Call Saudi Arabia the repressive kingdom it is

Canada should not back down in human rights fight

Pity Saudi Arabia, the world’s most fragile flower. It is feeling aggrieved. It is wilting under Canada’s withering gaze. Oh, the shame of it all.

It took only two terse statements to set off the poor, put-upon Saudis. The great offence? Chrystia Freeland tweeted that she was “very alarmed” to learn Samar Badawi, the sister of imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi, has also been jailed in Saudi Arabia. Freeland called “strongly” for their release. We escalated things unconscionably, as we belligerent Canadians can do, when we were emboldened the next day to say we are now “gravely concerned” and feverishly called for their “immediate” release.

To the Saudis, our little lament — standard stuff in such cases from western governments, routinely issued, immediately forgotten — were akin to lèse-majesté. This was “an overt and blatant interference” in the kingdom’s “internal affairs,” the Sheiks harrumphed, contravening “the most basic international norms.”

Now they’ve gone ballistic. They have expelled Canada’s ambassador in Riyadh; recalled their ambassador from Ottawa; announced the withdrawal of thousands of Saudi students and their families from Canada; frozen new trade and investment; and suspended flights to Canada.

Talk about touchy. All this because Canada — not influential powers like the United States, Great Britain and France — urged it to release prominent human rights activists.

The irony here is while Canada thinks itself a champion of human rights, our moral outrage

The irony here is while Canada thinks itself a champion of human rights, our moral outrage is selective

is selective; on China we have learned to shut up or lose a huge market.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia’s antediluvian view of human rights has not prevented us from selling it military vehicles. Two years ago, we found creative reasons not to cancel a deal signed by the Conservatives, who were once even louder avatars of human rights until that became financially inconvenient.

Now we have a “feminist foreign policy,” so we criticize human rights violations. Good. But it’s unlikely Freeland knew the Saudis would lose it over this. That’s because their reaction has less to do with Canada than with the crown prince showing his domestic critics he won’t be pushed around.

This is the great emancipator who has allowed Saudi women to drive. But the prince resents criticism from abroad and is making an example of little ol’ Canada, the Mr. Dressup of nations.

What happens next will be interesting. Will we grovel before the Saudis to keep their business? Will we find a way to walk this back?

Or, will we do something bold and honest? Will we double-down and call out one of the world’s most repressive regimes, a corrupt autocracy whose jails groan with dissidents?

If Canada wants to have an ethical foreign policy, in which conscience matters more than commerce, let us take a moral stand on Saudi Arabia. Let us align with reformers and moderates there, as we should in Turkey, Hungary, Poland and other places where democracy is newly under siege. Finally, let us stand for something.

We can begin by cancelling the contract to build the light armoured vehicles the Saudis are using in their war in Yemen. We can also reclaim Saudi Arabia’s prominent embassy on Sussex Drive.

How the Saudis landed on our ceremonial mile — along with the Americans, the British and the French, old and enduring friends — remains a mystery. Their presence is an insult.

If we really care about progress in Saudi Arabia, call it the medieval absolute monarchy it is, stop selling it arms, and send its embassy to Kanata.