Advertisement

Dion raising human rights concerns with Saudis won’t make a difference, expert says

An upcoming meeting between Global Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion and Saudi officials is expected to touch on issues of terrorism and human rights, but is unlikely to make any impact.

Kamran Bokhari, a senior lecturer at the security and policy institute at the University of Ottawa, says Canada doesn’t have enough international influence to persuade the Saudis to make any changes.

When Dion talks to Saudi officials about terrorism or its human rights records, he also won’t be saying anything new, Bokhari says.

“They’ve heard this from the Americans for years and not seen much change. They’ve heard this from our European partners, particularly the U.K., and have not budged,” Bokhari says. “Why would they budge or make a difference if the Canadian foreign minister goes there?”

The meeting is likely more about the government’s image in Canada, he says.

The Liberal government has been criticized, particularly by its opponents during the election, for being light on foreign policy and these kinds of meetings are meant to demonstrate otherwise, he says. It is also being criticized for going through with an arms sale to Saudi Arabia, a country that reportedly uses light-armoured vehicles to quell dissidents.

“This is more about the Trudeau government trying to demonstrate at home that it’s engaging in serious policy making,” says Bokhari, who’s also a fellow in the program on extremism at George Washington University.

If the Saudis won’t bow to pressure about human rights or terrorism from the European Union or the United States, it’s not going to give in to Canada, which has less geopolitical pull than even most of the European countries, he says.

“We just don’t hold that kind of weight.”

Canada also doesn’t have the leverage with the Saudi government to force any change, Bokhari says.

Even if Canada were to threaten to stop importing any Saudi oil, we take in such a small amount that it wouldn’t really matter, he says.

In the past, Canada may have been part of multilateral efforts to influence policy changes on human rights, Bokhari says, but its impact was marginal.

“On our own, bilaterally, I don’t see where we’ve made a difference on forcing governments overseas with terrible human rights records to fix their situation,” he says.

This is another example of Canada being “behind the curve,” on international relations, he says, which is something that needs to change for Canada to become a bigger force internationally.

Bokhari says the government has signalled, particularly through plans to overhaul the defence strategy, it wants to be a major international player instead of riding on the coattails of the U.S. and Europe, but it’s not there yet.

“We’re a G8 country. We need to behave like one,” he says.