In quebec, hundreds of saudi students have to make new plans, amnesty international calls for solidarity and twitter feeds are seeing saudi trolls expressing support for sovereignty.

Almost 400 students in Montreal might be transferred other countries after the Saudi government announced its plans to withdraw its students from Canadian institutions in retaliation for Canada expressing concerns about civil rights in the kingdom.

While the plan to relocate students in Canada is still unclear, The Globe and Mail reported that a government official said those who are studying in Canada on scholarships, grants or in trainee programs funded by the kingdom will be transferred to countries with similar education systems. The source told the paper that there are approximately 20,000 students in Canada with government-subsidized tuition.

McGill University had the highest population of Saudi students in Montreal with 327 registered during the 2017-2018 academic year.

A statement from the university sent to the Gazette said: “We don’t yet know exact registration numbers for the coming academic year, or how those numbers might be affected by today’s reported measures by the Saudi government.”

McGill’s Faculty of Medicine is currently four years into a fiveyear partnership with King Saud University in Riyadh, the kingdom’s capital.

The agreement was meant to “pursue and strengthen academic collaborations” and included scholar exchanges. The university was unable to immediately say what Monday’s news could mean for the agreement.

Concordia University, who had 60 students studying on scholarship from the Saudi government, also said they “are waiting for clarification from the government on what this will mean for these students and future students.”

A spokesperson for Université du Québec à Montréal said they are communicating with their two Saudi students about what this decision could mean. The Université de Montréal did not respond to the Gazette’s request for how many students might be affected or how the university will deal with this plan.

Dominic Perri, a city councillor in St-Léonard, also expressed concern Monday about what the Saudi government’s decision could mean for “precarious programs” in Quebec universities.

The Quebec government deregulated tuition rates for international students in May, which allows universities to charge those students what they please.