government. Iran and the Taliban have been in contact since, with special Iranian envoy Hassan Kazemi-Qomi

Launch was detected by Japan and South Korea and comes after six countries urged Pyongyang to end “destabilising” actions.

North Korea fired what may have been a ballistic missile on Tuesday morning, Japan and South Korea said, less than a week after Pyongyang tested what it said was a hypersonic weapon.“Our military detected a suspected ballistic missile fired by North Korea from land towards the East Sea at around 7.27am (22:27 GMT on Monday) today,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. South Korea’s Moon pledges final push for peace with North end of list The launch was also reported by Japan’s coast guard, which said the North had fired a “ballistic missile-like object”.

The projectile appeared to have landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the Kyodo news agency reported, citing government sources in Tokyo.

“That North Korea continues to launch missiles is extremely regrettable,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters. South Korea’s national security

council, which held an emergency meeting, expressed “strong regret” over the test, the presidential Blue House said. The latest launch comes after six countries, including the United States and Japan, urged nucleararmed North Korea to end “destabilising actions” ahead of a United Nations Security Council closed-door meeting to discuss last week’s test. France, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Albania also signed the statement.

“These actions increase the risk of miscalculation and escalation and pose a significant threat to regional stability,” Linda ThomasGreenfield, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, said in the statement on Monday.....Source: aljazera.com

European Medicines Agency chief says increase of immunity will accelerate shift, as WHO says half of Europe could get infected

by March.

Hello. Welcome to Al Jazeera’s COVID-19 live blog. I’m Ted Regencia and will be updating you over the next few hours on the latest developments in the pandemic. The European Medicines Agency, the region’s drug regulator, says the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant across the continent is pushing COV-

ID-19 towards being an endemic disease that humanity can live with.

“With the increase of immunity in population – and with Omicron, there will be a lot of natural immunity taking place on top of vaccination – we will be fast moving towards a scenario that will be closer to endemicity,” Marco Cavaleri, head of vaccine strategy at the Amsterdam-based regulator, told journal- Biden administration to channel more fundists on Tuesday. ing to humanitarian groups as millions of Other major developments: Afghans face extreme hunger.

The United Kingdom’s Education Secretary The United States will donate an extra Nadhim Zahawi told Sky News that the UK $308m in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, government is hopeful the country will be the White House has announced, bringing among the first in the world to “transition” the total of US aid for Afghanistan and Affrom pandemic to endemic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) pre- ghan refugees in the region to nearly $782m dicts more than half of the people in Europe since October.The aid will be channelled through the US Agency for International could catch Omicron by March.

The WHO has also said that repeating boost- Development (USAID) to humanitarian ers is not a good strategy against emerging organisations providing shelter, healthcare, variants of the virus, ...Source: dawn.com and emergency food aid, among other ser-

Omicron pushing COVID from pandemic to endemic: EU agency

“The position of Western countries in the dialogue with Russia must remain firm and decisive. It is necessary to be ready for the immediate introduction of a preventive package of sanctions against Russia to counter the Kremlin’s aggressive intentions,” the Ukraine foreign ministry quoted Zelenskyy as saying. He reiterated to Trudeau that the West should not back down to Moscow’s demands on curbing NATO expansion.

“No one but Ukraine and NATO should influence the process of our integration with the alliance,” Zelenskyy said.

According to a Canadian account of the phone cal, Trudeau “reaffirmed Canada’s steadfast support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and emphasized that any military incursion into Ukraine would have serious consequences, including co-ordinated sanctions “He emphasized the co-ordination underway between Ukraine’s partners in order to stand united in the face of Russian provocation. Zelenskyy also pushed Canada to extend its contribution of 200 military personnel to a NATO military training mission in Ukraine that is set to expire at the end of March........Source: aljazera.com

making several trips to Afghanistan in recent months.

Border clash ‘misunderstanding’

Prior to Sunday’s meeting, both sides said they wish to discuss political, economic, transit, and refugee issues.

According to an Iranian foreign ministry statement, Amirabdollahian criticised “wrong policies” by the United States and its allies in Afghanistan during the meeting, and said the US must lift its sanctions based on humanitarian grounds and to help the Afghan people and economy. He also promised that Iran will continue to send humanitarian aid to its neighbour, and said: “the efforts of the zealous people of Afghanistan showed that no foreign power can occupy Afghanistan and rule over its people”.....

Source: dawn.com

US to give additional $308m in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan

vices, White House spokesperson Emily Horne said in a statement on Tuesday.

In addition, the US will provide one million more coronavirus vaccine doses through the World Health Organization’s vaccine cooperative, COVAX, bringing its total contribution to Afghanistan to 4.3 million doses.

The move comes as the United Nations humanitarian agency on Tuesday said it needs nearly $5bn in aid for Afghanistan in 2022.

This includes $4.4bn for assistance within Afghanistan, and $623m to support the millions of Afghans sheltering beyond the country’s borders. More than half the population – about 22 million people – face acute hunger, the UN said, while a further 5.7 million displaced Afghans in five neighbouring countries needed vital relief this year.

“A full-blown humanitarian catastrophe looms. My message is urgent: don’t shut the door on the people of Afghanistan,” said UN Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths.

Source:aljazera.com

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Why should Justin Trudeau be entering his last full year as PM? Because it’s 2022 “Those who sexually assault children pose a clear danger to other children. No child, teacher, parent, or member of the general public, would feel that our school system is safe [if] such people were permitted to have any kind of teaching certificate,” read a sharp decision from the B.C. Teacher Regulation Branch.

Convicted in 2017

‘The message must be: You will never teach again,’ regulation branch said in decision against Alex Plehanov By:Rhianna Schmunk · CBC News A former substitute teacher in Coquitlam, B.C., has been banned from teaching for 25 years after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a friend’s six-year-old daughter.

The decision means Aleksandr (Alex) Plehanov, who is in his late 40s, will effectively not be allowed to teach in the province for the rest of his working life, since he will be in his 70s by the time the ban expires.

Plehanov was sentenced to six months in jail after being found guilty of sexually assaulting the girl in Surrey, B.C., in 2017.

During a trial in 2016, court heard Plehanov was with his friend and extended family on Easter Sunday when the girl tripped and fell as she was walking backward. The judgment said Plehanov caught her, then sexually assaulted her just outside her grandparents’ home.

The defence argued Plehanov had only touched the girl to stop her fall, but Justice Murray Block agreed with the Crown and found what happened wasn’t an accident.

The assault happened less than six months after Plehanov was acquitted of similar charges related to inappropriate touching

of elementary school students while he was conduct that [Plehanov] has not been deterred by previous disciplinary measures,” a teacher on call in the Coquitlam area. the decision read.

Plehanov’s response Plehanov hasn’t had a teaching certificate “There is no other penalty that the discisince 2014, when he lost his licence over plinary process under the Teachers Act can the first inappropriate touching allegations impose that will protect children from such behaviour in our school system.” made against him in 2010.

He hasn’t reapplied for certification since, In some cases, the teachers’ panel can rebut the branch held hearings in 2020 to de- duce the penalties it imposes if they find a cide whether he should be officially banned teacher has already been punished for their from trying again in wake of the criminal behaviour in another way. conviction.Plehanov did not file a response The panel said that was not the case for to the proceedings, the branch said, but Plehanov.“The Respondent has lost his job sent an email to a lawyer for the attorney and a serious criminal conviction and sengeneral’s office saying he had been “falsely tence (which is still in effect) will have had accused.”“Status of my teacher certifica- some effect on him.” tion is not my main concern right now,” he “These consequences are directly the inevitable and natural result of his own behavwrote in February 2020.

Double jeopardy leads to reinstatement of iour. To reduce a penalty in these circumB.C. teacher suspended and fired for kiss- stances is like the old story of the man who kills his parents and then asks the court to ing former student The panel ultimately found Plehanov’s have mercy on him, as he is an orphan.” crime was “at the far end of the spectrum Plehanov’s email said he planned to appeal of professional misconduct” and justified a his criminal conviction to the Supreme Court of Canada. His appeal in B.C. was 25-year teaching ban.

“It is clear from the prior history of mis- dismissed in 2019. Source: cbcnews.ca/

18-year-old identified as victim of targeted daytime shooting in Langley, B.C. IHIT says Julian Moya Cardenas was known to police, investigators are seeking tips he Lower Mainland’s homicide squad has identified 18-year-old Julian Moya Cardenas as the victim of a targeted shooting that took place in the Walnut Grove area of Langley on Friday. Investigators say he was known to police.

The shooting happened in a busy area of Langley, near the intersection of 88 Avenue and 202 Street, just before 2 p.m. PT.

Cardenas was found shot by first responders and died at the scene.

The victim of a shooting in Langley, B.C., on Jan. 7, 2022 was shot near the intersection of 88 Avenue and 202 Street, according to RCMP. (Shane Mackichan) ‘Reckless’ On Saturday the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) said that a bystander in the area at the time was also hit by stray bullets and was sent to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

“Our thoughts go out to the families of those impacted by this incident,” said Sergeant David Lee of IHIT in a release.

“The shooting was reckless and a complete disregard for the safety of the community.”

Homicide investigators are looking to speak with anyone with information about Cardenas’ activities and associates.

Source: cbc.ca

Could a new tax on homes worth $1M and up help fix Canada’s housing crisis?

Group says ‘modest’ tax could raise $5B a year to help pay for affordable housing With home prices in Canada’s most expensive markets going up at a dizzying pace, a Vancouver-based think-tank is proposing a new tax on homes valued at over $1 million to help bridge the affordability gap. Although Canada’s housing market went ice cold when the pandemic began in March 2020, it soon came roaring back and spent much of 2021 on fire. Average prices

changing hands.

The torrid pace has prompted fears of a painful comeuppance if the market goes off the rails, but so far none of the targeted solutions suggested so far — from taxes on vacant homes, flippers and foreign investors to an end to blind bidding — have managed to slow the runaway freight train where they’ve been tried.

New numbers this week from Canada’s

two most expensive housing markets, Toronto and Vancouver, show those market pushing further into the stratosphere.

The benchmark price for all types of housing in the GTA hit $1,208,000 last month, up by 31 per cent compared to a year earlier. Vancouver’s pace of increase was less torrid at 17 per cent but the overall figure was higher, at $1,230,200, across the region. Both figures are getting close to double the national average.

In both markets, single family homes for under $1 million are becoming unheard of, which is why Vancouver based think-tank Generation Squeeze used that figure as a baseline for an eyebrow-raising proposal this week: a new tax on homes worth $1 million and up.

The group is pitching a progressive tax that would kick in on homes valued at more

Another violent and targeted incident is under investigation in B.C.’s Lower Mainland, one of several reported in the region in just a matter of days.Mounties in Langley say they’re investigating a shooting that left a man with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound in his leg. In a news release, the detachment said the man was shot at or near the Good Knight Inn on 200 Street. The RCMP detachment did not say what time the shooting happened, but indicated through a request for security and dash-cam video that it was likely between 3 and 4 a.m. Tuesday.

They said the shooting is not believed to be tied to ongoing violence between local gangs, but that they believe it was targeted.

They did not provide a motive, and said no suspect has been identified. The RCMP said the 45-year-old victim, a resident of Langley, was known to Mounties, but did not

give information on what types of interactions he’s had with police in the past.

He has not been publicly identified.

Officers ask anyone with more information or video to contact investigators.

The Langley shooting was reported just hours after police in Burnaby responded to a targeted incident in that city.

Mounties are investigating a shooting Monday night that left another man in his 40s injured. They said they believe the victim knew the shooter or shooters, but that he is not co-operating with the investigation. Also in the Lower Mainland, a targeted shooting is under investigation in Abbotsford.The victim in that case is also in his 40s, and believed to have been targeted by his shooter during a fight at an apartment building.The shooting came just two days after a fatal stabbing in the city that left a man in his 40s

dead. As with the Burnaby and Langley cases, the victim was known to police, and his death is believed to have been targeted.

And on Sunday, homicide investigators were in Surrey for another incident – this time fatal.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team confirmed it was investigating the shooting, which appeared targeted.

Going back just a few more days, an 18-year-old was killed and another person injured in a targeted shooting in Langley on Friday. The deceased was known to po-

across the country rose to their highest level on record at more than $720,000 in November, and despite those high prices, the year smashed the annual sales record, too, with more than 630,000 homes

than $1 million, and get progressively larger on homes valued at $3 million and above. The group proposing it runs out of the University of British Columbia, but received some funding from Canada’s federal housing agency the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Though the tax would be calculated annually, it would be deferred until the home is sold, so it would function similar to a land transfer tax that many provinces and municipalities already levy. Paul Kershaw, a professor at the University of British Columbia who is one of the group’s founders, says more than 90 per cent of Canadians wouldn’t pay a single penny to the tax since it would only apply to those on the very top of the real estate ladder, most of whom are sitting on massive windfalls of currently non-taxable gains. Source: cbc.ca

lice as well. That shooting came a day after a woman was hospitalized following a stabbing in Surrey. Shots were fired at that scene, but were not the cause of her injuries, the RCMP said. Investigations are underway in all seven cases reported in the last five days. No information has been provided by police to suggest that any of the cases are related. Source: bc.ctvnews.ca

Shooting in Langley one of several targeted attacks in recent days

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MLA Harry Bains statement on running O’Toole: As extreme cold grips Canada, Trudeau Liberas Surrey Mayor als commit to phasing out Canadian energy in two years as an MLA & in cabinet. I am so incredibly

VICTORIA: “While I thank the people in the community who urged me to run for Mayor of Surrey in the next municipal election, I remain committed to the province and making a stronger BC through my work

humbled by the support from community members.

After much consideration, I believe the best way I can serve people in my Surrey community and people across BC is to continue to work hard to improve conditions for workers, improve services we rely on such as health & education, build a secure future & make life more affordable.

Again, I want to thank the community for continuing to put your trust and confidence in me. I could not be more honored to have received your encouragements.”

Thank you.

MLA Harry Bains Source: Dawn.com

Ottawa, ON – The Hon. Erin O’Toole, Leader of Canada’s Conservatives and the Official Opposition, issued the following statement on Trudeau’s Environment Minister stating that the Liberals want to phase out Canadian energy over the next two years: “Right now, during the coldest part of winter, Canadians are facing soaring heating and gasoline prices.“Canadians want to do their part to combat climate change, but Justin Trudeau has failed to provide them with low cost, widely available alternatives to high carbon products. He has also increased our reliance on foreign energy, offshoring goodpaying jobs to high carbon-emitting countries with poor governance on human rights and labour practices. “So when Trudeau’s Environment Minister says he wants to ban all oil and gas in two years, as was reported this week, he needs to answer how Canadians who are struggling to make ends meet are going to heat their homes, pay their bills, and get their kids to school.

“Instead of slogans from an out-of-touch activist Liberal Minister who has no real plan,

Canadians deserve a Conservative government that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and allow Canadians to prosper. Conservatives know that Canadian energy and the Canadians working in this industry are a big part of the solution to this challenge.

“As the voice of those left behind by Justin Trudeau, Canada’s Conservatives are focused on delivering a realistic plan that promotes economic prosperity and national unity by combating climate change without phasing out Canadian energy, offshoring our jobs, or destroying the Canadian economy.”

Source: Josie Sabatino CP

Ottawa, ON – The Hon. Michael Chong, Conservative Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, James Bezan, Deputy Opposition Whip, and Melissa Lantsman, Conservative Shadow Minister for Transport, today released the following statement on the government’s failure to take serious action against the Iranian regime for the downing of Flight PS752: “The Liberal government has steadfastly refused to assign full responsibility to the Iranian regime for its act of terrorism in the downing of Flight PS752. The Trudeau Liberals have also failed to take any meaningful action at the international level to demonstrate Canada’s horror and disgust at the missile strikes two years ago today which killed 138 individuals with ties to Canada.

“An Ontario court has found Iran guilty of this act of terrorism and awarded damages to the victims of $107 million. Those responsible for this attack must be held to account and the Liberal government has a responsibility to assist the victims’ families in seeking justice.“Conservatives have called for Magnitsky sanctions to be imposed on those re-

sponsible in the Iranian regime if they failed to cooperate with the investigation. Iran’s refusal to negotiate compensation for the victims makes it clear the Liberal government must use every tool available domestically and internationally.

“Conservatives also call on the Liberal government to begin discussions with the International Civil Aviation Organization to limit Iran’s ability to operate commercial aircraft in international airspace until they agree to abide by international norms in the investigation into the downing of PS752 and negotiate reparations to the families of the victims.” Source: Office of the Hon. Michael Chong, P.C., M.P.

Conservatives Call on Trudeau Liberals to Take Action on Behalf of Victims of Flight PS752

NDP must expedite and expand support for businesses, cover sick pay and put a private sector jobs plan in place

KAMLOOPS – As the labour shortage intensifies in B.C. amid the Omicron surge, the BC Liberals are calling on the NDP government to expedite and expand support for businesses, cover sick pay costs, and most importantly, come up with a long-term private sector​ -led jobs plan as today’s Labour Force Survey

results indicate B.C. lost 20,200 private sector jobs in December, in comparison to the 12,750 jobs gained in the public sector.

“There can be no sustainable economic recovery in B.C. without a private sector jobs plan and today’s jobs numbers do not capture Omicron-related impacts to the labour market,” said Todd Stone, BC Liberal Critic for Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation.

“It’s incomprehensible why the NDP doesn’t have a plan while businesses were told to expect one third of their staff to remain home

sick from Omicron, on top of the already severe labour shortage. The result of this could be catastrophic for small businesses, that were promised a COVID-19 Closure Relief Grant program in December, but still haven’t seen the opening of the application two weeks later. Why such a delay? The government must also expand eligibility of this program to help the many more businesses barely hanging on, like the events sector, event planners, caterers, and travel agents.”

As well, Stone urges the Premier to keep his

WASHINGTON: Dow graduate Dr Mohammad Mohiuddin’s groundbreaking research led to the first pig-to-human heart transplant in history and the heart is now beating normally in the body of a 57-year-old recipient, David Bennet Sr. Doctors at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSM) said Mr Bennet had a lifethreatening heart disease but did not specify his illness.“We are all very excited to see this pig heart beating in this human. This pig heart has performed very well so far. Even beyond our expectations, since we have not seen any signs of rejection,” said Dr Mohiuddin in an interview released by the UMSM.Doctors and surgeons at

the UMSM told The New York Times (NYT) that the eight-hour operation took place in Baltimore on Friday, and the patient, a Maryland resident, was doing well on Monday.“It creates the pulse, it creates the pressure, it is his heart,” said Dr Bartley Griffith, the director of the cardiac transplant programme at the medical centre, who performed the operation.“It’s working and it looks normal. We are thrilled, but we don’t know what tomorrow will bring us. This has never been done before,” he told the NYT.“It is the first successful transplant of a pig’s heart into a human being,” the newspaper noted. “The breakthrough may one day lead to new supplies of animal organs for transplant

into human patients.”Dr Mohiuddin is the director of the university’s xeno­transplant programme.

Taking a tissue or organ from a donor of a species and planting it in the body of another species is called xenotransplant or xenografting.“We have modified ten genes in this pig heart, knocking out four genes. Three of those responsible for producing antibodies that cause rejection,” he explained.

“And one gene was knocked out to control the growth of pig and its organs.”

Dr Mohiuddin said that hundreds of thousands of people across the globe needed organs and “unfortunately, like this patient, may not qualify for a transplant”.............Source: dawn.com

promise not to download the costs of employee sick days on to businesses.

“Nobody should be forced to choose between going to work sick or losing wages, but asking employers to cover the additional costs at the worst wave of the pandemic is not what the Premier promised,” added Stone. “John Horgan’s government needs to cover sick pay costs until the end of the pandemic and not further burden already struggling small businesses.” Source: BC Liberal Caucus Communications

Pakistani’s research leads to first pig-to-human heart transplant

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Back to school: More B.C. students return to class after 1-week delay over COVID-19

SURREY, B.C. - Students are heading back to school in B.C. Monday, after a one-week delay caused by the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Many parents, however, say they’re are struggling with the decision, unconvinced that enough measures are in place to protect their kids from getting sick.“I think it’s going to be

one of the moments where we look back on and say, my government told me it was safe and I had no idea what might happen,” said Mollie Kaye, a parent from Victoria.

Kaye is not sending her daughter back to class this week, and she’s not alone.

Attendance is expected to be down as some parents wait and see what impact the return to school will have on COVID-19 case counts.

B.C. is one of only four provinces and territories continuing in-person learning; the rest of the country has gone virtual.“Here is what is bewildering to me. The technology for remote learning has been there for two decades. So why are we acting like it’s this thing that’s not beneficial even if there weren’t a pandemic,” questioned Kaye. Community transmission is at an all-time high in B.C. One COVID-19 modelling group has predicted a quarter of a million people in the province have the virus. On Friday, B.C.’s top

doctor announced new safety measures for schools including staggered breaks, virtual assemblies, and a three-layer mask requirement.

But teachers say more needs to be done.

They’d like to see proper PPE for staff, more vaccinations, and better air ventilation.

The province says it has improved air quality in classrooms and that more rapid tests are coming to school districts this week for those showing symptoms.“We can make schools absolutely safe and right now they’re not,” said Lizanne Foster, a Surrey teacher and elected member of the Surrey Teachers Association.

Foster also has concerns about exemptions to the current mask mandate.

“Lots of parents have been using those exemptions so you have students coming into class who are refusing to wear a mask, which puts the teachers in an invidious position because they are aware of you know, they themselves or their colleagues might be medically vulner-

able. They might be medically vulnerable students in the class, who are now not protected,” said Foster. Student or staff members who develop symptoms at school will be given a mask and will be separated from their classmates or colleagues.They’ll then be sent home as soon as possible and staff will disinfect areas they used. The province has warned there may be functional closures due to staff illness and that COVID-19 exposure notices will no longer be sent unless there are significant dips in attendance. Staff and students at post-secondary schools will be returning to in-person classes on Monday as well. That includes BCIT, despite an online petition signed by thousands of students, calling for a delay in-person learning due to surging case counts.

Other post-secondary institutions like Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia have already moved most classes online. Source: bctvnews.ca/

Saskatoon man creates speech-to-text mask to combat muffled conversations A Saskatoon man is pursuing a project he expects could help people, especially those who are hard of hearing, communicate while masked. Brian Kendall described it as a cloth mask “with [a small] LED screen built in … and we use speech-to-text and then send it Bluetooth” to the mask’s screen. It’s powered by a lithium battery. He’s developed a prototype, but it’s slower than the final product he plans to produce. He expects his final product will display the words instantly as you speak them on either a mask or hat.

“I don’t think the plexiglass or the masks are going away anytime soon, I think we’re going to wear them for a while,” he said.

“It’s not just about masks, it’s about an easier way to communicate for people hard of

hearing, hearing loss and deaf people.”

Kendall said his previous entrepreneurial endeavours were affected by COVID-19 restrictions, so he pivoted to solving a pandemic problem.“I take care of my dad at a care home and I noticed a lot of the older people were having a hard time hearing through plexiglass masks,” Kendall said.

Kendall said his father, who has dementia, would have difficulty hearing during their conversations, but could more easily read words.He considered a microphone that would amplify voices, but found that would be too noisy. Then, while Kendall was scouting Kickstarter, he saw a mask that would display a smile as the person spoke.

“What if I could make my voice seen on this

screen?” he said.He got to work on his idea in March. He’s been finding suppliers and testing computer chips to make it an affordable piece of attire, he said.

“I don’t have a big factory or anything like that, it’s more self-done in just my home office [doing] what everybody had to do. We all had to go home and find a way to bring our products to life,” Kendall said.

He had nearly finished a version of his product, but found another computer chip that would allow him to make similar products like wearable badges and desk signs. If his final version takes off, he believes people could get their hands on them as soon as February. Brian Kendall is the head of VoiceSource: ca.style.yahoo.com Viewer, which uses talk-to-text to

display speech on the front of a mask.

7-year-old from Delta, B.C., successfully lobbies for crosswalk after little brother’s close call

VANCOUVER - A young girl in Delta, B.C., has proven that age is just a number when it comes to creating change in your community. Arianna Dieleman was just six years old when her younger brother was almost struck by a vehicle on Central Avenue in the fall of 2020. It happened on the stretch of the road that sits between Lions Park and Trenant Park Square Shopping Mall, a busy crossing spot for pedestrians. “I asked my grandma can I do anything about it, and she suggested a petition for a crosswalk,” Dieleman said.

After receiving several signatures from neigh-

bours, it was time to pen a letter to city hall.

“Dear town council, I think we need a crosswalk by Lions Park to the stores, there’s lot’s of people there and it is a busy road and it’s hard to see around the corner, Arianna Dieleman,” it read. “We get letters and petitions all the time as a council, it’s pretty unusual to get one from a six year old,” said Delta City Councillor, Dylan Krugar. A letter from an unusual source, but one Krugar says certainly had merit. “We referred this letter to our transportation technical committee, they studied the issue, and said ‘Yes there is a need here, there

Homicide investigators called to Surrey, police incident leads to lengthy road closures

SURREY, B.C. - Homicide investigators were called to a Surrey neighbourhood following a police incident that has led to lengthy road closures.Mounties said they went to 84 Avenue near King George Boulevard. just before 6 p.m. Sunday after a man was found dead inside a home. “Initial evidence suggests that a shooting occurred at the residence in the morning, but went unreported until the victim was located,” Mounties said in a news release. Indergit Kainth lives next door and told CTV News a husband and wife in their mid-sixties lived at the home for many years, and that they were nice people.“His name is Brian. He’s a good guy. His wife is also good.

Very, very sad,” said Kainth.

Video taken near the scene Sunday showed a long line of police cars and a home behind police tape, terrifying neighbours and catching them off guard. “We thought the area we came from had a lot more people and a lot more crime. We thought we were moving into a more suitable area for families and growth,” said Abigail Bhattacharya, who lives nearby.

“I’d like to know what’s happening in our city, with all the changes that are happening and all the drugs all the time. I am very worried.”

Police said traffic would be shut down in the area “for a significant amount of time” while the investigation was underway. The road was still blocked Monday afternoon.Not many additional details were provided by police, but the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team confirmed to CTV News Vancouver that it was called in and that one person had died.

While the sirens were loud on Sunday night, neighbours say they did not hear any gunshots from the home. Source:bc.ctvnews.ca

is a safety concern,’” Krugar said.

Council approved the crosswalk shortly after, and this past December, installation was completed.“It makes me feel proud and confident, now I know I can do things that I didn’t have the courage to do before,” said Dieleman, who will turn eight on Tuesday.“I know it inspired us here at Delta council and I hope it inspires other young people to get involved,” Krugar said.“2040 I’ll be voting Arianna for mayor.” Source:bc.ctvnews.ca

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h e a l t h

Think you may have Omicron? Here are things you can do

By: Andrea Bellemare and Vik Adhopia determine if you have COVID — and that’s Symptoms to watch for and when to seek if you meet the criteria. Rapid antigen tests hospital care. may be just as hard to find. If you have the symptoms of an upper respiratory tract infection, “right now the chances that it’s Omicron are very, very high,” said Oughton.

Those symptoms include sore throat, runny nose, aches and pains, a dry cough, fever, nausea and diarrhea. Oughton noted that he is seeing fewer people who experience a loss of taste or smell with Omicron as compared to previous variants, although it is still happening to some. ome symptoms of Omicron infection For many people who have two or three include fever, dry cough, runny nose, doses of a COVID vaccine and who get aches and pains, nausea and diarrhea. Omicron, they’ll find their symptoms can You may not lose your sense of taste or be managed at home. Dr. Erin O’Connor smell with this variant, however, according says to drink plenty of fluids, and stay to infectious diseases specialist Dr. Matthew warm inside.

Oughton.

If you do have access to a rapid test, test The Omicron variant is so transmissible and yourself a day or so after a suspected exposo widespread across Canada that it’s likely sure, and don’t assume that your negative that you know someone who has it right result means you’re in the clear. now, or you have it yourself.

“Especially if you have compatible sympThe variant is shattering case records and toms, take a negative result with not just one sending test positivity rates soaring. As of grain of salt, but with maybe a whole truckThursday, Ontario’s COVID-19 test posi- load of salt,” said Oughton. tivity rate is 29.2 per cent, while Quebec’s If someone else in your household has testhealth minister said the health-care system ed positive or has symptoms, it’s probably is missing about 20,000 workers who have safe to assume you do, too. been infected with or exposed to the virus. “What we’re seeing with … pretty early “I think that people [are] having a very hard data is household attack rates are very, very time wrapping their head around how much high with Omicron, even compared to other that Omicron has changed the rules of the variants of SARS-CoV-2, and that was algame and how we have to change how we ready fairly high,” said Oughton. handle it in terms of our own individual How to treat COVID-19 at home risks, as well as our behaviour within a society,” said Dr. Matthew Oughton, in an interview with Dr. Brian Goldman, host of CBC podcast The Dose.

The incubation period for Omicron is shorter compared to previous variants, and is about three days, says Oughton, an infectious diseases specialist at Jewish General Hospital in Montreal.

Rules and guidance around what to do are changing rapidly, but there are a few key If you can, it’s important to get vaccinated or boosted. things you need to know right now.

How to know if you have Omicron?

For healthy people with two or three doses In many parts of Canada, it can be extreme- of vaccine the symptoms are fairly mild ly difficult to get access to PCR testing to and tend to be over within a few days from when people tested positive, says Dr. Erin O’Connor. She’s the deputy medical director of the emergency departments at the University Health Network in Toronto.

“Many patients we’re seeing are actually testing positive before they have symptoms, so they’re testing positive on a rapid antigen,” she said. Those patients go on to develop symptoms two or three days later, and then often find their symptoms start improv-

S

ing three or four days after that.

How to treat Omicron at home

If you know or think you’ve got Omicron, stay home. If you can, isolate from the rest of your household. “If you have the luxury of a living arrangement where you can have your own sleeping quarters and bathroom and ideally, sort of a sectioned off area of the house, I guess that’s ideal,” said Oughton.

“But of course, that’s really not the reality for many, maybe even most Canadians who are facing this.”

So, he recommends masking at home, and opening windows to improve ventilation when you can, to help limit transmission.

Oughton is mindful many places across Canada may be experiencing cold weather, so open windows may be a limited solution.

It can be difficult to isolate in your home if you live with others, so if you know or suspect you have Omicron, you should mask inside.

Stay warm and drink plenty of liquids, says Dr. O’Connor. She recommends taking ibuprofen (also known by the brand name Advil) or acetaminophen (also known as Tylenol), or cold and flu medication that includes those painkillers. Be sure to check with your pharmacist if you are taking other medications that those painkillers might interfere with. “At the moment, we don’t have medications that we can prescribe that someone can take at home. For those patients with asthma who are having a wheeze with this, we may prescribe puffers for them to help out,” she said.

O’Connor says that some people with greater medical risk are being sent home from UHN hospitals with home oxygen monitors, also known as pulse oximeters. She notes they can also be purchased online.

The device monitors blood oxygen levels.

Most people will have a saturation of between 97 and 100 per cent, she says.

“It can drop a little bit lower than that and still be safe. But at 92 per cent, we’d be wanting you to come in for further examination,” she said.

head to the hospital.

Very sick patients often feel short of breath, says Dr. Lisa Salamon, an emergency physician with Scarborough Health Network in Toronto.“Sometimes they don’t realize how short of breath they are until it’s too late, particularly in younger patients,” she said.

“It was really surprising, a lot of these sick patients that I was seeing, their oxygen saturations were extremely low and they just realized how short of breath they were when they came in.”

People who experience severe shortness of breath and chest pains should seek medical care, says Dr. Matthew Oughton.

Dr. Oughton says other warning signs include persistent fever that lasts at least two days, if not more, and heart palpitations.

“If your heart [is] missing beats or skipping beats or if your heart’s really racing, those would be the other warning signs that really should be taken very seriously,” he said.

O’Connor says that many emergency departments across Canada are offering virtual consultations, and she suggests people try that first before coming to hospital.

“If you do have the option, please use the virtual ED type of models to speak to a provider who can give you some advice about whether you need to head in or not,” she said.

Salamon also noted it’s important for people who are seriously ill with COVID, or another medical condition, to seek care at the hospital without hesitation.

“People have to understand, if they feel sick, we don’t want them not coming to the emergency department because they’re scared. We want them to seek the appropriate medical care,” she said.

How to choose a mask that protects

If you’re still wearing a single-ply cloth mask, it won’t offer you enough protection and it’s time to search out something better.

The best masks are N95s or equivalents, such as Canadian-made FN95 masks, as well as KN95s and KF94s.

Oughton cautions that the U.S. Centers When you should seek hospital care for Disease Control recently warned about Severe chest pains and worsening or severe counterfeit respirators, like N95 masks, and shortness of breath are signs you should says he wouldn’t be surprised if Canadians experience the same problems.

Marketplace also found some N95s held up better than others in testing.

In the meantime, you can adapt existing masks for better protection to filter particles in the environment.

“If you use the cloth mask as an overlay over top of a surgical mask or a medical mask ... that sort of improves the quality of the fit on your face,” said Oughton.Source: cbc.ca/

B.C.’s rapid tests sit in storage as severe testing delays plague provinc

T

PRINCE GEORGE he BC Liberals are calling on the NDP to develop a detailed plan to utilize the new rapid tests coming from the federal government, as well as the more than one million tests that have been sitting in provincial government storage for months.

“The NDP government has failed British Columbians. The public, as well as the BC Liberal Caucus, have been calling for increased and broader use of rapid tests for over a year now and the NDP has made no progress on getting those tests, still sitting in boxes, into the hands of British Columbians,” said Interim Leader of the Official Opposition Shirley Bond. “With millions more test kits now on the way from Ottawa, it’s high time for this government to finally come up with a plan to get rapid tests in the hands of those who need it most.”

Despite 80 million rapid tests being sent out to provinces and territories by the federal government, and this week’s announcement of 140 million more coming from Ottawa

soon, British Columbia has failed throughout the entire pandemic to take advantage of these tests in the way that other jurisdictions have throughout Canada.

“I’ve been hearing from people across the province, anxious about Omicron, and in utter disbelief and frustration that they cannot access rapid tests like our fellow Canadians in other provinces,” added Bond. “With more rapid tests on the way, British Columbians expect to see specific details of the distribution and utilization plan for these tests.

The vast majority of people in our province have done everything they have been asked to do and more and they expect nothing less from their government. While rapid tests aren’t perfect, they should be considered an

important part of pandemic protection and we should be using every tool in the toolbox to keep people safe.”

While overall testing numbers in B.C. fall significantly short compared to other provinces, the Ministry of Health confirmed this week that more than a million rapid tests sent to B.C. from Ottawa still remain in storage. Source: BC Liberal Caucus. www. mail.google.com

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Jamadi ul II 11,1443 January 14, 2021

l oc a l

J. Masjid Aulia Allah & Fiji Islamic Centre held 17th Annual Eid-E-Milad-Un-Nabi Conference

O

n Jan 8, Islamic Association of Western Canada in association with Jamia Masjid Aulia Allah and Fiji Islamic Centre held their 17th Annual Eid-E-Milad-UnNabi Conference at Fiji Centre, Surrey.

After Isha Prayer, Br. Haider Ali Khan (MC) welcomed the Muslim community and started program with Tilawate-Quran by Saad Rasool and recitation of beautiful Naats by local Naat Khawans Saad Salis, Rayyan Ahmed Br. Muzamil Ahmed, Qari Hafiz Ameen Qadri, Br, Liaqat Ali, Syed Hassan Soharwardy and Br. Abdul Rasool Salis community.

Professor Imam Syed Badiuddin Soharwardy, who especially came from Calgary to attend this program started his

speech with the recitation of Sura Yunus and Surah Ad-Duha Ayats from Quran.

He spoke about the life and teachings of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and stressed the importance of following the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in our daily lives. He also highlighted the current society problems and told how to rid off by doing some good actions. Mr. Soharwardy then provided updated details of Jamia Masjid Aulia Allah Project.

He stressed all the community members to support this Project in every way possible and thanked who already serving by their physical and financial levels.

Br. Soharwardy, Prasident Arjamand Tahir, Br. Haider Khan and Br, Fasiud-

din Soharwardy then presented shields to Mr., Jafar Bhamji(Al-Ameen), Mr. Tarik Kiyani(Sohni Dharti Pakistan) received by Intikhab Ahmed on theirs behalf. Other recipients were Mr. Asim Khan (IMAC), Mr, Asad Ghondal and Mr. Malik Irfan (President &VP BCMA), Br. Raza Khan(Omni Blinds & Shades) and Mr. Sajid Hameed (Masjid Aulia Allah) of their outstanding community services.

Br. Haider then invited world famous Naat Khawan, visted from US and Chief Guest of the evening, Alhaaj Syed Fasih ud Soharwardy to the stage for recitation of beautiful Naats in his magical and beautiful voice.

After Darood-U-Salam, Syed Badiuddin made a heartfelt Dua for all those who at-

tended the program and offered special prayers for 22 victims in snow Muree (Pakistan),Maulana Abdul L. Naumani and the entire Muslim Ummah. Program was concluded with the dinner.

Contribute in this noble cause generously and spread the word. Jazak Allah.

Still you can donate by online fund transfer: E.transfer : iawc.surrey@gmail.com Credit card**Debit card-

www.anfiq.org

Note: Dear Brothers and Sisters, We have been advised that Maulana A.Latif Naumani is currently in ICU. Please make dua for his health and speedy recovery.

May Allah protect him and grant him Sifa’a e Kamla and long and healthy life. Ameen!

12

Jamadi ul II 11,1443 January 14, 2021

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Jamadi ul II 11,1443 January 14, 2021

w o m e n / y o uth

8 Muslim youth making an impact in Canada

M

eet eight ambitious young adults giving back to their community and acting as powerful spokespeople for Muslim youth.

In the CBC Docs POV, 14 and Muslim we meet a group of young teens excited to embark on the next phase of their lives, high school, after attending an all-Muslim elementary school. It’s a monumental time for anyone, but these youngsters will face the additional challenge of going to school with teens from a wide variety of backgrounds and religions for the very first time.

Meet eight Muslims who have already successfully made the transition to adulthood and have found meaningful ways to give back to their community and act as powerful spokespeople for Muslim youth.

monton as a teen where she was surrounded by white people for the first time.

“My throat closed up,” Adem told CBC Radio’s The Doc Project. It was a huge culture shock, and it took four years before she found her footing and voice in the arts community there.

She now works in schools to help high school students connect with their identities through spoken word and slam poetry.

Adem is also a community activist and is currently the director of Sister To Sister an artist’s collective for and by women of colour.

3: Danish Mahmood

1: Jae Deen and Karter Zaher a.k.a Deen Squad

A15-year-old high school student from London, Ontario is making big waves on the science fair circuit.

His invention, a wearable finger sensor that measures a patient’s vital signs, took home top prize at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in October 2017. It could be an efficient way for responders, paramedics and hospitals to monitor blood pressure, heart rate and temperature in waiting rooms where they’re not closely watched. “I love looking at problems the world has and trying to find solutions to those as that’s what basically every scientist tries to do,” he told CBC News. He’s already secured an entrance scholarship to Western University, where he plans to go into medicine.

Deen Squad’s Ghanaian Canadian Jae Deen and Lebanese Canadian Karter Zaher are putting the halal (or holy) in hip-hop. “It’s Islamic hip-hop. Because mainstream hiphop is associated with violence, drugs, sex, nudity … the fact that we take these songs and we’re giving it a Muslim vibe, like an Islamic twist, people are a little shocked about it,” Kater Zaher told the Middle East Eye. They hope their music will inspire Muslim youth to be proud of their religion and show another side of Islam to non-believers. “We want our brothers and sisters to coexist together. We want the Christians and the Jews and the Muslims to understand each other because the media portrays otherwise, and people think otherwise about our religion,” he says.The group is currently touring worldwide and have recently shared the stage with Justin Bieber by doing the opening set for his concert in Dubai during his Middle East 4: Seher Shafiq Visit of the Purpose Tour.

She is passionate about politics and part of the team at The Canadian-Muslim Vote, an organization that educates the community about why it’s important to be involved in Canada’s political system. She played a role in the Get-Out-The-Vote efforts during the last federal and Ontario provincial campaigns. With a Masters from the Munk School of Global Affairs, Shafiq has also 2: Nasra Adem She is Black, queer, Muslim — and a spoken worked at Lifeline Syria, a group that works word poet from Edmonton where she was to settle Syrian refugees in Toronto. She’s a named the city’s second-ever Youth Poet recognized public speaker and panellist on Laureate in 2016. Born in Ethiopia, she spent the issues of civic engagement and grassher childhood in Ottawa but moved to Ed- roots community building.

living in Canada. Proud of his culture, his videos feature him speaking (mostly) in Urdu, and there isn’t a young Pakistani who 5: Reem Ahmed Reem Ahmed, who graduated from Ryerson hasn’t heard of him.

University in Toronto as a biomedical engi- 8: Timaj Garad neer, moved to Canada from Egypt a decade ago. But she only recently found her true passion: cooking. Ahmed was never passionate about engineering, and after her son was born in 2016, she suffered from postpartum depression and turned to cooking as a way out. A long-time fan of MasterChef Canada, Ahmed was chosen as the first hijabi contestant in 2018. “It was amazing, but at the same time, there’s a lot of pressure. You’re An award-winning artist and poet from representing Muslims, women who wear hi- Toronto, Timaj Garad uses theatre to bring jabs and that’s a huge responsibility,” she told stories to life. Her work is autobiographical, told from the perspective of a black, MusRyerson’s The Eyeopener.

Ahmed says that misconceptions surround- lim, Ethiopian woman who moved to Scaring Muslim women were not going to stop borough in the 90s. “I marched to the beat her from pursuing her dreams, “in order to of my own drum,” she told MuslimLink.ca, clear these misconceptions, we have to fully “which unfairly landed me the label of ‘trouintegrate into our society and dispel those blemaker’ in most institutions I frequented terrible misconceptions about Muslims in as a child including schools and Saturday Islamic classes at the masjid.” Along the way, general, Muslim women specifically.”

Although she was eliminated from the show, Garad has tried on many careers, from soAhmed dreams of opening her own Egyp- cial services to culinary arts and translator. tian restaurant using her grandmother’s reci- But now, she’s realized her lifelong interest in pes which influence her dishes and is cur- performing — and uses it to educate young rently making quick cooking recipe videos. Black Muslim women. “We experience the violence of anti-black racism, Islamophobia, and misogyny in ways that are intersectional, informed by all of our identities, yet we rarely see representations that give voice to these experiences.” She’s recently worked with Stellar (R)evolution, an eight-part workshop series for youth aged 18-25 that uses arts to explore identity. Garad has been awarded the City of Waterloo’s Top 40 under 6: Mustafa, The Poet 40 award for her arts contributions and is He has been a well-known member of To- working on a debut album and a poetry colronto’s slam poetry scene since he was a lection which will be released in 2019. teen, reciting verse about Toronto’s Regent To encourage thoughtful and respectful conPark where he grew up. He told CBC’s Metro versations, first and last names will appear Morning that he was inspired by Muslim with each submission to CBC/Radio-Canaboxer Muhammed Ali, who was also a cel- da’s online communities (except in children ebrated musician, singer and poet. “He was and youth-oriented communities). Pseudothe embodiment of strength, so I feel like we nyms will no longer be permitted. all lost of a bit of strength in that moment,” By submitting a comment, you accept that so Mustafa honoured his hero with a poem CBC has the right to reproduce and publish after he heard about his death. Mustafa is go- that comment in whole or in part, in any ing places fast. He was featured on “Atten- manner CBC chooses. Please note that CBC tion” a song from the international superstar, does not endorse the opinions expressed The Weeknd’s latest album, Starboy. in comments. Comments on this story are moderated according to our Submission 7: Zaid Ali YouTube sensation Zaid Ali is a Pakistani- Guidelines. Comments are welcome while Canadian comedian who says he likes to open. We reserve the right to close commake people smile. Born in Waterloo, On- ments at any time. tario, he’s become hugely popular (he has Source: cbc.ca/cbcdocspov over 5 million Facebook fans) for his side- Note: The Miracle Media will wait for BC’s splitting videos about life as a South-Asian Muslim Youngsters Profiles to publish.

B.C. paramedics responded to nearly 100 drug overdoses per day in 2021, data shows

L

ast year was the deadliest year for drug overdoses in B.C.’s history, and newly released data from B.C. Emergency Health Services shows it was also the busiest for paramedics responding to the overdose crisis, by a wide margin.

BCEHS responded to 35,525 overdoses in 2021, an increase of 31 per cent compared to the previous year, and nearly triple the 12,263 it responded to in 2015.

The province declared the overdose crisis a public health emergency in 2016, and the number of overdoses paramedics have responded to has risen every year since, according to BCEHS figures.

“Every day in B.C., close to 100 people overdose,” BCEHS said in a news release Wednesday announcing the latest num-

bers. ”One of the areas to see a dramatic increase in overdose call volumes is Surrey, with almost a 50 per cent increase over the previous year,” the agency said.

Surrey saw a total of 3,674 overdose calls in 2021, which is more than 10 per cent of all overdose calls in the province.

The largest share of overdose calls was in Vancouver, however, where paramedics responded to 9,993 overdoses, a 23-per-cent increase from 2020.

Victoria had the third-highest number of overdose calls for the year, with 1,952, up 24 per cent from the previous year.

While those three cities combined to account for more than 40 per cent of overdose calls in the province in 2021, BCEHS says every part of the province was affected.

Each of the province’s five health authorities saw thousands of overdoses in 2021, with calls breaking down as follows: • Vancouver Coastal Health: 11,204 calls • (up 24 per cent from last year) • Fraser Health: 10,573 (up 45 per cent) • Island Health: 5,917 (up 32 per cent) • Interior Health: 5,417 (up 29 per cent) • Northern Health: 2,414 (up 16 per cent) “Almost every community in B.C. had more overdose patients in 2021 than the previous year,” BCEHS said.

Some of the largest percentage increases were seen in Courtenay (up 127 per cent to 467 overdose calls), Cranbrook (up 84 per cent to 191) and Mission (up 82 per cent to 397), according to BCEHS. Two communities that bucked the trend and saw decreases

in overdose calls were Fort St. John (down 22 per cent to 97 overdoses) and Quesnel (down 25 per cent to 157).

More data on 2021 overdose calls can be found on the BCEHS website.

According to the BC Coroners Service, there were 1,782 overdose deaths in the province through the end of October. That’s the most ever recorded in a calendar year, and two months of data from 2021 are still yet to be reported. Source: bc.ctvnews.ca

16 K ash m i r / P akista n Canadian thinkers say time for idea of success of Kashmir struggle has come Jamadi ul II 11,1443 January 14, 2021

Speakers at a webinar hosted in the Canadian city of Toronto have called upon the world to respect the right of self-determination and democracy granted by the UN to the people of Kashmir, saying “nothing can stop an idea whose time has come, and for the idea of self-determination and democracy for the people of Kashmir, the time has come”.

They noted that only with mutual respect, peace could be achieved in Kashmir. They said it was high time that the right to selfdetermination of the people of Kashmir was

respected and granted to them as per the UN resolutions.

The event was hosted

by Consul General of Pakistan Toronto Abdul Hameed who apprised the participants of the background to the Right to SelfDetermination Day, the resolution of 5th January 1949 adopted by the UN Commission on India and Pakistan (UNCIP) to settle the future of Kashmir through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations, and the grave human rights violations carried out subsequently by the Indian occupation forces in the Illegally Occupied Indian Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking to the webinar, Karen Rodman, a noted Canadian human rights activist and director of Canadian think-tank Just Peace Advocates, chronicled the history of the

Kashmir issue and the earlier efforts of the United Nations to resolve this issue, and how these efforts had fallen apart in the face of Indian stubbornness over the last seven decades. She stressed that Kashmir was an internationally recognized disputed territory, however, in violation of the UN resolutions and the Geneva Convention, the Indian government had introduced draconian laws to silence the Kashmiris and deprive them of their rights and land.

In his address, Canadian author and journalist Robert Fantina read out various clauses of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 47, adopted on 21 April 1948, and explained in detail how India had violated all the clauses of this resolution one by one to deny the people of Kashmir their right to self-determination. India had imposed a rule of tyranny and oppression that had resulted in untold misery for the defenceless people of Kashmir, he said.

Well-known Canadian broadcaster Phil Taylor called the situation in Kashmir most

unfortunate, saying the people of Kashmir had been forced to suffer under the yoke of 900,000 Indian troops despite the UN resolution granting them the right to self-determination. He argued that India could not shy away from granting the Kashmirs what it itself had pledged. He said Kashmir dispute could not be chased away by Indian troops as well, and the issue would only be resolved by granting the Kashmiris their freedom and right to self-determination.

Dr. Zafar Bangash, director of Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought and member of Friends of Kashmir Canada, also addressed the webinar and stressed the need for joint global efforts to end oppression and subjugation of the people of Kashmir.

Earlier, Acting High Commissioner for Pakistan to Canada Mr. Shahbaz Malik read out the messages of the President and the Prime Minister of Pakistan in connection with the Self-Determination Day for the Kashmiris.

Source: Offoce of the HIGH COMMISSION FOR PAKISTAN

ISLAMABAD: In an interesting development, the election commission scrutiny committee’s report on the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf ’s (PTI) foreign funding shared with both the parties on Jan 4, does not include eight volumes of the documents and bank statements requisitioned through the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

The documents concealed by the committee include all original 28 bank statements and year-wise details of foreign funds transferred to the PTI’s accounts between 2009-13.

These crucial pieces of evidence have been kept confidential as per the committee’s own desires expressed on page 83 of its report that states that “the Committee is of the considered opinion that the portions of the Report which have been prepared on the basis of (PTI) Bank Statements obtained through State Bank of Pakistan may be kept confidential and classified and may not be released in public domain”.

A review of the report reveals that it is stated in its enclosures section that “Documents Requisitioned by the Commission through State Bank of Pakistan-Bank Statements (Book 1 to 8)” have been kept secret and are not part of the report shared with the petitioner, Akbar S Babar, on Jan 4.

Key pieces of evidence have been kept confidential The committee’s decision to keep confidential the PTI’s financial documents and bank statements is apparently in violation of the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) own May 30, 2018 order that stated that “record being scrutinised is a public document, the copies whereof can be obtained by anyone”. The ECP also passed a similar order on April 14, 2021 stating that “when the matter (Foreign Funding Case) will come before the Commission, at that time all the parties can take copies or peruse the documents”.

The committee’s report recalls that in order to bridge the information gap, the committee, with the approval of the ECP, requested the SBP to provide details pertaining to the bank accounts being operated by the PTI within the country from 2009 to 2013.

“The purpose of the Committee was to analyse the information and details received from the State Bank of Pakistan and draw a clear picture on the accounts of PTI on the basis of credible, authentic and verifiable information.” Further in the report, the committee says it decided that the data emanating from the documents provided by the petitioner and the respondent will

be reflected in a non-classified portion of the report, while data obtained by it from the SBP on its own accord will be reported in a classified section so that laws, rules and procedures governing confidentiality of the bank accounts and banking information are not violated. It also says that the committee decided that the bank statements, which it requisitioned from banks through the SBP, will not be provided for perusal.

The document also states that the scrutiny committee was directed to examine all the records (documents submitted by the petitioner, respondent and records procured by the committee from other sources), evaluate the evidence from the documents and form a definite opinion and then submit its detailed, fact-finding, comprehensive, proper, substantial report to the ECP till the end of May 2021.

On the issue of the PTI’s employee accounts, it states the petitioner, during the course of the perusal, raised the issue of requisitioning of the information related to personal accounts of PTI employees from the SBP, who were allowed to receive in their personal accounts the donations/contributions sent from abroad and Pakistan by the party’s finance committee.

The report also refers to an application submitted by the petitioner’s counsel that contained a copy of this newspaper’s report mentioning a statement of PTI’s Central Finance Secretary Siraj Ahmed for requisitioning bank statements of the four employees who were authorised by the its central finance board to receive donations from within Pakistan and abroad.

“He also insisted on summoning Mr Siraj Ahmed, Central Finance Secretary,” it says, but adds that probing into personal accounts of the employees was beyond the scope of the scrutiny committee’s terms of reference and a judgement of the Supreme Court handed down in the Hanif Abbasi case.

Source: dawn.com

prices at Rs3,000 for VIP enclosure, Rs2,500 for premium enclosure, Rs2,000 for first-class enclosure and Rs1,000 for general enclosure. The PCB added that the fans can also purchase tickets for Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis enclosures at the Gaddafi Stadium, which have been reserved as “Hospitality Stands”. Price for these enclosures range from Rs4,000 to Rs7,000, depending on the day and match, it added. Source: dawn.com

Tickets for the Karachi and Lahore legs of the seventh edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) are up for sale on cricket.bookme.pk, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said in a statement on Tuesday.

The first leg of 15 matches will be played in Karachi from Jan 27 to Feb 7, while the remaining 19 matches will be held in Lahore from Feb 10-27.

The PCB, however, has laid some rules for spectators in a bid to prevent spread of the Covid-19. All ticket-holders will also have to display their immunisation certificates and CNIC at the time of entering the venues, the cricket board said. Ticket prices According to the PCB, the ticket prices for the tournament opener between Karachi

Kings and Multan Sultans on Jan 27 at the National Stadium have been fixed at Rs2,500 for VIP enclosure, Rs2,000 for premium enclosure, Rs1,500 for first-class enclosure and Rs500 for general enclosure.

While for the Feb 27 final at the Gaddafi Stadium, ticket prices have been set at Rs4,000 for VIP enclosure, Rs3,000 for premium enclosure, Rs2,500 for first-class enclosure and Rs1,500 for general enclosure. Ticket prices for the three play-off matches scheduled from Feb 23 to 25 have been locked at Rs3,000 for VIP enclosure, Rs2,500 for premium enclosure, Rs2,000 for first-class enclosure and Rs1,000 for general enclosure.

Meanwhile, the ticket prices for league matches taking place between Monday and Thursday have been set at Rs2,000 for VIP enclosure, Rs1,750 for premium enclosure, Rs1,250 for first-class enclosure and Rs250 for general enclosure.

Ticket prices for single-headers from Friday to Sunday are Rs2,500 for VIP enclosure, Rs2,000 for premium enclosure, Rs1,500 for first-class enclosure and Rs500 for general enclosure.

For the six double-headers (three each in Karachi and Lahore), the PCB has fixed ticket

Press Realase:

Scrutiny panel report conceals crucial PTI documents, bank account details

PSL 2022 tickets go up for sale online: PCB

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