Al-Jazeera, Qatar, August 9
The Canadian government finally exposed the true face of the Saudi regime last week, when a harmless tweet posted by the Canadian Foreign Ministry sparked an aggressive diplomatic Saudi attack on Ottawa. The original tweet called on Saudi authorities to release all human rights activists arrested in the Kingdom in recent months, including Samar Badawi, a notable human rights activist who has been detained in Riyadh in 2012 for “defaming Islam.” The Saudi response was not only rash, but also extremely disproportional. Saudi Arabia expelled the Canadian ambassador from Riyadh, recalled its own ambassador from Canada, placed a freeze on all bilateral trade agreements with Canada, halted all commercial flights between Riyadh and Canadian cities, and revoked all permits of Saudi citizens studying in Canada. The Canadian response, meanwhile, was calm and measured. The Canadian Foreign Ministry simply responded by claiming that it stands by its original message of protecting human rights around the world. An important thing to note in the wake of this crisis is that Canada was not alone in criticizing Saudi Arabia’s treatment of human rights groups. A report published by the U.S. State Department earlier this year devoted an entire chapter to Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations, which includes extrajudicial killings, imprisonment of activists, and harassment of political dissidents. Yet Riyadh did not respond to the American report, and most certainly did not recall its ambassador from Washington. This is because the Saudi economy is far too dependent on America to afford any heated response against U.S. President Donald Trump. Justin Trudeau, however, is a different case. Canada quickly became the prime target of a barrage of Saudi attacks. Thus, this crisis is far more telling than we even realize. It not only brought to the fore the human rights abuses that take place in Saudi Arabia on a regular basis, but also exposed the Kingdom’s hypocrisy of retaliating against certain criticisms while ignoring others. We can only hope that other countries will follow Canada’s footsteps and confront the government in Riyadh for its problematic behavior. –Ali Anuzlan