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Personally, I'm all for aiming to stop dealing with Saudi Arabia as much as possible, and Canada taking a stand - but that's not what's happening. What has happened was that an empty utterance was put up on the internet, one that Canada could attempt to back up in some way, and what is the result of it at this point? It isn't Canada taking a stand - it's Saudi Arabia taking a stand and Canada displaying, quite clearly, that Saudi Arabia is willing to take a stand and Canada is not.
Think about it. Canada now has the opportunity to take a genuine stand and drop Saudi oil, along with any other Saudi products we buy. It wouldn't have a huge impact on SA, but it could be done and it would show we're not just all talk. Instead, we aren't doing that - we're continuing to buy their oil after our uttered platitude, putting money in Saudi pockets. Saudi Arabia on the other hand? They've ejected our diplomats, are calling back their students, have cut investments, are no longer buying products from us... They've stripped a huge portion of what we get from them away, and we've done virtually nothing to retaliate. It's all good and fine to paint this narrative of us standing up to the bully in some small way where no-one else does, but it's pure fiction. Our empty platitude without anything to back it up, paired with their quite decisive response from SA, enables them as bullies. The writing on the wall is quite clear - Canada talks but doesn't act, and Saudi will smack you around if you step out of line. This does nothing but reveal the emptiness behind Canada's moralizing.
Simply put, if we are going to talk virtuous, we need to be able to back it up in the face of a bully or we simply enable and strengthen that bully. We have done nothing at this point, in this exchange, but show that our morals are all talk, Canada will not respond in any meaningful way, and don't mess with Saudi Arabia. Honestly, it would have been simply better, in virtually every way I can conceive of, if we didn't go making moralizing statements that are ultimately empty. That being said, it will certainly buy votes, and I can't help but think that was the only real goal behind it, since it doesn't seem that there is any intent to actually back up the moralizing. I am more than a bit ashamed over this incident, if there is no decisive response taken in the near future. I'm holding out some hope so, Trudeau, prove me wrong!
Canada could really take a leadership role in this situation and standout in the world as someone who stands up to Saudi Arabia. Lead by example instead of empty platitudes and virtue signalling. Canadians always seem to be clamoring to stand out on the world stage,(please notice me!) well this is our chance. Tell Saudi Arabia to go impregnate themselves, point out loudly all of there disgusting abuses of human rights and walk the fuck away.
Everyone is crying that none of our allies are "standing with us". Well man up and do the right thing, show the world that we don't have to bend the need to that shit hole. Maybe then we inspire others to do the same and spark some real change within that country. There will be some short term losses but we can more than make up for in a short period of time.
We said nothing when they were appointed to the UN human rights council, we said nothing when they were appointed to the women's rights commission. We allowed a multi billion dollar weapons deal to go through even though we knew exactly what those weapons would be used for. I have no love for Trudeau but this is his and his governments opportunity to show they more are than just empty virtue signal vessels.
Or we could do what rational countries do and not make decisions that will have impacts on international relations for years to come in a matter of days. The Saudis reacted emotionally, like a petulant child, in response to us reiterating a call that was first made by the UN. It's better to leave our options open for a while longer than to respond to the insane autocrats in similar fashion as they have done. There are other options for oil (that isn't hard to refine bitumen which is what the oil sands produces and which is part of the reason why we're not energy self sufficient), but another thing that either hasn't been mentioned or extremely downplayed in this thread is how significantly the Saudis support our med school programs in exchange for us training their doctors. It's not a relationship that's as easily severed as some here seem to think, there needs to be a plan in place for all this, and that will take a bit of time.