Saudi Arabia suddenly frosty
Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, recently learned the hard way that making policy statements on Twitter is not the wisest course of action (though she might have inferred that from the example of the American president).
Despite his nation’s terrible record of human rights abuses, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, did not take kindly to being criticized in public, particularly not by a woman. (Women are still treated as second-class citizens in the kingdom despite the recent concession that they may hold drivers’ licenses.)
So MBS declared our ambassador to Riyadh persona non grata and recalled his own ambassador to Ottawa. He also ordered the 15,000 Saudi students studying in Canada to return home immediately.
Were that not enough, he ordered all Saudi physicians (some 500 working as interns or residents in hospitals across the country) to leave Canada forthwith. His objective is clear. He wants to send a message to governments (other than those of the largest economies) that open criticism of Saudi Arabia will not be tolerated and that he will strike hard against any nation that dares speak publically about his country’s human rights abuses.
The fact that members of the Group of Seven did not openly condemn the Saudi actions against Canada illustrates that money is a strong determinant of government actions on matters of this sort.
While G-7 members deplore the Saudi’s human rights abuses, they would rather work diplomatically behind the scenes. So Canada is left to twist in the wind — undeniably correct, but alone.
On the international stage, there really very little of a practical nature that Canada can do. In international forums it can and should point out that the Saudi Arabia is signatory to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Arab Charter of Human Rights.
And we should continue to speak out about our support for human and particularly female rights.
Domestically, we have to try to ease the damage the loss of students and physicians will cause. The loss of the students will result in a significant reduction of revenues for educational institutions (estimated in excess of $400 million). The federal government should provide two years’ replacement funding to each institution that can prove a loss due to Saudi students decamping en masse. This will allow sufficient time for the institutions to make up for the loss.
For Saudi students who leave Canada, institutions should not provide any administrative assistance: that is, no records or transcripts.
When their significant investment in quality Canadian educations yields nothing, the students can actually use, it may serve to drive home to the Saudis the stupidity of their unilateral actions
Further, the government should immediately offer all Saudi physicians working in Canada landed immigrant status and a credit for years spent in Canada towards citizenship. The offer should be open for only a short period — say the next 14 days. Many may not take up the offer but some might and that would certainly ease the adjustment in health care.
This misadventure points out the risk associated with excessive reliance upon one particular country for foreign students. To drive the point home, in future no Saudi citizens should be admitted to Canadian institutions of learning or allowed to practice medicine in Canada.
These measures are admittedly unlikely to result in a change of policy by the Saudi government, but they should motivate both the medical profession and educators to rethink how they participate in the international market for students and healthcare professionals.
This entire affair is a regrettable incident with enormous collateral damage for many innocent victims.
The Crown Prince is not used to making compromises, so prepare for a long period of frosty relation between our two countries.