Saudi crisis puts PM between a rock and a very hard place

Just a few short months ago, the Trudeau government was being in turns lauded and excoriated for speaking out about Saudi Arabia’s treatment of human rights activists. Globally, especially in the U.S., pundits were quick to call out Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland for their public condemnation of Saudi leadership. It was rash. Unwise and impolitic, they scolded.

No nation stood beside Canada. Inside our own country, opposition parties and domestic critics were savaging the government for going out on a limb and risking Saudi business and diplomatic interests.

Then came the disappearance and killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. What a difference a few months and an assassination make.

Now world leaders are speaking in a united voice: If Riyadh did indeed orchestrate the murder of the dissident journalist, it must pay the price. But what price, and at what cost?

Like many countries, Canada is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The logical thing to do once it is confirmed that Saudi leaders committed this atrocity would be to impose economic and trade punishment. In Canada’s case the logical choice would be to kill the odious deal that sees armoured vehicles built in the London area sold to Saudi’s military.

There are other options, including the one put forward by Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, who says Canada should stop buying Saudi oil. But that seems weak-kneed. The kingdom’s oil exports to Canada amount to less than one per cent of its daily output. That’s barely a mosquito bite to the biggest oil producer in the world.

So, back to the arms deal. While ending it would have a public and real impact on the Saudi regime, it would also have serious economic impact for Canada. Several hundred very well-compensated jobs would disappear in the London area. Not only that, but terms of the highly-secret deal struck by the Harper government apparently allow the kingdom to impose hefty penalties on Canada. Hefty to the tune of a billion dollars, possibly even billions.

Can Trudeau impose that kind of hurt on Canadian families and the already deficit-ridden treasury for the sake of communicating our displeasure with Saudi’s murderous leadership? Should he?

And what kind of precedent does that set? While Saudi Arabia’s human rights record is soaked in blood and torture, what about Russia and China, which routinely imprison and kill their own citizens? Do we reduce or reset business and trade ties with all nations whose records are dirty? And how dirty is too dirty?

Donald Trump doesn’t have this problem. He’s quite upset with the Saudis, referring to the Khashoggi matter as the “worst coverup in history.” But there’s little or no talk of economic or arms sanctions from the Americans.

Slaughtering a journalist and who knows how many other innocents is not nice, but it doesn’t get in the way of turning a profit in Trump’s mind.

Thankfully, Trudeau is not Trump and Canada is not the U.S. We have higher expectations around human rights. The government must be prepared to axe the arms deal and manage the consequences. And once it’s done, let’s not sell any more potentially deadly weapons to murderous regimes.

Trump’s America may not care, but we’re willing to bet many Canadians do.

While Saudi Arabia’s human rights record is soaked in blood and torture, what about Russia and China, which routinely imprison and kill their own citizens?