Is Canada doing enough to stop the flogging of a Saudi blogger?
Sometime after prayers on Friday, itâs likely Raif Badawi will be led in front of a crowd outside a mosque in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and flogged.
It will be his second set of 50 lashes. Out of a thousand. Heâs scheduled to receive them at a rate of 50 a week. It was postponed last week because a prison doctor determined wounds from the first 50 strokes, administered by a huge cane, hadnât healed sufficiently to continue.
âIn his sentence it was made clear that the lashes were to be administered with force,â Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada told Yahoo Canada News. âThe eyewitnesses said that it was very clear while he was being flogged that he was in pain, he was grimacing, his back was arching.â
Badawiâs crime? Operating a blog the autocratic Islamic state has determined was blasphemous. He advocated for free speech and a sectarian state, a position that has also earned him 10 years in prison, along with the public flogging.
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Neve said his contacts in Saudi Arabia believe the lashes will continue Friday unless thereâs another postponement, perhaps in response to outside pressure.
Badawiâs plight has spawned a growing international outcry, especially in light of earnest declarations about the right to freedom of expression in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris. Saudi Arabiaâs ambassador to France was one of the national representatives who took part in a solidarity march after Islamic extremists killed staff of the satirical magazine.
So where does Canada fit in all of this, given the lucrative business its doing selling billions of dollars of military hardware to the desert kingdom?
Andrew Bennett, Canadaâs ambassador for religious freedom, issued a statement two weeks ago condemning the flogging as âa gross violation of human dignity, which I strongly denounce.â
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird followed up last week, calling for clemency towards Badawi and reaffirming a commitment to protect human rights.
Amnesty calls for more action
But Neve believes Canada should be doing much more to rally support for Badawi, especially since his wife, Ensaf, and their children are living in Quebec as refugees.
âWe have a pretty strong claim to be the country that should lead that kind of international effort,â he said.
Saudi Arabia generally ignores international concerns about its human rights violations, said Neve, which makes it important for a coalition of countries to speak as one and demand Badawiâs release.
But Canada, like other Saudi allies in the West, seems ready to subordinate human rights in favour of other priorities, judging from Bairdâs diplomatically worded statement.
âWhat we have heard from Canada, and many governments have nuanced it this way, [is that] theyâve expressed concern but have not specifically and explicitly said, âdo not lash him and free him from prison,â â said Neve.
There are three main reasons why western governments âgo softâ on Saudi Arabiaâs human rights record, he said.
It remains an oil superpower, as demonstrated by the how it spearheaded OPECâs decision not to cut production in the face of slowing demand, triggering the recent price collapse.
Itâs also considered a strategic partner in the global war on terror, despite the fundamentalist strain of Islam that still lingers there.
And its immense wealth has made it a treasured customer for western goods, including the very best in military equipment.
Last February, Ottawa trumpeted a deal to sell Saudi Arabia light armoured vehicles built by General Dynamic Land Systems of London, Ont., worth between $10 billion and $15 billion (if service contracts are included).
It was, International Trade Minister Ed Fast said at the time, the largest advanced manufacturing deal in Canadian history.
Project Ploughshares, a broad-based organization that promotes peace, said that was the first time Saudi Arabia has replaced the United States as the largest recipient of military contracts brokered by the governmentâs Canadian Commercial Corp.
"Events are kind of catching up now," Kenneth Epps, the groupâs recently retired arms-trade expert, told Yahoo Canada News.
"We have been trying to draw attention to the fact that itâs been the largest military equipment sale in Canadaâs history, and itâs with a regime that has a very poor human rights record.â
Long-standing arms trade relationship
Saudi Arabia has been a major customer for Canadian arms since the early 1990s, said Epps.
While there is de facto free trade in military goods between Canada and the United States, exports to other countries can be reviewed by the foreign affairs minister. Theyâre supposed to be subject to guidelines, including in the area of human rights, said Epps.
âBut none of this is made public,â he said. âItâs all an internal process within the department and itâs not transparent at all.â
The department does not release information on which countries have been denied export permits, so itâs not known who Canada wonât sell to, said Epps.
âThe only evidence we have in the final analysis is what the government reports as having been sold,â he said, adding that based on the decision to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, âwe can assume the bar [for trade partners] is not that high.â
Yahoo Canada News contacted Fastâs office to find out what conditions might have been attached to the armoured vehicle purchase.
"Canada has some of the strongest export controls in the world, including through the Export and Import Permits Act," Nicholas Doire, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Development, responded via email. "All proposed exports of goods and technology controlled under the act are carefully reviewed before a permit is issued.
"For reasons of commercial confidentiality, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development does not comment on specific applications."
Doire also reiterated Bairdâs earlier statement that âCanada has an active partnership and candid relationship with Saudi Arabia, and believes it can play a positive role in many of the regionâs security challenges.
"We will maintain an ongoing, respectful dialogue with Saudi Arabia on a number of issues, including human rights."
Neve said at this point thereâs little Badawiâs advocates can do except to maintain the pressure on Saudi Arabia in hopes authorities there become uncomfortable enough to eventually cave in.
"As disheartening as the case is, itâs been very heartening to see how quickly internationally public opinion has built on this case," he said.