Boreal

Off-topic Canada

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Ottawa cop pleads guilty to assaulting 'defenceless' handcuffed 13-year-old boy in mental health crisis... Ottawa Police Association president Matthew Cox said the union continues to support Khan. Ottawa Citizen, April 13, 2024

As does the Ottawa Citizen:

My own experience with the dubious ethics of the National Capital's most read newspaper:

Investigative Journalism Canadian Style

'What I desire is more taxpayer-funded sizzle reels': Inside the thoughts of the Liberals' fake Canadian, National Post, April 13, 2024

Sorry, but I can’t resist commenting on anything Global Affairs does (in this instance inserting a media post by a non-existent Canadian to explain the federal budget) having worked there for a number of years. Nonsense contains part of the testimony given before an adjudicator following my dismissal on bogus insubordination charges. The chapter title relates to something the Department is obviously good at spouting.

Release of N.L. budget postponed after chaotic confrontation between police officers and fishers... A protest that descended into a chaotic confrontation between mounted police officers and fishers outside the Newfoundland and Labrador legislature on Wednesday delayed the release of the provincial budget. March 20, 2024

The most extraordinary protest conducted by Newfoundland fishers was about starving cod during a meeting of the Federal Fisheries Committee.

Where Have All the Fish Gone?

Auditor general slams government's 'persistent pattern of failure' on First Nations housing... A new report says communities with the poorest housing conditions received the least funding, and the government failed to ensure homes met building standards. The Canadian Press, March 19, 2024

The beginning of a solution for housing is again in the works (I am too old to be part of it this time) after being rejected more than twenty years ago in favour of an unworkable, super expensive proposal from people who did not have a clue.

Setting the record straight | Michael Cowpland and First Nations

What CBC could have done with all that bonus money (16 million) They could have hired 200 reporters, or opened new foreign bureaus on every continent National Post, March 14, 2024

They could have funded Remembering Uzza and Shooting the Messenger with money left over for other original Canadian productions.

Michael Spavor reaches settlement with federal government over detention in China… Spavor, along with diplomat Michael Kovrig, spent more than 1,000 days in prison before being released in September 2021. CBC March 6, 2024.

Kovrig was both a diplomat and a spy; an incompetent one it would turn out. Spavor alleged that “He unwittingly provided information on North Korea to Kovrig, who then gave the information to Canadian intelligence officials”; the reason for his lengthy incarceration and the 7 million dollar settlement.

Just a thought...

Seven million is the amount I discovered was stolen in one year of a multi-year fraud on the Canadian taxpayer. In today’s dollars, make that 21 million or more. Expect Kovrig to also get a substantial compensation package which we may never here about. These are called ex-gratia payments, meaning there is no legal obligation to pay them. A Mugging in Amsterdam contains another example.

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THE RIGHT HON. BRIAN MULRONEY'S PASSING

When former Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou needed to send a highly confidential message to President Reagan regarding not following through on his election campaign promises, he chose a more secure, more direct, if unconventional method than diplomatic channels. He chose as his messenger a beautiful Greek Canadian woman who just happened to be a childhood friend of Mila Mulroney, the wife of the prime minister... continue reading

Obituary: Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has died at 84, family announces ... Two years out of office, Mulroney was thrust back into the spotlight in what became known as the “Airbus affair.” He was accused in a government document sent to Swiss authorities of taking illicit payments for steering an Air Canada contract to the French airplane manufacturer, a charge the government couldn’t back up when Mulroney sued and won a $2-million settlement in 1997. Ottawa Citizen, Feb. 29, 2024

The reason I suspect Mulroney won his  judgement was that the Liberal government knew that the man who steered the contract to Airbus was one of their own which they could not admit in court.

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Terry Glavin: Under hate speech bill, wouldn't Trudeau be guilty of vilifying Catholics? ...Under the proposed act, hate speech complaints against individuals would be directed to the Canadian Human Rights Commission which, unlike the courts, would be exempt from the ordinary rules of evidence. Feb. 28, 2024

It was a human rights commission that was responsible for the first accommodation, and we have been bending over backwards ever since.

PETA erects billboard 'in memory of the pigs killed' in Ontario truck fire Windsor Star, Feb. 28, 2024

And all the while PETA choses to ignore the plight of millions of animals ritually tortured to death in our slaughterhouses under the watchful eye of CFIA inspectors.

Only six months after being sworn in, Trudeau made the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) responsible for ensuring that slaughterhouses selling halal meats had actually bled the animal while it was alive and conscious; in effect, certifying that it had been tortured to death.

In its March 8, 2012 edition, Le Point, the popular mainstream French (France) weekly published excerpts from a confidential government report by Le Conseil général de alimentation, de l’agriculture et des espaces ruraux sur La protection animale en abattoir; la question particulière de l’abattoir rituel (Animal Protection In Slaughterhouses: The Question of Ritual Slaughter, my translation).

Ritual Slaughter - How Much Suffering

Carson Jerema: Don't believe the Liberals, online harms act targets free speech… the bill would reinstate Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, the hate speech provision repealed under the Harper government. Feb. 27, 2024

The following was sent to the Right Hon. Justin Trudeau via the following link: https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/connect/contact

Dear Prime Minister,

Canadian Timothy Findley’ god in his retelling of the story of the great flood in Not Wanted on the Voyage is a vindictive, doddering old fool, Noah a tyrant and, in the immemorial battle between the armies of the Archangel Michael and those of Lucifer, the good guys lost. You cannot get more blasphemous than that.

Findley died a celebrated award-winning author of natural causes at the age of 71. But that was a different time, a time before the embodiment of the thin-skinned militant religion which used the old section 13 as a weapon and can be expected to do the same with its reincarnation became a force to be reckoned with in the West.

We may not be able to return to a past when being less than respectful of religious icons and myths was not a death defying act but it may not be too late to avoid what happened in Britain with their hate legislation which gave a leg up to Islamists when they ignored a plea NOT to shelter religion from criticism.

I would feel less apprehensive about Bill C-63 if your government added the following assurance from a plea by an alliance of Muslims, Christians, humanists and secularists urging the British Parliament to reject legislation limiting the rights to criticize religious beliefs and traditions.

“We also recognize that a free society must have the scope to debate, to criticize, proselytize, insult and even ridicule belief and religious practices in order to ensure that there is full scope – short of violence or inciting violence or other criminal offences - to tackle these issues.”

Thank you

Bernard Payeur

Federal labour board awards wrongly fired prison guard $310,000 in damages … The adjudicator called the correctional service’s behaviour “malicious, oppressive, and high-handed.” Ottawa Citizen, Feb. 25, 2024

Huguette said she was transferring to Correctional Service or Parole Services, or some other organization having to do with the care, feeding and rehabilitation of convicted felons, where she hoped to meet a better class of people than she had at Foreign Affairs (today Global Affairs). No such luck if she landed at Correctional Services, but that was a long time ago.

Trading Places

Canada's drug crisis is affecting a largely unchecked population of users — newcomers Experts call for better data collection, culturally-sensitive care CBC Feb. 25, 2024

Trudeau’s reckless pursuit of a post-national state, which he intends to create by maintaining unsustainable immigration levels where newcomers don’t have the time or opportunity to integrate, for that is how you create such a state, has not only had an adverse impact on housing and health-care but has exacerbate the drug crisis.

In calling for culturally-sensitive care because integration is not the goal for reasons stated, the CBC gives the example of two recent immigrant to Saskatoon:

Ali said he has been using crystal meth on and off since he moved to Saskatoon in 2022. Now, the 23-year-old is working toward recovery but said mental health services in his language and culturally-specific health care are lacking.

Raza, a Syrian refugee who also lives in Saskatoon, has had a similar experience. The 32-year-old works odd jobs to send money to his family overseas.

’It's difficult to find work here. I don't speak much English and don't know many people,’ he said.

Wahda — the Arabic word for social isolation — is a ‘constant curse’. "’Crystal is a good way to forget those problems,’ he said.

Saskatoon has three mosques and is in the process of building a fourth. There is no reason for these men to feel isolated. As for culturally-specific care, that is nonsense and will only add to the health care burden. Sohrab, a Muslim refugee solved his problem with alcoholism by joining Alcoholics Anonymous, thanks, in part, to some tough love.

Jesse Kline: Amira Elghawaby defends antisemitic protest in front of Toronto [Mount Sinai] hospital. Feb. 15, 2024

This is the same Elghawaby who, as communications director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), lambasted a proposal by the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence, after extensive interviews with moderate and prominent Muslims to vet foreign imams for their radicalism as an attack on freedom of speech.

Kathryn Marshall: World Junior rape case offers sad exposure of tattered justice system It took six years for police to lay charges and justice is still a long way off Feb. 14, 2024

By Canadian standards that’s lightning speed. In took fifty or more years for some NAZI war criminals to be tried for their crimes and some are still at large.

It took almost twenty years before some of the perpetrators of the largest terrorist attack on North American (before the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001), were compelled to appear before a judge in a Canadian court: Air India Flight 182

The same for the AIDS doctors: The Pamphlet

Tasha Kheiriddin: ArriveCAN could be the nail in the Liberals' political coffin Feb. 13, 2024

Yesterday, I gave Indian and Northern Affairs as an example on how the government chose a twenty million proposal from a clueless contractor over a $500,000 working application. Today’s example about how some government contracting is done is from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Jesse Kline: ArriveCAN app a case study in Liberal contempt for tax dollars... The main takeaway is the app’s staggering cost. Initially budgeted at just $80,000, development costs soared to at least $59.5 million. Feb. 12, 2024

This is so infuriating. My First Nation client and I built an application to report on conditions on reserves across Canada for $500,000, only to have the government turn around and contract for a system that never worked for 20+ million dollars. And, yes, it was a Liberal government.

Siavash Safavi: Canada's clueless immigration policy will not end well Feb. 12, 2024

Dear Canada:

It might seem strange to write a letter to a country rather than a person, but there's a first time for everything. I'm writing because next Sunday is our 140th birthday, and I figured that it was a big enough number to deserve a birthday present. … That's why my perfect birthday present to Canada would be to help start a national discussion about the Canada we want to see for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

I recently found a stimulant for that kind of national discussion. It is a book written by Bernard Payeur and published by Trafford Publishing in Victoria called Canada: The Fractured Nation Interviews. It imagines a world where Canada has been broken up for almost 10 years. The book uses a series of five imaginary television interviews to trace the root causes of the breakup.

Les Brost Les Brost, For The Calgary Herald, June 25, 2007

I wrote about what is happening today almost twenty years ago. Too bad I could not find a mainstream publisher to provide The Fractured Nation Interviews the exposure it deserved. Your will find pertinent excerpts here. The Singh and Souviens interviews are particularly relevant to what Mr. Safavi writes about.

"Canada's clueless immigration policy" will prove particularly disastrous for First Nations.

Three Canadians in Gaza allegedly taken and held by Israeli forces, relative says Global Affairs Canada said it was aware of reports that Canadian citizens had gone missing, and that it is providing consular assistance The Canadian Press, Feb. 9, 2024

The last threesome to blame Canada for being imprisoned in a foreign land shared a 31 million tax-free windfall. They got to share millions of dollars for alleged violations of their Charter Rights while in a foreign land  and I got less than nothing for being denied the right to due process here in Canada.

Ryan Timilty: Trudeau calls Bell layoffs 'a garbage decision' and says company should know better. Feb 9, 2024

Once Canada’s premier innovator in high tech (remember Bell Northern Research) Bell Canada has morphed into not much more than a fee collector.

I was a consultant for Bell Enterprises working on a project that would have seen Bell beat Google to Google when it decided to divest itself of its entire programming and software application development staff to CGI, the company that flubbed the launch of Obamacare, to save on its pension commitments.

CGI was not into research and development and canceled our better than Google app a week before its launch.

Tristin Hopper: Canada 'addicted' to cheap labour (says government who flooded it with cheap labour) Feb 8, 2024

It all started with Mulroney

Air Canada’s first female pilot recalls sector’s sexist hurdles on route to success Canadian Press, Feb. 4, 2024

If the Evangelicals had been charge at the time, the person who hired her would undoubtedly have been looking for another job along with maybe a dozen women in senior management who were let go when the god-fearing alumni from Georgia Tech under the leadership of “Holy Harry” took over.

Had it not been for the Evangelical takeover, chances are my wife's life-long friend Michelle Monette, then in charge of Air Canada’s combined ground operations at Mirabel and Dorval (the first woman to occupy such a position for an international carrier and member of the International Civil Aviation Organization ICAO), would have been named the first female president of the airline

I was doing consulting work in Montreal where I would meet with Michelle for dinner on a regular basis. I did not divulge what Michelle told me in confidence until she moved to Toulouse to take a job with Airbus.

I wrote to the CBC including a proposal for a comedy (I couldn't resist). As you can expect, this being the CBC, nothing came of it; even, God-forbid an acknowledgement that would have revealed they had been informed about who was probably bribed in the Airbus affair.

Provost of budget-strapped Queen's made job for his wife condition of his hiring. National Post Feb.3, 2024

Nepotism is obviously alive and well at Queens University. At least Global Affairs went through the motion of holding a competition.

Canada's rapidly fraying social cohesion Clear plurality of Canadians now saying that immigration is making the country worse National Post, Jan. 22, 2023

Canada's extraordinary level of planned and unplanned immigration, combined with Canadian-style multiculturalism can only lead to the type of problems award-winning Algerian novelist and journalist Kamel Daoud addressed in his thinking-man's assessment of the Cologne sexual aggressions; Cologne - City of Illusion and which could prove the most devastating.

Colby Cosh: Canada’s circular debate over medical assistance in dying Jan. 21, 2024

My name is Lucette Carpentier. Having availed myself of a doctor’s assistance in committing suicide I can offer a unique perspective. The doctor, who would shortly allow me to die on my terms, asked me, “Madame, how do you feel?” “Happy, very happy,” I replied.

"Madame," he said, "would it surprise you to know that is the response I get from most of the patients for whom I perform this procedure?"

My husband's recollection of my last day.

Avi Benlolo: The hatred must stop — a new roadmap for Canada We must strive to create a national identity Jan. 19, 2024

Parts of the interview with Jean Souviens that provide some perspective how this could be done: What Is a Country | Shared Values | Language | Multiculturalism

Liberals blind as aggressive immigration damages economy National Post, Jan. 16, 2024

Pierre Berton in his book The Last Good Year, traces the beginning of the end of a self-reliant, self-assured Canada to 1967, the year before the election of Pierre Trudeau. It began with Canada’s increasing reliance on imported labour and expertise with the adoption of an immigration dependent economic model.

Trudeau the younger, in particular, has favored this model to astonishing self-destructive ends in pursuit of his own agenda: the creation of "post-national" state. One way you create such a state is to flood it with immigrants who will not be given the time or opportunity to integrate.

Trump is more popular among Canadians than Trudeau National Post, Jan. 15, 2024

Politicians should be wary of ignoring what the electorate perceives as the clear and present danger. For Americans (and a growing majority of Canadians) it is unsustainable immigration. Trump understands this, Biden doesn’t, which is why he will lose in November and why Trudeau will be next.

Path to better relations involves Canada taking blame for rift, Chinese foreign minister tells Joly National Post Jan. 12, 2024

Maybe baby steps would help Minister Joly, starting with an apology, while there is still time, to the writer of the following letter for the unconscionable actions of Canadian diplomats:

January 10, 2024

His Excellency H. E. CONG Peiwu

Ambassador to Canada

Embassy of the People's Republic of China

515 St. Patrick Street,

Ottawa, ON

K1N 5H3

Dear Ambassador,

Please accept my donation of two books to the people of China and their government. In Children and the Koran you will find support for China’s prudent policy towards Islam.

Shooting the Messenger is not about Islam but about me, and my wife’s dying wish that I try one last time to tell the true story of a massive fraud perpetrated by and on behalf of Canada’s diplomats and covered up with the acquiescence of a compliant press.

Canadians discovered Norman Bethune when China took notice of him. I am in no way comparing myself to that great man. Having said that, I believe that what I have written about Islam is of existential importance for us all, but no one will take notice—definitely not the people of China—unless I find a Chinese publisher/translator to which I would be willing to grant exclusive, royalty–free rights to the Chinese and English editions of my books.

All I can offer you for your help in this consequential endeavour is my heartfelt thanks.

Thank You

Original signed by Bernard Payeur

_________________________

Bernard Payeur

Government looking to stabilize immigration levels amid housing crunch: federal ministers... [Immigration Minister] Miller decided to level out the number of permanent residents coming to Canada at 500,000 for 2026, the same number as 2025.” National Post, Jan. 12, 2024

The government admits that unsustainable immigration is responsible for the housing crisis, among other things. Their solution: more of the same. What is one definition of insanity again?

The paradox is that those who vote for politicians who promise to act decisively to stem both legal and illegal immigration, such as Donald Trump, are not doing so to undermine democracy, but to save it. They see an overflow of migrants north as the clear and present danger, especially in Europe where illegal migration includes a significant number whose beliefs are anathema to Western values.

In the exception that is Canada, all major political parties favour unsustainable immigrations levels (one million last year alone) as they seek the immigrant vote. Their short-sighted self-interest has not only created record homelessness, housing unaffordability and severely compromised public health care but should prove disastrous for First Nations.

What is happening to Canada, which the Conservatives and NDP will not call out because of political considerations, is the result of one man’s obsession with creating a post-nationalist state by flooding the country with immigrants who will not be given the time or opportunity to integrate because that is how you give rise to such a State.

At least, when Mulroney started the ball rolling on increasing immigration for political/ideological reasons it was not with the intent of destroying the fabric of the nation. How we got into this mess from a historical perspective.

Hate in the streets fuelled by Trudeau's 'post-national' vision of Canada... Nowadays, immigrants (and other Canadians) are told a dark, cynical story about their new home that stems not from foreign propaganda, but from the office of the prime minister himself. National Post, Jan. 7, 2024

This, in part, has led to the rise of whom I refer to as counterfeit Canadians, citizens with conflicting allegiances. Trudeau has been the worst in denigrating the contribution of two of Canada's three founding nations, but he was not the first, as pointed out in The Fractured Nation Interviews almost twenty years ago.

2023

Supreme Court pick Mary Moreau questioned about Omar Khadr ruling during public hearing. Conservative Senator Denise Batters challenged Supreme Court nominee Mary Moreau on her decision to let Omar Khadr live in the community with no restrictions. Globe and Mail, Nov 3, 2023

Ms. Moreau acknowledged highlighting her lenient treatment of Khadr on her resume. Omar Khadr pleaded guilty, while in American custody, to the murder of U.S. Army Sergeant 1st Class Christopher Speer in Afghanistan. The Trudeau government gave Khadr a $10.5 million tax free payout for his trouble.

Keith Spicer, Canada's first official languages commissioner, has died. CBC Aug 24, 2023

I remember Keith Spicer, but not in a good way.

'Travesty' or 'forward thinking'? Hundreds weigh in on one-click citizenship oath CBC June 4, 2023

Why should only veiled women be allowed to take the oath of citizenship incognito?

Canadian fans may not love the Stanley Cup matchup — but it's good for the game CBC, May 27, 2023

NO IT ISN'T! How to end the embarrassment of Bettman making a mockery of our national sport.

Fact Check: Sen. Tim Scott’s presidential announcement speech, CNN May 22, 2023

Scott is correct that US Customs and Border Protection encountered hundreds of people trying to enter the United States in fiscal year 2022 who are in the Terrorist Screening Dataset, but most of those encounters occurred at land border ports of entry on the northern border of the United States, not the southern border as Scott implied when he said it is “unsafe and insecure.” In fiscal year 2022, border officials had 380 encounters with people who had records on the watchlist and tried to pass through ports of entry – 313 of those were at the northern border.

Canada's population grew by a record 1 million in 2022. That is twice the planned immigration level of 500,000 immigrants a year by 2025. It would have been impossible to properly screen half a million immigrants, let alone a million. A million people a year means that Canada will do the equivalent of replacing its entire population in approximately 35+ years instead of the planned 70+. Both scenario represent a serious security problem for the United States (and Canada) since the vetting appears totally inadequate.

Combined with aggressive multiculturalism, this extraordinary level of planned and unplanned immigration will also elevate here the type of fear gripping France and other European countries of "becoming strangers at home" (Mathieu Bock-Côté) and further destabilize an increasingly fractured nation.

Former ambassador repays Crown ($1,500 after being found out) corporation for moving her artwork. CBC May 15, 2023

Peanuts!

Yes, Canada’s new passport really is that bad ... We are told that there is no political motivation behind erasing images of Canadian history from the passport. Globe and Mail, May 12, 2023

Ralston Saul may have something to say about that. A brief history of Canada.

Horace Krever died on Sunday April 30, 2023 at the aged of 94 Toronto Star May 2, 2023

The Pamphlet is largely based on Justice Krever's report into Canada' tainted blood scandal.

Quebec's Bill 21 on Secularism finds support in Ontario... Iranian-Canadian activist Homa Arjomand, who was instrumental in the campaign to outlaw Sharia Islamic Law from our family courts has now stepped in and taken the lead to make education and other public services in Ontario secular based on the model of the Bill 21 in Quebec. Tarek Fatah, Toronto Sun, Jan 11,2023

It's about teaching your children well | What is happening in English Canada

2022

RCMP will probe forged government documents aimed at discrediting Muslim charity... Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was "very concerned about these reports of Islamophobic forged documents," Globe and Mail, Dec 23, 2022

Trudeau’s propensity to gratuitously label people—and now documents—as Islamophobic would suggest that he is very much an Islamophile. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with that, unless you’re Prime Minister of an ostensibly non-denominational government.

Trudeau and Islam

Canada bans top Iranian revolutionary guard members in new sanctions Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced a new round of sanctions on Iran, banning the top 50 per cent of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members from entering Canada. CBC Oct 11, 2022

In Canada, except for the Province of Québec, the hijab is welcomed everywhere, even in places you least expect, as is the niqab which Québec has partially banned and the Federal Government wholeheartedly endorsed in spite of opposition from Muslims who argued that new citizens taking the oath of citizenship incognito was a niqab too far. Trudeau, in particular, is a big fan, as is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Demonstrators had to take to the street before his government would announce limited sanctions against those responsible for Amini's murder.

On World News Day, let’s remember that access to information is a human right Making a positive difference to someone’s life is the greatest gift a journalist can give. Perhaps an individual is heard for the first time, or an injustice is settled. David Walmsley, Editor-in-chief, The Globe and Mail, Sept 22, 2022

Dear Mr. Walmsley

Acadie Nouvelle cartoon sparks backlash over depiction of Muslims CBC August 23, 2022

In response to a news story about the Taliban’s treatment of women, l’Acadie Nouvelle, New Brunswick's largest French-language newspaperman published two cartoons, one showing a caveman dragging a woman by the hair and below it, a man wearing a turban and carrying a gun using a leash to drag a woman wearing a burqa. The implication that the Taliban is behaving like stone age barbarians in the way it treats women could not be any clearer. Yet, rather than amplify the unambiguous intent of l’Acadie Nouvelle and take the Taliban to task for its treatment of women, activists are accusing the paper of promoting Islamophobia. This is nuts and has to stop!

Linguistic diversity on the rise in Canada, census data show The Canadian Press, August 17, 2022

This is not a good thing, and Muslims know better.

Muslim mothers and daughters celebrating Canada Day while remaining in God's good graces, Boreal, July 1, 2022

RCMP forms task force to create national hate crimes policing standards... Mohammed Hashim the executive director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation [and advocate for Canada’s Muslim communities] will co-chair the task force. Globe and Mail, Mar 22, 2022

Islam is not a race but a religion. That distinction is increasingly being blurred by Islamists who see it to their advantage to label criticism of Islam as being racially motivated therefore subject to official scrutiny and prosecution. I trust the RCMP will appreciate the difference should recommendations be made that have more to do with protecting Islam from criticism than improve policing of race related offences.

A Faustian Bargain

ZARQA tells the story of a Muslim divorcee looking for revenge. Little Mosque on the Prairie creator is back with a web series many can relate to. CBC May 13, 2022

Little Mosque was both an insider joke and a polished piece of propaganda. Expect no less from Zarqa. Before watching Zarqa I would recommend you read Remembering Uzza - If Islam Was Explained To Me in A Pub, a play about a dystopian future where a young Muslim woman goes to a bar to reflect on her impending arranged marriage and ends up explaining what Islam is all about to patrons and a no-nonsense bartender (all based on real people) so that you will know when you are the butt of a joke.