Early morning on Aug. 5, I woke up to the news that Saudi Arabia has not only kicked out the Canadian ambassador but halted all new trade deals with our fair country. Later, the Saudi government announced they will be pulling out all Saudi students studying in Canada under the King Abdullah Scholarship Program (KASP).
After reading this, I let out a long sigh and chugged the rest of my coffee, realizing that it was going to be a long day.
When it comes to relations between Canada and the Middle East, things often get messy. This is because it doesn’t come down to what we should or shouldn’t do, but what we want to do and what we need to do.
Allow me to briefly explain what prompted Saudi Arabia to take such extreme action. All of this began when two prominent women’s rights activists were arrested in Saudi Arabia. In response to this unsightly repression, the Canadian foreign affairs minister, Chrystia Freeland, took a monumentally brave action.
In order to truly fight for civil liberties, she hopped on Twitter and asked the Saudi government to maybe not be regressive misogynists for five minutes.
This is not to downplay the significance of her statement—the meaning behind it is more important than the platform she decided to use to post it. It’s a grand proclamation saying that Canada stands with the men and women fighting for freedom in an otherwise repressed kingdom.
Lo and behold, said kingdom responded in a “fair” and “balanced” manner, by booting the Canadian ambassador and proceeding to cut off all new trade deals with Canada. This move will result in Canada losing hundreds of millions of dollars from trade with the Saudi kingdom, who has always been a big buyer of Canadian weapons, jets and tanks.
A harsh decision, but not unexpected or uncommon—trade sanctions have been used for many decades. The logic behind this being if you can’t win their hearts and minds, win over their wallets. It’s a cold economic strategy, but it’s effective. Canada itself has been using this strategy for a while. Just think of the tariffs and trade regulations we have placed on countries like North Korea, Iran, and even the United States.
So, along the same lines, Saudi Arabia’s move didn’t come out of nowhere. The Saudi government’s decision to pull out Saudi students studying in Canada might end up being the biggest economic hit from this whole fiasco. Ontario international students’ tuition payments generated around $1.28 billion in 2015-16, according to the CBC. This number will take a hit because of the sanctions, and might set a troubling precedent if any other foreign states wish to knock Canada down a peg or two.
Right now, we’re standing at a crossroads, and we have two options going forward. On one hand, we can bite our tongues and apologize for having the audacity to encourage civil freedoms, in the hopes that this will ease tensions and we can continue trade as it is. This is the most economically sound option, but in exchange, we throw many people depending on Canada for support under the bus.
The other option is to stand up and stand by our minister and ambassador, and to say that no economic tariffs or foreign bullies will stand in the way of Canada’s reputation for upholding human rights.
You probably think you know where I’m going with this, and I’m afraid I have to disappoint you. Remember when I said it’s about wants and needs? I want us to stand for civil liberties across the world, but we need to ensure the economic well-being of the people here.
Canada’s continuation of its aggressive grandstanding might lead to possible good being done across the sea, but in exchange, people here will certainly suffer. Our economy isn’t doing well, and the last thing we need is a trade war with the Saudis. A government’s main job is to serve the people. In this case, the best thing for the Canadian people is to comply.
In other words, we are left with two unappealing options: we either swallow our pride or choke on it.
