Saudi Arabia

Carney Visits Saudi Arabia

Is Canada's Saudi Arabia deal bold trade diversification or a troubling compromise of Canadian values?

Published 1 hour ago

Story

Above: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman welcomes Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Jeddah on July 9. Image credit: Saudi Press Agency/Handout/Xinhua

The Spin

Narrative A

Canada's $1 billion-plus deal with Saudi Arabia is exactly the kind of bold trade diversification the country needs right now. Locking in 13 commercial agreements across mining, AI, energy and health tech creates real jobs and opens doors to a $1.8 trillion economy.

Asharq Al-Awsat NewsWire Prime Minister of Canada

Narrative B

Chasing billion-dollar deals with a regime that hands out death sentences for tweets is a troubling trade-off. Saudi Arabia's human rights record has gotten worse, and Canada is not even high on Riyadh's priority list — so the leverage here is minimal. Sidelining cases like Raif Badawi's to close commercial agreements sets a damaging precedent for Canadian values abroad.

Unpublished BNN Bloomberg

Paul Wells on Substack CP24