In many ways, denial is the lifeblood of politics.
Those elected to office rarely accept or take responsibility for mistakes.
Admitting error is a cardinal political sin, one to be avoided even when the truth is as plain a fact as gravity.
It’s been just over a week since Premier Kathleen Wynne stood before the province to say she had just learned of the deeply problematic relationship two Ontario colleges have with the oil kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Niagara College and Algonquin College both bowed before the altar of sharia law, capitulating to its insistence of female subservience, and set up men’s-only campuses in the hopes of generating a significant new stream of revenue.
Like many Canadians, Wynne says this situation is an unacceptable violation of Canadian values, and dispatched her education minister to get to the bottom of it.
This is all well and good, but Wynne’s sudden discovery of the cruelty of Saudi law cannot be taken seriously.
Niagara and Algonquin established their Saudi operations with the full knowledge and blessing of Queen’s Park two years ago.
(The Niagara Postmedia newspapers, for instance, were pressing both the college and the government on the issue from the start.)
Instead of admitting the province made an error in using Ontario tax dollars to fund these campuses, the premier and her minister now say they are shocked.
There are only two ways this can be believed: Either the provincial government doesn’t know what Saudi Arabia is and what it does, making it ignorant; or it was content to ignore the situation there, making it irresponsible.
Even now, Wynne’s vision is limited.
She is focused on the exclusion of women, but says nothing of the beheadings, crucifixions, and torture of those in Saudi Arabia whose only “crime” is to speak their minds.
Nor does she mention the loss of public dollars.
Niagara and Algonquin colleges to date have lost a total of about $2.5 million on this program, which includes public money.
Both schools project small profits for this year, but that doesn’t change the fact Ontario tax dollars are helping to fund the education system of a violently repressive, theocratic regime.
These ventures into Saudi Arabia did not happen in a vacuum. Rather, they fit comfortably into Canada’s hypocritical relationship with the kingdom.
As a nation, Canada wants to be regarded as a defender of human rights and dignity.
How often have we criticized cruel and brutal dictators that dot the globe?
And yet, our political leaders are comfortable ignoring the reality of Saudi Arabia, a country with arguably the worst human rights record on the planet.
The previous federal Conservative government, under Stephen Harper, struck a secret, $15 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, selling Canadian-made military vehicles to the Saudis.
Despite public outrage, the current Liberal government shows no will to cancel the deal.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau brushed it off by referring to the heavily armed and well-armoured fighting vehicles being sold as “jeeps”.
So why would an Ontario college looking for more revenue, do any different? Why would it not follow Ottawa’s lead?
Algonquin and Niagara colleges suggest they are agents of change in Saudi Arabia, that all education is corrosive to tyranny
This all but ignores the reality that they agreed to abide by sharia.
The tepid content of their classes — business education and tourism — have never fanned the flames of revolution.
The Saudi campuses are not just the manifestation of poor decision making by the colleges. They are also the result of the willfully blind politics of Queen’s Park and Ottawa.
Which means they are the fault of all of us who cast a ballot.
International politics and economics is a messy business.
We deal with nations whose activities are deeply troubling all the time.
But rarely has Canada so overtly rejected its own values for the sake of money.
If Canada is to be what we say it is, the time has come for our action to match our words, and to abandon Saudi Arabia.
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