Time to send in Steve Nash.

Canadian politicians really need to learn how to craft attack tweets. That was pretty weak - I’m sure our administration can give some pointers.

You can talk about Iran all you want, but Saudi Arabia is just as horrible of a government, probably worse. I have never felt comfortable with the relationship between the USA and Saudi Arabia. It's a horrible country when it comes to religious freedom or human rights, one of the worst in the world. It seems to be a breeding ground for terrorists, but that never seems to come up in discussion. The USA has pretty much sold it's soul to support Saudi Arabia.

I don't think Trump will Tweetack the Saudis. They let him touch their glowing ball. And he has a number of businesses and properties there. And the Saudis are really helping Trump International Hotel in Manhattan. https://www.newsweek.com/...otel-revenue-1057255

Canada has no real leverage on the Saudis, and they have little leverage on Canada.
It will take the EU to throw support behind human rights to make them back down. The Saudi royals love to fly up to Monaco, Paris, London, etc. for lavish, hedonistic parties.

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Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

This is a crazy response to a fairly standard human-rights, statement by a modern, western democracy.

It is a major over reaction but it's not really meant as a message to Canada.

Canada and Saudi Arabia have very minimal relationships so they are using Canada to send a message to other countries to leave human rights issue off the bargaining table. They would never have the same reaction if England did it because of the large number of Saudis that shop and live in London. They wouldn't do the same to other countries that sell large amounts of weapons to them (they are the world's biggest buyers of arms) and they wouldn't do the same to anyone that buys a lot of oil.

It's complete nonsense and now the Saudis are sending all their students studying in Canada (including 800 medical students) home and I say good riddance.


We don't want closer ties with them and it's time other countries stop giving them a pass because of their wealth.

We don't want closer ties with them and it's time other countries stop giving them a pass because of their wealth.


Agreed.

Conservatives in Canada and the anti-Justin Trudeau crowd are twisting themselves in knots about this, because they speak out about EVERYTHING Trudeau is doing these days in a negative fashion, but here, if they do, they are but default, directly or indirectly supportive of the Saudi regime and the way they go about things in the Kingdom!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

What, you mean the official KSA state media tweeting this is bad?


That's what the KSA tweeted in response to Canada's Foreign Minister's statement.
Sure they removed the image, then deleted the tweet. but coming from a country that ran airplanes into NYC buildings...

BUT both US and Canada should really be on Iran's side, the only reason we like KSA is their oil. They are horrible otherwise.

I wonder how Saudi would react if someone asked if they stuck their nose in Yemen's business?

I've been following it. What a stupid fight between these two with overreaction on both sides, if you ask me. The Saudi crown prince can only move at a modernization pace that won't get him blown up by fundamentalist factions in his own government and among the lower-middle and lower classes, and it's going to be some time before that work is complete, given how long it took just to convince the religious authorities that it was okay for women to drive and that Israel wasn't the great devil they believed it to have been.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

The Saudi crown prince can only move at a modernization pace that won't get him blown up by fundamentalist factions in his own government and among the lower-middle and lower classes, and it's going to be some time before that work is complete, given how long it took just to convince the religious authorities that it was okay for women to drive and that Israel wasn't the great devil they believed it to have been.



The Saudi crown prince (MBS) is fooling the West into thinking he's going to modernize the country. The same thing happened in Iraq in the 1970's. Saddam Hussein was the VP and promising everyone change and that Iraq would be modernized. A lot of people in Saudi consider him to be similar to Hussein and they are concerned.

Everyone heard about the Saudis lifting the ban on women drivers but what the world didn't know is that he arrested and imprisoned the women who were pressing for the change. He also detained the Lebanese Prime Minister on his visit to Riyadh and held him there. The Saudis are escalating the war in Yemen and have a dispute with Qatar (and now Canada). He also arrested 400 princes and businessman for "corruption" which in the world of dictators is code for "we want to weaken all influential people who could challenge my authority.'

He's a classic wolf in sheep's clothing. There are an awful lot of fundamentalists in Saudi and he's not going to be able to do most of what he has promised, and live to see the results.

Can't the Canucks dress Trudeau in a keffiyeh and robes, put him on a camel, and then send him over to patch things up?

The lack of a <like> button disappoints...

If oil prices rise in Canada, isn't it convenient for Trudeau's pipeline purchase? I mean, I don't think Canada is capable of secret meetings with the Saudis (to cut oil supply in order to justify pipeline) , but it does seem that the Saudis have overreacted to Canada's Tweet. In other words, what is happening right now, could benefit both parties in power.

He does like wearing native garb. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Thats whats strange about this whole thing. Trudeau has made it clear that he isn't "pro-Israel" (at least in the sense that Harper was), and yet the Saudis are taking this stance against Canada. You would think that the Arab World would want all the Allies it can get regarding the Israeli/Arab conflict, but yet the Saudis are clearly not taking Canada's current foreign policy into consideration. Thats why I think this is a much deeper issue than what you are seeing play out at the moment.

What a Bizzaro world we live in. Saudi Arabian media (state controlled) released a campaign calling Canada one of the world's worst oppressors of women. I guess gas-lighting is en vogue this year.

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Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

very fine people on both sides.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I read the article. All the missing aboriginal women. I guess that kind of thing doesn't happen in Saudi Arabia because women are not allowed to leave home without a man's permission.

To be fair, the Saudis think that beating women is doing them a favor.

Wait, you think that the Saudis are on the Palestinians side? The Saudi government really don't care about Israel/Palestinian conflict. They are much more on the side of the Israels, because they are both against Iran. Sure publicly, they like the Israel/Palestinian conflict because they can use it to distract their population and make Israel the enemy,but in actuality Israel and the Saudi government have very similar goals of reducing Iranian influence in the region.