LICIA CORBELLA,
If point of Freeland’s missive was intended to help dissidents, she failed miserably
The Trudeau government’s obsession with virtue signalling via Twitter is costing us all greatly.
It was a tweet from Trudeau, after all, that ostensibly erased our southern border and tore up Canada’s immigration laws, with tragic results for legitimate refugees and immigrants waiting to start new lives here.
The results of Trudeau’s reckless actions are now well known and are being defined by a majority of Canadians in a recent Angus Reid Institute poll as a “crisis.”
More than 30,000 people — who are not refugees by Canada’s own legal definition — have simply walked across unofficial border points and claimed refugee status, and 67 per cent of Canadians don’t approve of this flouting of our laws.
Last January, Trudeau tweeted: “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength. #WelcometoCanada.” That tweet went viral and, as a result, Canada’s immigration system caught a nasty 20-month-long flu that shows no sign of stopping.
The latest fiasco is just a few days old, caused by the federal Liberal cabinet’s biggest (until this point) star — Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.
On Thursday, Freeland sent out a 247-character tweet criticizing Saudi Arabia’s detention of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for writing things that the oil-rich, intellectual ly poor, oppressive, terrorist exporting kingdom doesn’t like.
Badawi’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, and their three children live in Quebec and became Canadian citizens on Canada Day. Now, Badawi’s sister, Samar, has also been arrested and detained.
It’s perfectly reasonable for Freeland to try to have the Badawis freed. Canadians expect it. But it should never have been done publicly. By doing so, Freeland has likely ensured the Badawis won’t be released any time soon and could put their lives in jeopardy.
After tweeting that she was “alarmed” by Samar’s arrest, Freeland wrote, in part: “We continue to strongly call for the release of both Raif and Samar Badawi.”
The next day, the main Twitter account for Global Affairs Canada urged the Saudi authorities “to immediately release (the Badawis)” and all other peaceful rights activists.
The Saudi government responded first with its own tweet, criticizing Canada’s “blatant interference in the kingdom’s domestic affairs, against basic international norms and all international protocols,” adding the tweet was a “major, unacceptable affront to the kingdom’s laws and judicial process, as well as a violation of the kingdom’s sovereignty.”
On Sunday, Saudi Arabia gave Canada’s ambassador in Riyadh 24 hours to leave, recalled its own ambassador, placed a moratorium on any new trade and suspended the scholarships of about 15,000 Saudi students in Canada, which will harm the budgets of many Canadian post-secondary institutions. By Tuesday, the kingdom’s state airline announced it was suspending operation in Canada and the Saudi Grains Organization can no longer accept milling wheat or feed barley cargoes of Canadian origin.
David Chatterson, Canada’s former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said the purpose of any country’s foreign policy is to advance its own interests.
“When I heard about the tweet, my question was, well, what’s our objective here?” asked Chatterson. “Was it to mitigate the circumstances of Badawi? In which case we failed,” he said to CBC News. “Was it to inform the broader direction of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia?” he asked rhetorically. “Again, I don’t think we’ve done that. Have we advanced Canada’s interests? Definitely not.”
Chatterson said Canada should have approached this issue and others like it in a “much more professional, much more respectful manner.”
Perhaps the belligerence and bullying on Twitter that takes place almost hourly by U.S. President Donald Trump is rubbing off on the likes of Trudeau and Freeland. If so, that should stop. If the question is to tweet or not to tweet, the answer must be to never criticize another state.
Tweets, which can be only up to a maximum of 280 characters, are not the ideal way to get across one’s point of view, never mind to conduct diplomacy.
Duane Bratt, a political science professor at Calgary’s Mount Royal University, says the Saudis are using Canada as a convenient whipping boy to warn the rest of the world what will happen should other countries consider publicly criticizing the kingdom, which has only recently allowed women to drive.
“The tweet was not aimed at the Saudi government. It was aimed at the Canadian public for political gain. It was not aimed at helping the Badawis,” said Bratt.
“Not only has this backfired in the sense that no action is being taken in what we hope would happen, but the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Canada has just gone down the toilet,” added Bratt.
On Tuesday, federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau made light of the potential harm to Canadian interests — valued at about $3 billion-to $4-billion annually in trade both ways with the kingdom.
“We’ve been pretty clear in our dealings around the world and specifically in Saudi Arabia that we know that it’s important that we bring Canadian values around the world,” he said during a scrum.
Interesting isn’t it, how adamantly people like Morneau, Trudeau and Freeland make a big deal about standing up for Canadian values abroad, but have little problem with Saudi values — including niqabs being worn during citizenship ceremonies and at polling stations during democratic elections — right here at home in Canada?
How’s this for a Canadian value? Politeness and good manners.
Here’s another most Canadians will agree with: Virtue signalling in place of sound policy and hard work will never be a Canadian value.