Caution: Twitter Is Not a Diplomatic Tool
"Very alarmed to learn that Samar Badawi, Raif Badawi’s sister, has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia."
"Canada stands together with the Badawi family in this difficult time, and we continue to strongly call for the release of both Raif and Samar Badawi."
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland
"There's always hope. It's all the way up to the highest levels of both governments to find a resolution [to the viral spat that has ensued from Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs tweeting her criticism of Saudi Arabia's arrest of Saudi women's rights activists]."
"[Positions held by Saudi medical residents are] over and above [places provincial governments pay to Canadian students]. They would sit empty otherwise. It's extra capacity [for treating patients]."
"We're in the process now of really sitting down with our hospital partners, site by site, and program by program, and figuring out what the impact will be if September 1, these folks [Saudi medical students] aren't around."
"The situation came on fairly suddenly and hopefully a resolution could be found equally suddenly and surprisingly."
Dr. Salvatore Spadafora, vice-dean, post-MD education, University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine
Saudi Arabia has recalled an estimated 15,000 Saudi students studying to complete degrees in various academic disciplines such as engineering, medicine and various sciences on Saudi-funded scholarships. The Kingdom, in a rage over Canadian temerity in insulting the sovereign internal laws of the country, has lashed out, accusing the government of Canada of unconscionable and atrocious accusations against its internal affairs. Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry has made it clear that only an abject apology by Canada could possibly assuage its rage over the outrage it has caused.
Nothing short of a lack of attention to the niceties of diplomatic relations required nation-to-nation led Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland to send off a tweet criticizing the Kingdom's harshly punitive laws against political critics, urging it to release several human rights activists recently arrested as well as blogger Raif Badawi whose sentence for criticizing the Saudi government was ten years in prison and a flogging of 1000 lashes, 50 of which were carried out and nearly killed him.
The instantaneous response by the Kingdom over a tweet translated from English into Arabic that circulated within the country courtesy of Canada's Foreign Affairs, immediately halted all trade agreements, called on all Saudi university students to further their education elsewhere funded by the Saudi government, ordered all investment in Canada to be sold off, even at a loss, ensured that direct flights from Riyadh to Toronto would cease, and sent Saudi Arabian news media into a demented spin of accusing Canada of all manner of human rights abuses. Oh, and booted the Canadian ambassador out of the country.
Along with the estimated fifteen thousand Saudi university students enrolled in Canadian institutes of higher learning, there are thousands of medical students studying in Canada. And Canadian hospitals, many of which are internationally celebrated for pediatric surgery, cardiac and neurosurgery are now grappling with a sudden emergency; losing residents advancing their medical education by working directly with patients in hospitals, leaving a vacuum that will not otherwise be filled. Saudi Arabia financed each of those students to the tune of $100,000 yearly, adding up to multimillions of financing for Canadian hospitals.
While still hoping that the two countries will soon reach an agreement that will spare the students from leaving the country, citing the personal loss to the residents by having their professional studies interrupted, a temporary measure has been reached allowing students to remain until September 1 before being recalled. This retaliatory action by the Saudi government resembling a spurned lover going into a hysterical huff and throwing out all the belongings of the other while shutting themselves off from conciliatory efforts, has placed a real spanner in the working cogs of affected hospitals.
An estimated 750 Saudi medical students being exposed to highly specialized medical skills are also in the process providing care to patients in the hospitals hosting them. University of Toronto affiliated hospitals identify 216 out of 3,600 residents as Saudi. While at McGill University affiliated hospitals in Montreal, 225 out of 1,250 residents are Saudi for which their nation pays the hospitals $100,000 each yearly, including salary support. This arrangement has been in place for the last 40 years. McMaster University in Hamilton has 150 Saudi students enrolled in mostly postgraduate medical training.
There is the additional issue of Saudi Arabian nationals being treated in Canadian hospitals suffering from severe health conditions such as "advanced cancers, organ failure, and other complex medical diseases". These Saudi nationals too are being removed from Canada. The Saudi government has tasked its United States-based attache, Fahad Altamimi to "ensure the safety of Saudi patients who receive treatment in Canada" by finding places for them in hospitals outside Canada.
There, that should teach Canada a lesson in diplomatic niceties!
A totally unworthy thought intrudes: given the Saudi Arabian propensity to invest billions worldwide in the construction of mosques and madrasses to inculcate its Wahhabi Salafist-style of Islam wherever Muslims migrate to live throughout Europe and North America, the very version of Islam that has been responsible for the rise of disparate groups of the faithful such as al-Qaeda and Islamic State, perhaps it is possible that the presence of Saudi students in Canadian universities have boosted the spread of Palestinian-centric BDS on campuses...?
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| At University of Toronto-affiliated hospitals, 216 out of 3,600 residents are Saudi. In Montreal, 225 out of 1,250 residents at McGill University-affiliated hospitals are from Saudi Arabia. |
Labels: Academia, BDS, Canada, Crisis Management, Medicine, Political Realities, Saudi Arabia
posted by Pieface @ Friday, August 10, 2018
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