What you need to know about the feud between Canada and Saudi Arabia (2024)

In the matter of a few days, a diplomatic dispute between Canada and Saudi Arabia has exploded into full public view.

Saudi Arabia has retaliated against Canada’s criticism of the Kingdom’s crackdown on human rights activists by expelling the Canadian ambassador and withdrawing its own envoy. Now it plans to pull out around 15,000 students studying in Canada who are being sponsored by the Saudi government. Saudi Arabian Airlines’ has even announced it will suspend all flights to and from Toronto as of Aug. 13.

We break down the sequence of events in this feud and what really may be going on.

When did this start?

On Aug. 2, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland tweeted that Canada was “alarmed” to learn that Samar Badawi, sister of Saudi writer Raif Badawi’s sister, has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, adding that Canada stands together with the Badawi family, calling for both of the siblings to be released.

The next day, Freeland’s department tweeted that Canada is “gravely concerned about additional arrests of civil society and women’s rights activists in #SaudiArabia, including Samar Badawi.”

“We urge the Saudi authorities to immediately release them and all other peaceful #humanrights activists,” said the tweet.

The comments triggered a dramatic and unexpected response from Riyadh. It vowed on Sunday it would “put on hold all new business and investment transactions with Canada while retaining its right to take further action,” and gave Canadian ambassador Dennis Horak one day to leave the country.

The statement characterized Freeland and her department’s criticisms as “blatant interference in the Kingdom’s domestic affairs, against basic international norms and all international protocols” and a “major, unacceptable affront to the Kingdom’s laws and judicial process, as well as a violation of the Kingdom’s sovereignty.”

“Any further step from the Canadian side in that direction will be considered as acknowledgment of our right to interfere in the Canadian domestic affairs,” then statement continued.

How is Saudi Arabia retaliating?

According to Saudi-owned Al Arabia, the country has announced “the suspension of training, scholarships and fellowships to Canada and the transfer all its students in that state to other countries.”

The country has also decided to freeze all new business with Ottawa, including all new trade and investment agreements.

There are more than 15,000 students from Saudi Arabia studying in Canada, funded by the Saudi government, according to a source quoted by The Globe and Mail. With their family members, they make up about 20,000 people. According to the source, all these students will be placed in other countries with similar education systems, like the UK and the United States.

It’s unclear what, if any, effect the diplomatic spat will have on Canada’s controversial $15-billion deal to supply Saudi Arabia with light armoured vehicles. The deal, approved under the previous Conservative government and given the final green light by the governing Liberals, was heavily criticized in Canada because of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.

Is this the first time Canada has been critical of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record?

No, Freeland pointed out on Monday.

“There is nothing new or novel about Canada’s support for human rights, very much including women’s rights, around the world and including in Saudi Arabia,” she said, speaking with reporters in Vancouver.

Last year, in July, the Saudi ambassador told reporters that the Canadian government should mind its own business when it came to the Badawi case.

“We will continue to raise our concerns over his situation both in Riyadh and Ottawa,” Ms. Freeland’s spokesman, Adam Austen, said at the time.

And as for Washington, the US State Department issued a statement to Huffington Post, calling both Canada and the US “close allies” and declining to weigh in further.

Experts have suggested that Saudi Arabia’s moves aren’t meant to target Canada, but are designed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to make an example out of Canada for other Western countries who intend to criticize Saudi Arabia on human rights. Canada, which isn’t one of Saudi Arabia’s key allies or trade partners, makes for an easy target, some have pointed out.

Media and pro-government sympathizers have taken to pointing out Canada’s own record on human rights, including its treatment of Indigenous people, the conditions inside jails, among a host of other issues and accusations.

But the Saudis have also imposed limits on the commentary. On Monday, the Saudi ministry of media announced that it was investigating the account of a Saudi Arabian youth group called Infographic KSA, which posted an image on Twitter that seemed to show plane heading towards the CN Tower, accompanied by text that said: “As the Arabic saying goes: ‘He who interferes with what doesn’t concern him finds what doesn’t please him.’” The group, which has a history of posting pro-government messages, has since apologized and said the plane was supposed to “symbolize the return of the ambassador… We realize this was not clear and any other meaning was unintentional.”

Has this happened before?

In November, Saudi Arabia lashed out at Germany after its foreign minister made comments about the Kingdom’s military intervention in Yemen, recalling its ambassador and blacklisting some German companies.

The spat is also reminiscent of a dispute between Saudi Arabia and Sweden in 2015, when Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom condemned the sentence handed down to Badawi as “medieval.” Wallstorm was blocked from making a speech on human rights in front of the Arab League, Stockholm tore up an arms agreement between the two countries, and Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador to Sweden, and said it would no longer issue business visas to Swedish citizens or renew visas of those who were already in the country.

Thomas Juneau, an international affairs professor at the University of Ottawa who specializes in the Middle East, told VICE News that the Kingdom’s reaction could be the result of an “accumulation of tension and frustration in the bilateral relationship in the last two years or so over issues of human rights, over Canada’s reluctance to deepen the relationship as Saudi Arabia wanted to do.”

By 2017, Saudi Arabia was “irritated at Canada” because of the issue of human rights and because of civil society and media criticism of the Canadian government for selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, Juneau explained.

Aside from that, however, since King Salman came into power in 2015 and his son emerged as Crown Prince shortly after, the two have taken Saudi foreign policy in a completely different direction.

Juneau points to Saudi’s actions towards Yemen, Qatar, and a trip that the Lebanese Prime Minister took to Saudi Arabia, during which he announced that he was resigning, prompting speculation that he was kidnapped.

These actions towards Canada on Sunday are completely consistent with that pattern of “recklessness, impulsivity, much higher levels of ambition, much greater willingness to take risks and throw their weight around, and ultimately, to make mistakes,” said Juneau.

“Canada’s tweets late last week were quite bland and completely conventional,” said Juneau, pointing out that bilateral trade between the two countries is between $3 and $4 billion. “For Saudi Arabia, this is a relatively low cost way to send a message not only to Western countries, but also to its neighbours: toe the line or we will punish you.”

Cover image of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in Jeddah on June 6, 2018. Photo by Balkis Press/ABACAPRESS.COM