CHOICE WORDS

If Carney can avoid lecturing the Saudis – why not Trump?

Last Thursday, Mark Carney stood in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and said something long overdue about Canadian foreign policy. The PM called for an end to Canada’s endless lecturing of other countries.

Carney was responding to a question about doing business with countries where we have a different view when it comes to issues like human rights.

“Lecturing countries from afar is an ineffective strategy. It’s satisfying, but it’s ineffective,” Carney said.

Interestingly, he made those comments in Saudi Arabia, given that lecturing by the Trudeau Liberal government in 2018 caused a rupture, to use one of Carney’s favourite words, with the Gulf kingdom.

In response to Saudi Arabia’s arrest of Samar Badawi, the sister of imprisoned dissident Raif Badawi, Global Affairs Canada and then-foreign minister Chrystia Freeland issued calls for her immediate release. Neither Samar nor Raif was a Canadian citizen, so our official involvement at the government level should have been limited and any statements made quietly, not brashly posted to Twitter.

Raif’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, along with their three children, fled to Canada after his arrest and have since become citizens. That gives Canada some interest in the case, but both Badawi siblings are Saudi citizens only.

Costs of Trudeau’s moralizing foreign policy

None of that mattered to the Trudeau government as it blasted Saudi Arabia publicly. Canada’s ambassador in Riyadh was kicked out, and the Saudi ambassador in Ottawa was called home. Trade ground to a halt, and Saudi students in Canadian schools were told to return home or transfer to schools in other countries.

That wasn’t the only example of Trudeau’s foreign policy lecturing causing problems internationally.

In 2020, India was facing protests from farmers, a good number of whom were Sikhs from the Punjab region of India. Canada has a large population from this area, and Trudeau’s caucus and cabinet featured several Sikhs.

In an online video message, Trudeau inserted himself into the internal matters of India, further damaging relations with the emerging global giant.

“Canada will always be there to defend the right of peaceful protest. We believe in the importance of dialogue,” Trudeau said.

Less than two years later, he was freezing bank accounts, sending in police on horseback and suspending charter rights to deal with a protest that he didn’t like and protesters whom he refused to engage with in terms of dialogue.

Carney’s pragmatism stops at the U.S. border

Carney has since repaired relations with India, and he’s repairing relations with Saudi Arabia. This appears to be part of his view that we take the world for what it is and don’t lecture other countries.

It’s a welcome change, but it’s just too bad Carney won’t apply that same worldview to Donald Trump and the United States.

It’s much easier to deal with Trump if you take him as he is, don’t get emotional about his comments and look for solutions. Carney is unable to do that with Trump and strangely praises him, acting like a sycophant when he sees Trump in person, but then rails against him when Trump isn’t in the room.