Happy Canada Day. On this special day, what are our tolerant, liberal neighbors to the north doing? They are denying visas to Lutherans. The Lutheran World Federation plans to have its 10th Assembly in Winnipeg. However, Canada has denied visas to 25 of the delegates. Most of these delegates are Lutheran Bishops, mind you. Those denied are mostly from Africa, with one from Columbia, and, oddly enough, the Czech Republic. The reason for the denial: the government is afraid the Lutherans will stay! Now, you could understand a liberal and secular country like Canada not wanting to be overrun by a bunch of religious people, even for a few days. But, of course, the reason is the national origin of the applicants. The Swedish and German Lutherans are not having any problems.

It also turns out that the Canadians did this same thing for World Youth Day. Around 6000 young people were denied entry into the country for the visit of the Pope. Again, many of these were from Africa. So, can we infer that the Canadians are more tolerant in word than in deed?

The reason I say it is odd that the Canadians are refusing a visa to the Lutheran delegate from the Czech Republic is that dozens of Canadians are in the Czech Republic for the meeting of the Olympic committee. It seems the Czechs are more hospitable than the Canadians.

Some threats have been made to cancel the Assembly due to the exclusions. This would be embarassing, because the postal service in Canada is issuing a stamp to commerate the meeting. Maybe it should feature a picture of Africans being denied entry into the country.