Business as usual at college’s Saudi campus
Niagara College says it’s still business as usual for its 30 employees working at its controversial Saudi Arabia campuses despite the tense political dispute between the Middle East oil kingdom and Canada.
In response to Ottawa raising concerns over Saudi Arabia’s treatment of peaceful human rights protestors, Saudi Arabia says it will block all Saudi students from attending Canadian schools and shut down all direct flights between its airports and Canada.
Niagara College spokesman Michael Wales said the college is in “constant contact” with its 30 Canadian employees in Saudi Arabia and said that, at this point, “we are not aware of any impact on our operations in KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) at this time.”
“While the Saudi government has announced that its state airline will suspend direct flights to Canada, we are not aware of any interruption of the indirect flights between Canada and KSA offered by other airlines that the college typically uses for staff travel between Canada and
KSA,” Wales said in an emailed statement.
Wales would not say if the college will recommend its Canadian staff return home.
The dispute between Saudi Arabia and Canada began after Canadian government tweets last week called on Saudi Arabia to release all recently arrested peaceful human rights protesters.
Among those who Ottawa wants to see released is Samar Badawi, a Quebec resident and sister of imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi.
Last Thursday, Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, tweeted that she was
“very alarmed to learn that Samar Badawi, Raif Badawi’s sister, has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. Canada stands together with the Badawi family in this difficult time, and we continue to strongly call for the release of both Raif and Samar Badawi.”
In response, the Saudi government expelled Canada’s ambassador, said no students can attend Canadian schools and placed a freeze on all trade and investments with Canada.
Niagara College, in addition to running men’s only and women’s only campuses in Saudi Arabia — an issue that has earned the college criticism because of the country’s strict gender segregation rules and human rights abuses — also welcomes about 40 Saudi Arabian students to its campuses in Niagara, primarily in the bachelor of business administration degree programs.
Wales said of the 40 students expected for the fall semester, 36 receive scholarship from the Saudi government.
“Recognizing that this political situation is causing uncertainty for our Saudi students, the college is offering academic counselling and support while continuing to seek clarity on the immediate implications of the government of Saudi Arabia’s announcement,” the college said in a Tuesday statement. “As this is a sensitive diplomatic matter, we do not feel it would be appropriate to comment further at this time.”