Canada should hang tough against Saudi Arabia

Let’s hear it for the Canadian government — and especially Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland — for standing up to the bullies running Saudi Arabia.

The oil-rich Middle Eastern kingdom has gone ballistic, diplomatically speaking, in its extreme response to an exceptionally reasoned call from Canadian officials for the release of jailed human rights activists in Saudi Arabia — two of whom have strong Canadian connections.

In a reaction that says more about the pathetic need of Saudi Arabia’s repressive rulers to be seen as tough guys than Canada’s supposed indiscretions, the Saudis have hit Canada hard on numerous fronts in recent days.

In addition to expelling Canada’s ambassador and recalling their own from Ottawa, the Saudis are freezing all new business and investment in Canada, recalling 15,000 Saudi students studying here and suspending flights to and from Toronto.

Clearly, the Saudis expect Canada to bend, if not give in. And even though bilateral trade between the two countries stands at a relatively modest $4 billion a year, some economic pain will be felt in this country.

Just as disturbing, however, was the vague Saudi threat to interfere in Canadian domestic affairs and then the digitally-altered image tweeted by a Saudi Arabian organization that showed a plane flying toward Toronto’s CN Tower.

Most people considered that image to be a chilling reference to the 9/11 hijacked jetliner attacks on the U.S. And that, along with the Saudi warning, made a nasty diplomatic row far more sinister.

The Saudi government seems furious. And even if they think the Saudis are going too far, some Canadians will wonder if Ottawa should pull in its horns, step back and stop defending human rights activists in Saudi Arabia.

But that would be the wrong course of action to take. We live in a time when liberal democracies are under mounting pressure, a time when dictators and autocrats are making gains at the expense of individual liberties. The enormous strides in human rights that have been made since the Second World War are in danger of being pushed back in many places.

If democracies such as Canada will not speak out in defence of human rights these days, who will? If Canada is cowed by the Saudi petro-plutocrats — who have one of the world’s worst records for human rights abuses — who won’t be?

Canadian diplomats were fully justified when they tweeted last week that the kingdom should “immediately release” detained women’s rights activists.

Likewise, Minister Freeland was performing her duty as a leading Canadian voice last week when she wrote: “We continue to strongly call for the release of both Raif and Samar Badawi.”

The case of Raif Badawi became a rallying point for international human rights organizations after he was harshly sentenced in 2014 to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for criticizing Saudi Arabia’s powerful clerics. His wife, Ensaf Haidar, is a Canadian citizen.

So in speaking up for him and his sister Samar Badawi, who was arrested in Saudi Arabia last week, Freeland also did what Canadian federal officials should do — advocate for Canadian families with loved ones in trouble around the world.

How hypocritical for the Saudi government — which has been bombing rebels and civilians in neighbouring Yemen — to accuse Canada of interfering in another country’s internal affairs.

It’s time for Canada’s allies in Europe and North America to rally around it.

It’s also time Canadians ask why they continue to get almost 10 per cent of their crude oil from the Saudis instead of buying more from Alberta.