Saudi Arabia is not in good terms with Canada at the moment. It’s been sour for months now, not long since MLB took power. I wrote about the tension started by concerns regarding the arrest of Samar Badawi last year. Canada has largely been alone in its dispute against the Saudis, even as the kingdom threatened to pull out its medical students from Canada, sell off its Canadian assets to damage the dollar, and have its propaganda arm spread disinformation about the country. Luckily, there hasn’t been much damage to Canada after all of these months. And Canada hasn’t stopped helping people in the Middle East, particularly those seeking asylum.
Saudi Arabia continues to be a horrible country. Its guardianship system is a prison for women. They exploit women as much as they exploit slave-like labor from other countries. As much as we hear US propaganda about the evils of Iran, it is Saudi Arabia who has financed the 9/11 terrorists and continues to terrorize its neighbors, particularly Yemen. The more independent Canada is from Saudi Arabia, the better off we are.
Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia is not alone. There have been growing tensions between Canada and China stemming from the arrest of Huawei’s founder’s daughter at the behest of US law enforcement. China in return has arrested two Canadians and violated diplomatic protocols by their interrogation. China will also now be executing a Canadian arrested for drug trafficking even after he was previously sentenced only for five years. The amendment to his sentence was considered only after a few hours. There have been back and forth jabs between Trudeau and Chinese politicians, but ironically, Huawei’s founder thanks the Canadian justice system for treating his daughter well and also says that the US has a great president.
It’s a good thing however tensions haven’t risen so much that China and Canada are taking economic actions against one another. China is still the number one growing economy in the world. And despite its occasional abrupt dictatorial tendencies, it still hasn’t pulled economic actions against the Canada the same way it did with South Korea two years ago.
Russia is also getting in on the anti-Canada wagon. Recently, Russian state propaganda aired news that Canada was being controlled by a secret cabal of Ukrainians. This was undoubtedly an issue aimed to rile up support during the elections and to try to damage both Ukraine and Canada, on of Ukraine’s strongest ally. In any case, “a secret cabal of Ukrainians” controlling the country is so outlandish that it is more akin to Alex Jones conspiracy theories, not something you would normally see on primetime. Who would believe in this stuff?
All this, and the US still has a tariff war against Canada.
Franklin Roosevelt was quoted saying, “I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.” There seems to be tough times for Canada ahead, but at least when it comes to international politics, we appear to be doing good.
The Weekly 