The Liberal government is facing harsh criticism over a closed-door meeting between the foreign affairs minister and the president of Saudi Arabia’s human rights commission -- a group that has signed off on executions in the Middle Eastern kingdom.
Journalists were not allowed to attend the meeting between Stephane Dion and Bandar Bin Mohammed Al-Aiban at Global Affairs headquarters in Ottawa, so little is known about the content of the discussions. However, Dion said he would pressure Saudi Arabia to release a blogger jailed over insults to Islam.
On Thursday, Conservative MP Peter Kent blasted the Liberals over the meeting.
“It's time for Canada to speak truth to the world's worst human rights abusers publicly -- not timidly, not in private,” Kent said.
Saudi Arabia often ranks among the worst countries in the world by human rights watchdogs. Independent watchdog Freedom House ranked the country dead last in 2016 for its positions on political rights and civil liberties.
The Saudi government executed 47 people in a single day in January – a decision that was approved by the country’s human rights commissioner. Torture, beheadings and floggings are widely reported, and women aren’t allowed to drive cars or swim in public pools, among other restrictions.
Prior to the meeting, Dion said he planned to ask Al-Aiban for Saudi Arabia to release blogger Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail following a 2014 conviction for criticising Saudi clerics. Badawi is not Canadian, but his wife and three children live in Sherbrooke, Que.
“We ask for the King to show clemency for someone who only expressed his views,” Dion said Thursday.
Saudi Arabia won another term as head of the UN Human Rights Council earlier this year, giving it the power to block outside investigations into its own human rights abuses.
The Liberals have faced strong opposition over their decision to uphold a $15-billion sale of light-armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia, which was brokered under the previous Conservative government.
Dion has said the vehicles are meant to help Saudi Arabia fight Islamic State militants in the region.
But some critics insist the deal shouldn’t have gone through.
“We're seeking to sign the arms export treaty and we're seeking to be bound by certain principles, which means you don't sell arms to countries engaged in a consistent pattern of human right violations,” said Irwin Cotler, founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.
With a report from CTV’s Joyce Napier and The Canadian Press
