Blundering to a Badge of Honour

"Any further step from the Canadian side in that direction [expressing dissatisfaction with Saudi internal affairs linked to abusive human rights actions] will be considered as acknowledgement of our right to interfere in Canadian domestic affairs."
"Canada and all other nations need to know that they can't claim to be more concerned than the kingdom over its own citizens."
"[Canada's criticism of the arrests of Nassima al-Sada and Samar Badawi, both prominent female Saudi activists represent] blatant interference in the kingdom's domestic affairs, against basic international norms and all international protocols [and a] major, unacceptable affront to the kingdom's laws and judicial process, as well as a violation of the kingdom's sovereignty."
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Foreign Ministry

"[I am] very alarmed [over news of the arrest of imprisoned Raif Badawi's sister's arrest, and that the government of Canada would] continue to strongly call for the release of both Raif [Badawi] and Samar Badawi."
"We will always speak up for human rights, we will always speak up for women's rights around the world."
"The most important thing for us is the life and the living conditions of activists. A host of Canadian civil society has been speaking up for her [Canadian citizen Ensaf Haidar, wife of Raif Badawi]."
"It's something that we do. We stand up for Canadians and their families around the world."
Chrystia Freeland, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs

Isn't Canada wonderful? Wasn't it just several years ago that Canada refused to pay a ransom to secure the lives of two Canadians held by a radical Islamist group in the Philippines? Um, well, they were men, so they obviously didn't qualify for rescue and support from their government. Which is, of course, beside the point; we're discussing the issue of diplomatic pressure put to good use, quietly and effectively, between two countries in discreet discussions that would persuade one to exercise some goodwill at the behest of another with which it has trade and other ties, to release a political prisoner, to reunite him with his wife and three children in Canada.

That is the issue. And that will likely no longer be possible. Admittedly, there is little doubt that Canada has attempted diplomatic-political pressure to achieve the release of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, and it has not yet yielded results. So try a little harder. There is potential leverage in appealing to the better nature of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmon since he has been very busy portraying himself as a newborn champion of human rights with the intention of relaxing Saudi rules and regulations restraining women in the nation's public life.

Ensaf Haidar, wife of blogger Raif Badawi, takes part in a rally for his freedom in Montreal, on Jan. 13, 2015.  Globe and Mail Update

Honey works better than vinegar, and vinegar has just been poured on the relations of a very touchy-testy country. The simple fact is, if Canada is interested in criticizing Saudi Arabia there is ample reason to do so. And to do so for a far more potent reason, that of holding it to account for its responsibility in fomenting fundamental Salafist extremism by investing billions in mosques and religious schools around the world that have churned out terrorist jihadis. Want to confront the Saudi kingdom? Hold it accountable for the the 15 of the 17 infamously deadly 9-11 plane highjackers that were Saudi citizens, incited to their unspeakable conspiracy of mass murder by Saudi religious imperatives.

The world community and its leaders deplore the compulsive tweeting of the U.S. president whose inane, truly mind-boggling thoughts continue to astonish those who follow his daily exploits of unsettling the world order and setting other world leaders on edge. Justin Trudeau proved himself fully capable of exercising his options to foolishly and sanctimoniously welcome the oppressed and the downtrodden of the world that Donald J. Trump had promised he meant to extirpate from the United States with their illegal, undocumented status, an affront to American sovereignty. Canada would compassionately take them all, tweeted Trudeau.

And so, Canada now struggles with that fallout, with migrants flooding across the border from the U.S. into Canada illegally, to declare themselves refugees, in their search for an improved future prospect in opportunities denied them in their countries of birth; not the definition of refugee, but that of economic migrants resorting to breaking Canadian law in their entitled search for economic haven.
And now Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs has demonstrated that she too is not immune to itchy thumbs persuading her to virtue-signal that Canada will not stand by and do nothing while Saudi women are denied their human rights.

Saudi Ali al-Nimr at age 16 four years ago, convicted of participating in protests and sentenced to death, facing execution, crucifixion

This is not diplomacy, this is grand-standing, and neither Trudeau nor Freeland had the wit to look ahead to ponder the cat whose tail they were pulling. The country whose Sharia law punishes political dissenters as criminals and where free speech is a Western concept and where dedication to ensuring that women dress like crows, unseen, unheard in public lest they turn men's thoughts to carnal evil and whose penal system includes the capital punishment of medieval public beheading and crucifixion has no trouble finding trading partners in the West. And Canada has been involved in lucrative trade deals with Saudi Arabia. Anticipating how those trade deals will also lead to investment.

"The country's efforts to diversify its economy is driving opportunities for Canadians in many sectors."
"Business opportunities exist across a wide range of sectors that match Canadian capabilities."
Export Development Canada

"It would appear that Canada continues to view Saudi Arabia with an outdated ideological lens."
"The current Canadian trade playbook is clearly not working, and Ottawa's foreign policy and engagement strategy in Saudi Arabia has backfired."
Omar Allam, former diplomat, CEO Allam Advisory Group trade consultancy

As Saudi Arabia undergoes a gradual change led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, toward social modernization and reform, social restrictions are being lifted and the "religious police" being defanged from imposing their strict moral codes even while clerics and prominent business executives and women's rights advocates are being arrested. This is a country for whom clearly charges of human rights abuses are a touchy subject, a country within which no tolerance exists for political expression opposing the government. It is also Canada's second-largest export market in the Gulf region.


Canada will now be relieved of the expectation that its $15-billion military vehicles sale to Saudi which has always been controversial, will proceed, much less other Canadian exports to the kingdom, at a time when the Trudeau government has made a total hash of other free trade agreements while it is sweating bullets over the lack of NAFTA progress with its largest by far global trading partner and neighbour. Things are not looking particularly good for Canada's future economy at this point. The cold anger that has resulted from Chrystia Freeland's misrepresented support for the Badawi family will do that family no good; they have been consigned, thanks to Canada, to continued oppression.

Screen grab of a tweet posted by the account @Infographic_KSA, which has since been shut down.
@Infographic_KSA / Twitter

And Saudi Arabia -- Wahhabist central -- whose ideological psychosis spawned al-Qaeda and 9-11? Well, a semi-official youth group posted a message for Canada on @infographic_ksa over an image that shows the skyline of Toronto and a plane flying toward it with the message "He who interferes with what doesn't concern him finds what doesn't please him", alongside an old Arab message whose text reads: "sticking one's nose where it doesn't belong!".

So Canada's ambassador to Saudi Arabia has been summarily dismissed by the Saudi government -- expelled with the rest of his staff and it's anyone's guess for how long, while all new trade and investment deals with Saudi Arabia have been halted, all Saudi scholarship students attending universities in Canada recalled, and that does indeed "gravely concern" Canada which has responded via Foreign Affairs that it has no plans to reciprocate and expel the Saudi ambassador and staff from Canada, which is really and truly a great pity, since the embassy occupies prime Canadian real estate and it would be very nice to reclaim it.

The Saudi Arabian Embassy is shown in Ottawa, Canada, on Sunday, Aug. 5, 2018. Saudi Arabia has ordered Canadian Ambassador Dennis Horak to leave the ultraconservative kingdom within 24 hours after his nation criticized the recent arrests of women's rights activists. The Saudi Foreign Ministry also said it would freeze "all new business" between the kingdom and Canada. (David Kawai/The Canadian Press via AP)