SAUDI OIL STILL PREFERRED OVER OUR CRUDE

Believing you’ve waded to the bottom of the rampant hypocrisy and dreary duplicity surrounding this Saudi Arabian diplomatic mess we’re involved in, then, hey, presto — up pops good old Denis Coderre.

No doubt many Calgarians recall the former mayor of Montreal, who rallied municipal support across Quebec to stop TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline from delivering Alberta crude to East Coast refineries.

Remember his delight when that project was kiboshed, following a series of well-orchestrated protests?

Though far from a leading player in the current drama involving the Saudis’ feigned outrage over a tweet from Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, admonishing that bleak desert kingdom about its human rights activities, Coderre has a noticeable cameo role in these convoluted shenanigans.

A few years back, taking time out from skewering Alberta, the then-Montreal mayor was soap-box standing on another matter: urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper to call the Saudis to protest, in the sternest manner, about the treatment of Raif Badawi.

Badawi was jailed over an open debate website he’d set up. For that heinous crime, he received 10 years and 1,000 lashes (he wouldn’t get them all at once, as that would kill him, so they’d be spaced out 50 at a time.)

His wife Samar and three kids were welcomed into Quebec as refugees. Never finding a microphone he didn’t like, Coderre entered the fray. After meeting the desperate family, he took centre stage: “Pressure from Canada and a phone call from the prime minister could make a big difference,” he declared.

“I’m a former immigration minister. I believe in reuniting families,” he added, no doubt from the bottom of his big heart.

Meanwhile, each day, another 135,000 barrels of Saudi oil arrived at New Brunswick refineries, ones willing to accept Alberta crude instead, if only Coderre and his pals would stop the

endless protests and grandstanding. Reuniting families only goes so far, it seems.

So, a few months later, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, getting settled at the big-boy table, stood in the House to defend the sale, under the previous group, of $15-billion worth of armaments — heavy-duty armoured vehicles — to the Saudis. “Permits are only approved if the exports are consistent with our foreign and defence policies, including human rights,” was his sanctified position.

Meanwhile, those tankers kept acoming. By then, TransCanada could see the end of its pipeline and no, it wasn’t in New Brunswick.

But then video surfaces, claiming to show those same Canadian military vehicles being used to crack down on Shia dissidents in Saudi Arabia. There are red faces.

(So what did we think they would do with heavy cannons? Some new form of Olympic skeet shooting ?)

Yep, there’s a problem. And guess who’s charged with fixing it? Come on down, Chrystia Freeland: holly, molly, it’s the same person tweeting like a deranged budgie only a week ago about human rights abuses.

So what did her Canadian heavy weaponry probe reveal? Who knows, it was never made public.

Laugh, because it’s better than crying.

Deal with the Saudis because they have lots of money and can help goose the economy or, instead, announce it’s a despotic regime with which we want nothing to do with.

Hey, either way is OK with me — principles or practicalities, take your choice.

But don’t try eating your cake and having it. Freeland played to Twitter’s peanut gallery, the Saudis wanted to send a lesson (perhaps egged on by the Americans who spotted a way of weakening her and therefore Canada in NAFTA talks) and now we’ve this current stand off.

Yet, through it all, those barrels of Saudi crude arrive by tanker each day. Neither side even suggests ending that situation. This is sickening on so many levels. My prediction? Saudis, happy to have sent a global warning, back off, Freeland and Canada are weakened in trade talks, while Alberta oil, remarkably, somehow remains the bad guy.

Well, at least that will make Denis Coderre happy.