Riyadh to transfer all Saudi patients in Canada out of the country

Saudi Arabia has stopped all medical treatment programs in Canada and is coordinating for the transfer of all Saudi patients to hospitals outside Canada, the Saudi Press Agency has said. The agency cited Saudi Health Attaché in the United States and Canada,  Dr. Fahd bin Ibrahim Al Tamimi. Saudi  Arabia froze new trade and investment with Canada and expelled the Canadian ambassador early on Monday, in a stern gesture of retaliation after Ottawa urged it to free arrested civil society activists. In her first public response to Saudi Arabia’s actions, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said, “Canada will always stand up for human rights in Canada and around the world, and women’s rights are human rights.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he would keep pressing Saudi Arabia on civil liberties amid a major diplomatic dispute but also offered an apparent olive branch, saying the kingdom had made some progress on human rights. Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir – infuriated by Canada’s demand last week that jailed rights activists be released immediately – said earlier that there was no room for mediation, adding that Ottawa knew what it needed to do to “fix its big mistake.” Trudeau – who referred to the matter as “a diplomatic difference of opinion” – told media in Montreal that Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland had held a long conversation with her Saudi counterpart o. “Diplomatic talks continue. We don’t want to have poor relations with Saudi Arabia. It is a country that has great significance in the world, that is making progress in the area of human rights,” he said. “But we will continue underscoring challenges where and when they exist, in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere,” he continued.

Canada has expressed concern over the arrests of activists in Saudi Arabia, including prominent women’s rights campaigner Samar Badawi. Her brother Raif Badawi, a prominent blogger, is serving a 10-year sentence and has been publicly flogged for expressing dissenting opinions online. His wife and children live in Canada and are Canadian citizens. A number of women’s rights activists, who campaigned for the right to drive and an end to the kingdom’s male guardianship system, have been targeted in a government crackdown in recent months, human rights’ groups say. Jubeir said the kingdom was still “considering additional measures” against Canada, but did not elaborate. Canadian investments in Saudi Arabia were still ongoing and would not be affected by the dispute, he said.