Tawdry Headline Grabbing Spectacle : Liberal Special

"I'm Rahaf Mohmed, formally seeking a refugee status to any country that would protect me from getting harmed or killed due to leaving my religion and torture from my family [sic]."
Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, Twitter, January 6

"Ultimately it boiled down to an issue of timing in the end."
"Canada was able to guarantee and certify that they could handle this quite swiftly, and that's why Rahaf was brought to Canada."
Lauren La Rose, spokesperson, UNHCR Canada

"We believe very strongly that women's rights are human rights. The oppression of women is not a problem that can be resolved in a day. But rather than cursing the darkness, we really believe -- I believe -- in lighting a single candle."
"And where we can save a single person, where we can save a single woman, that's a good thing to do."
Chrystia Freeland, Foreign Affairs Minister

Saudi woman Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, centre, stands with Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland, right, as she arrives at Toronto Pearson International Airport, on Saturday, January 12, 2019.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Well, that was quite the whirlwind of a young woman's plight that entered the public scene through a few Twitter posts by an anxious teen. Her appeal for attention and help to resolve her runaway dilemma was hugely successful. That she's a Saudi national, where women and girls are strictly chaperoned in public and only recently been permitted to drive vehicles captured a lot of attention to begin with. She comes from a culture where women traditionally wear black chadors covering their bodies, niqabs covering all but their eyes. Saudi women cannot travel abroad without their male guardians' permission, nor open bank accounts.

Critics of the Kingdom and its governance can quickly find their way into notorious prison interiors. As did Raif Badawi, a blogger critical of the human rights record of his native country. For which assault against his nation's reputation he was consigned to a long imprisonment and a punishment of 1,000 lashes for good measure. The first lashes administered to him several years ago almost killed the frail young man. He still languishes in a Saudi prison as his wife agitates for his release from her home in Quebec, as a Canadian citizen.

It was his wife, in fact, Ensaf Haidar, who was one of the first to draw attention to the plight of 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, alerting her many Twitter followers, picking up momentum on a campaign to have the girl protected so she wouldn't be forced to return against her will to Saudi Arabia and to her family which she claims have abused her and whom she claims to fear might kill her for repudiating Islam and running off to the West. Ms. Haidar took it upon herself to contact the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, urging Canada to give Ms. Alqunun haven.

And what a splendid opportunity that turned out to be for the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, the prime minister who defends illegal entry to Canada as a boon for Canadian employers having difficulty finding enough workers to fill various employment categories. Trudeau has described illegal migrants entering Canada outside official ports of entry as prospective citizens, making light of their illegal entry. Canada has a robust policy of accepting an average of a quarter-million immigrants yearly.

The process however, is geared toward benefiting Canada with the presence of educated people capable of finding a place for themselves in society among an evolving, highly-educated workforce. There are more university graduates in Canada than any other developed country of the world. Canada is a country whose backbone is that of immigration and always has been. But those who wish to emigrate from a country of birth to Canada must do so fairly, through established legal channels.

Canada hasn't shirked in accepting its ration as a developed country of refugees. The situation with this young Saudi woman seeking haven has been a heaven-sent opportunity for Trudeau and his Liberals; once again touting their bona fides as 'feminists', supporters of women's rights and prepared where other countries hesitate, to clasp a fearful young woman to the Liberal bosom. The photo opportunity to greet the entry of Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun into Canada on a flight from Seoul was irresistible.

So there was the Minister of Global Affairs (Foreign Affairs) not too busy to grab the opportunity to gush with self-importance, greet the new arrival at the airport, to take her under the concerned wing of a Minister of the Crown, to espouse in the process the commitment of the (Liberal) Government of Canada to women's rights and defence of the vulnerable, all the while ensuring that upstarts like Ensaf Haidar and journalist Tarek Fatah, both of whom had mounted media campaigns for the young woman's rescue, were kept a distance from Chrystia Freeland's prize.

Rahaf Mohammed, formerly Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, poses at COSTI (Immigrant Services) offices on College St. in Toronto on Jan. 14, 2019.  (Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star)