Canadian Values? Because We Are Canajun, Eh!?!

"There is nothing to mediate. A mistake has been made and a mistake should be corrected."
"Canada knows what it needs to do. We [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] don't accept interference in our affairs."
Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir

"As the minister has said and as we will repeat, Canada will always speak strongly and clearly in private and in public on questions of human rights."
"We don't want to have poor relations with Saudi Arabia. It's a country that has a certain importance in the world and is making progress on human rights. But we will continue to underline challenges when they exist there and everywhere in the world."
"I think people understand that in today's world there are a broad range of communications tools available to individuals, to countries, to share messages, to make statements." 
"We will continue to use the full range of methods of communication as appropriate."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"We are becoming too carefree with tweets."
"It is diplomacy by tweet that is responsible [for the current breakdown in diplomatic relations between Canada and Saudi Arabia]."
"When you're the government of Canada and the ministry of foreign affairs, you've got to be careful [in what you commit to that cannot be retracted in public]."
Former diplomat Colin Robertson, vice-president, Canadian Global Affairs Institute

Undeniably Twitter pronouncements are clumsy and inappropriate for use by executive government in transmitting national positions on any matter under discussion. And one as sensitive as human rights and the government of Canada's wish to urge another nation to relent on its stern and punitive laws victimizing those of its citizens who find fault with the Sharia interpretation of Salafist Islam imposed upon Saudi nationals should remain a matter of discreet diplomacy behind closed doors. To embarrass an ally by self-righteous accusations publicly is the antithesis of diplomacy.

Justin Trudeau should by now be aware that the blunt and brief and very public medium of Twitter messaging can come back to bite and haunt the tweeter, unwary and self-involved as he is, regardless. So, no, Prime Minister, its use is never, ever 'appropriate' for use as a medium by which one state can approach another over sensitive matters. To secure the release of a prisoner sentenced to harsh and anti-humane punishment because his actions have displeased Saudi rulers, a discreet approach is required to achieve any measure of success.

Arousing the furious ire of those you set out to guide toward a more tolerant outlook on punishment is the most certain way to ensure that that prisoner and others like them will never be released; indeed the level of their punishment is certain to be increased. This is a theocratic kingdom after all, that feels justified in beheading those they consider to be criminal malefactors, and who only yesterday crucified a man convicted of murder; that crucifixion taking place in the Islamic holy city of Mecca for good measure.

The Trudeau Liberal government is so enmeshed in its cocoon of hubristic sanctimony over human rights that it regularly neon-flashes its dedication to advancing the rights of the LGBTQ-2 community to the extent of insisting their welfare be considered in international trade agreements; a bulb of garlic planted deep within a mocha chocolate cake and served with pride. Calling Saudi Arabia publicly to account for its human rights transgressions would have greater heft if Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland had tweeted her disgust for Saudi warplanes bombing civilians in Yemen.

Or calling the Kingdom to account for investing its oil billions in madrassas and mosques preaching Wahhabi Islamic tenets and traditions, leading Sunni Muslims to embrace the exaltation of jihad and martyrdom, along with installing imams and mullahs throughout Europe and North America, including Canada, whose Friday night sermons conclude with exhortations to hate Jews and Christians and pray to Allah for their destruction.



A careless throwaway comment on Twitter by Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs who must momentarily have forgotten who and what she represents and succumbed to the allure of popularizing herself as a champion of free speech and human rights has done nothing whatsoever to chasten Saudi Arabia and elevate Canada's reputation as a straight-speaking, strategic and intelligent nation among equals, none of whom have rushed to support Canada, preferring to adhere to their own careful counsel for fear of ruining investment and business opportunities in the oil-wealthy state that a lapse by someone too invested in her own cleverness has created for Canada.

Justin Trudeau can trumpet and harrumph that "Canadians have always expected our government to speak strongly, firmly and politely about the need to respect human rights around the world", but that voice has been strangely silent about many of the instances of carnage taking place by other governments such as that of Syria's regime in imposing seven long years of bloodshed on its majority Sunni Syrian population opposing the reign of a bloody tyrant, or vociferously as is required damning the Islamic Republic of Iran for its incitement to terrorism and threats of annihilation of another state.

Government of Canada support of human rights and equality outcomes and the failings of human-rights-abusing states are entirely too selective for major impact at home in sanctimonious righteousness and distinctly unimpressive abroad for its limp oversights. The Trudeau government now portrays this colossal blunder as a deliberate, noble act on their part, while in emergency cabinet meetings frantically attempting to limit fallout from a hysterically raging Islamist nation taking umbrage so severe that all normal interactions have been halted.

Canada's ambassador expelled from Saudi Arabia, all Saudi investments in Canada to be sold, all direct flights from Riyadh to Toronto stopped, all Saudi scholarship university students recalled, all two-way trade as well as trade agreements brought to a screeching halt. A steep price for an unwary slip. And one that will force Canada to become more self-sufficient in oil, finally. So there are some areas that present as a saving grace; should contact with a human-rights-abusing nation be completely severed; trade, exchange students, investment ... and reclaiming prize real estate upon which the Saudi embassy squats in Ottawa.

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