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Opposed to Saudi Arabia

Re. Poll: Should Canada re-establish full diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia? (Castanet, May 24)

Of course our government will want to re-establish diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia.

That is whatit does. It disapproves of their actions, but later goes back to business as usual.

I wrote this letter to Chrystia Freeland (who was then foreign affairs minister) in Sepember 2019. Needless to say, I got no acknowledgment or reply.

"Dear Ms. Freeland,

I was very disturbed two days ago to read about another bombing in Yemen by Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners. The death toll from this attack has yet to be finalized, but we know that it is at least 100. Many more will of course have catastrophic injuries and lost limbs.

I think what disturbs me most about this, which is the latest in a long line of atrocities, is that your government talks about Saudi Arabia as an ally. In what way are they our ally? Their country shares nothing of our Canadian values and yet apparently we give them a free pass, either because we want their oil, or because we are doing the bidding of the US. I have yet to hear any condemnation of their action from you or the prime minister, and yet if this happened in any other country world leaders would have been outraged.

To make matters worse we continue to supply that barbaric country with armaments knowing full well that they will be used against their own citizens, and anyone else who disagrees with their extreme views. So far the best estimates are that 70,000 people have died in Yemen since the Saudis started their campaign. Most of these will have been innocent civilians, when exactly are you going to decide that enough is enough?

I have a son in the army but Canada's traditional role has been that of mediator, or of peacekeeper, a force for good, not a force for murder and destruction. It is time to disassociate our country from this alliance."

In nearly four years nothing has changed.

Peter Emery, Kelowna



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