"We don’t have a single friend"

[vacuum]

‘We don’t have a single friend’: Canada’s Saudi spat reveals country is alone

As Saudi officials lashed out at Canada this week, the US remained on the sidelines, signaling a blatant shift in the relationship

Ashifa Kassam (https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ashifa-kassam) in Toronto
@ashifa_k (https://twitter.com/ashifa_k)
Sat 11 Aug 2018 10.00 BST Last modified on Sat 11 Aug 2018 15.39 BST

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Justin Trudeau has said Canada will continue to speak firmly on human rights issues ‘wherever we see the need’. Photograph: Christinne Muschi/ReuterSoon after Donald Trump took office, it became clear that the longstanding relationship between the United States and its northern neighbour was about to change: there were terse renegotiations of Nafta, thousands of asylum seekers walking across the shared border and attacks on against Canada’s protectionist trade policies.

But this week laid bare perhaps the most blatant shift in the relationship, as the United States said it would remain on the sidelines while Saudi officials lashed out at Canada (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/06/saudi-arabia-expels-canadian-ambassador-for-urging-release-of-activists) over its call to release jailed civil rights activists.

“It’s up for the government of Saudi Arabia (https://www.theguardian.com/world/saudiarabia) and the Canadians to work this out,” state department spokesperson Heather Nauert said this week. “Both sides need to diplomatically resolve this together. We can’t do it for them.”

Canada’s lonely stance was swiftly noticed north of the border.“We do not have a single friend in the whole entire world,” Rachel Curran, a policy director under former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, lamented on Twitter. (https://twitter.com/reicurran/status/1026973541558677504)

The United Kingdom was similarly muted in its response, noted Bob Rae, a former leader of the federal Liberal party. “The Brits and the Trumpians run for cover and say ‘we’re friends with both the Saudis and the Canadians,’” Rae wrote on Twitter. (https://twitter.com/BobRae48/status/1026920310799519745) “Thanks for the support for human rights, guys, and we’ll remember this one for sure.”

The spat appeared to have been sparked last week when Canada’s foreign ministry expressed its concern (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/06/saudi-arabia-expels-canadian-ambassador-for-urging-release-of-activists) over the arrest of Saudi civil society and women’s rights activists, in a tweet that echoed concerns previously voiced by the United Nations.
(https://twitter.com/davidakaye/status/1026885618184253440)
Saudi Arabia swiftly shot back, expelling Canada’s ambassador and suspending new trade and investment with Ottawa, (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/06/saudi-arabia-expels-canadian-ambassador-for-urging-release-of-activists) making plans to remove thousands of Saudi students and medical patients from Canada, and suspending the state airline’s flights to and from Canada, among other actions.

Speaking to reporters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister urged Canada to “fix its big mistake” (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/08/saudi-arabia-canada-latest-egypt-russia) and warned that the kingdom was considering additional measures against Canada.

Analysts and regional officials said the spat had little to do with Canada (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/07/saudi-arabia-canada-spat-analysis), instead characterising Riyadh’s actions as a broader signal to western governments that any criticism of its domestic policies is unacceptable.

Several countries expressed support for Saudi Arabia, including Egypt and Russia. But Canada continued to stand alone, even as state-run media in the kingdom reported the beheading and “crucifixion” (https://apnews.com/2d9975a0643e49caac650fcde44ca231/Saudi-Arabia-crucifies-Myanmar-man-convicted-of-murder) of a man convicted of killing a woman and carrying out other crimes.

Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, said Canada was continuing to engage diplomatically and politically with Saudi Arabia (https://www.theguardian.com/world/saudiarabia). “We have respect for their importance in the world and recognise that they have made progress on a number of important issues,” he told reporters this week.

He insisted, however, that his government would continue to press Saudi Arabia on its human rights record. “We will, at the same time, continue to speak clearly and firmly on issues of human rights at home and abroad wherever we see the need.”

In this particular dispute, Canada did not need US help, said Thomas Juneau, a professor at the University of Ottawa. “Saudi Arabia-Canada relations are very limited, so there’s not a lot of damage being done to Canada (https://www.theguardian.com/world/canada) right now,” he said. “But this should be a source of major anxiety: when a real crisis comes and we are alone, what do we do?”

http://magaimg.net/img/5xef.jpg

The week’s events have added impetus to a conversation that is slowly getting underway in Canada, Juneau said. “We are starting some serious soul-searching in the sense of what does it mean for Canada to have a US that is much more unilateral, much more dismissive of the rules and the norms and of its leadership role in the international order that it has played for 70 years?”

These changes south of the border have clearly emboldened Saudi Arabia, Juneau argued, describing the kingdom’s recent actions in Yemen, (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/10/saudi-arabia-israel-civilians-britain-yemen-palestinian-arms) Qatar (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/06/gulf-states-plans-end-saudi-arabia-qatar-boycott) and Lebanon (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/11/lebanon-saudi-arabia-iran--power-struggle-saad-hariri-resignation) as a pattern of aggressive, ambitious and reckless behaviour.

He saw no immediate end to the row, particularly as neither side is suffering significant costs in the dispute. Saudi Arabia has shown little inclination in recent years to walk back from its reckless and impulsive behaviour, he said, while Canada’s federal government – facing an election in some 14 months and already under fire for signing off on the sale of more than 900 armoured vehicles to Riyadh (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/21/justin-trudeau-defends-canada-arms-sales-to-saudi-arabia) – is loathe to be seen adopting any kind of conciliatory posture towards the conservative kingdom.

While some in Canada had been disappointed to see the UK and Europe opt to publicly stay out of the diplomatic spat, Juneau described it as unsurprising. “When Saudi Arabia had comparable fights with Sweden and Germany in recent years, did Canada go out of its way to side with Sweden and Germany? No, not at all,” he said. “We stayed quiet because we had nothing to gain from getting involved. So on the European side, the calculation is the same.”

Canada’s lonely stand for women’s rights in the kingdom did earn the support of some around the world; this week saw the Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/08/the-guardian-view-on-saudi-arabia-time-to-back-canada) and the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/06/opinion/saudi-arabia-canada.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article&region=Footer) publish editorials urging Europe and the US to stand with Canada. So did the Washington Post, (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/canada-wont-look-the-other-way-on-saudi-arabia-we-shouldnt-either/2018/08/07/c5b5483c-9a62-11e8-b60b-1c897f17e185_story.html?utm_term=.678f099c041e) going one step further by publishing their editorial in Arabic.

Their call was echoed by a handful of prominent voices in the US, including Bernie Sanders. “It’s entirely legitimate for democratic governments to highlight human rights issues with undemocratic governments,” the US senator wrote on Twitter. (https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1026545349056319489)“The US must be clear in condemning repression, especially when done by governments that receive our support.”

[Neuro]

While some in Canada had been disappointed to see the UK and Europe opt to publicly stay out of the diplomatic spat, Juneau described it as unsurprising. “When Saudi Arabia had comparable fights with Sweden and Germany in recent years, did Canada go out of its way to side with Sweden and Germany? No, not at all,” he said. “We stayed quiet because we had nothing to gain from getting involved. So on the European side, the calculation is the same.”

Exactly, criticize SA for one of its many human rights abuses, and you will stand completely alone. The theocracy is beyond reproach.

The world would be a much better place if it took the land and the resources from the Saud family of crypto Jews and gave it to Canada, Sweden and Germany to govern. Not only because of the conflicts the perverts has created in the Middle East , but I think it would be useful for especially these countries to become colonial powers. The reality on the ground would challenge their Cultural Marxist ideologies. I can just see how Swedish health and social authorities are twisting themselves outside in writing value neutral pamphlets condemning public beheadings and judicial branch discussing it with local tribal leaders.

(they did something like this in Sweden a few months ago when the health and social authorities wrote a brochure; directed towards Muslim men who were married to children. Nowhere in the pamphlet did it say it was illegal and subject to a prison sentence. It made part of the populous at least temporarily wake up from its cultural Marxist slumber.)

[vacuum]

Exactly, criticize SA for one of its many human rights abuses, and you will stand completely alone. The theocracy is beyond reproach.

The world would be a much better place if it took the land and the resources from the Saud family of crypto Jews and gave it to Canada, Sweden and Germany to govern.

You have agitators with Canadian citizenship go to Saudi Arabia, break Saudi Arabian laws, and then get thrown in Saudi Arabian jail and Canada calls for their immediate release.

If Canadian or European citizens came into the USA and started protesting to take away our guns, I would fully support locking them up in prison for life, if not worse.

I have zero sympathy for people that go stir shit up in places that they don't live in.

As far as Saudi Arabia, you need tyrants to rule over people who still live in the 12th century. I don't care what they do there, but I do care if they do anything beyond their borders, again, if the Saudis start stirring shit up in foreign countries then they deserve the harshest treatment.

[Neuro]

You have agitators with Canadian citizenship go to Saudi Arabia, break Saudi Arabian laws, and then get thrown in Saudi Arabian jail and Canada calls for their immediate release.

If Canadian or European citizens came into the USA and started protesting to take away our guns, I would fully support locking them up in prison for life, if not worse.

I have zero sympathy for people that go stir shit up in places that they don't live in.

As far as Saudi Arabia, you need tyrants to rule over people who still live in the 12th century. I don't care what they do there, but I do care if they do anything beyond their borders, again, if the Saudis start stirring shit up in foreign countries then they deserve the harshest treatment.
Like most third world shitholes they were better off during colonialism. Saudi is of course difficult to compare since they didn’t have the oil during colonial ottoman rule, thus the material standards is incomparable. I do agree that you can’t deal with these people with silk gloves, but they shouldn’t be able to make their own rules in their home countries either and then try to export them to the rest of the world (wahabism). The funny thing is that whenever a country in the West protests this expression of wahabism, all the others shut up, because they know it has a price (loss of export contracts), but essentially there is no-one in the Western Hemisphere that disagrees with the criticism. Saudi Arabia is probably the worst country in the world from a moral ethical point of view.

German colonialism late 19th century until WWI was probably the best for local populations. In that Germans felt the compunction to take care and improve the lot of the local population. England was decidedly worse, but at least improved the infrastructure and left a functioning legal system. France slightly worse than the brits, not much infrastructure built in their former colonies. Belgium was of course the worst, in that they encouraged tribal murders to get the rubber.

I do think Germany, Sweden and Canada could become good administrators of the Third World. They need to keep their natural altruism, but shake off the cultural marxism we have been indoctrinated in since WWII was lost. Being a colonial power would force us to chuck that yoke off.

[keehah]

making plans to remove thousands of Saudi students

Good idea, they won't have to worry about students returning not knowing which of the 20+ genders they are but ready to throw open the borders and the productive Saudi cis-males from roof-tops.

[Horn]

I think the point of all the tears is so it does not upset the next Canadian armament shipment or human rights violation Canadian governmental land grab for carbon taxing purposes.

Nothing must shake the complete violation and manipulated .gov market or plastic copycat sneakers from China, unless stirred.

Just tears from Justin's eyes, while technocrats see what it takes to balance westerners into easterners and vice/versa homogenization thru unilateral nationalism.