By Febronia Hanna
After the big Saudi-Canadian dispute on imprisoning human rights activists, KSA has been sanctioning Canada. These punishments have been as a response to what Saudi Arabia calls a violation of its sovereignty. Saudi Arabia’s procedures have been coming at us so fast that we decided to put them in a list.
1- Expulsion of the Canadian ambassador and summoning their own
2- Froze new trade, investment and refuse to buy Canadian grain
3- Canada’s Allies stay neutral during the dispute
4- ordered around 16,000 students to either return from there or continue their studies in another country
5- Cancelled all flights to Toronto in state airlines
6- Saudi Arabia also cancelled all medical treatment programs in Canada and is arranging for the patients to be transferred to other countries
7- The Saudi Central Bank and state pension funds ordered overseas asset managers to offload Canadian equities and started selling off Canadian holdings.
8- Threatened to interfere in Canadian domestic issues
These sanctions on Saudi Arabia’s part may seem drastic and overdramatic. But they aren’t, however, they showcase Saudi Arabia’s economic power and its stance from anyone trying to criticize its policies.
This situation is threatening trade between the countries which has amounted to $4 billion last year. The biggest trade deal was a shady arms deal that was opposed by human rights and is worth $15 Billion. Saudi Arabia has been Canada’s 17th largest trade partner in oil.
This and the fact that Canada has been lobbying to have a seat in the UN Security Council and needed an Arab supporter, and now all of the Arab countries may think twice before voting for it.
