'No matter what words a politician uses to pass as a human rights advocate, there is only one test: what they do when faced with difficult choices. So far, the prime minister has been underwhelming.'

For all the shimmer and shine, Justin Trudeau is dithering away his reputation as a champion of human rights.

In the process, he is turning Canada into a fence-sitter on the international stage, waiting to see what our allies will do.

The latest evidence?

The prime minister has ridden a paper airplane through the maelstrom of the Khashoggi-murder outrage. He and his ministers have talked the talk, but haven’t shown Canadians the walk.

Not that Trudeau hasn’t earned credit on some fronts.

With the evidence mounting that the highest authorities in Saudi Arabia conducted a gruesome, premeditated hit on Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, Trudeau has at least raised the possibility of cancelling the arms deal between Canada and the “Bone Saw Kingdom.”

The Liberals inherited that $15-billion deal from the Conservatives, who saw nothing wrong with selling weapons to the most repressive regime on Earth. In fact, former PM Stephen Harper promised the Saudis in a letter that he would keep details of the contract secret. As the Washington Post’s motto says, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” For the better part of Harper’s misrule, the lights were out in Canada.

The spin surrounding the arms deal left the impression that Canada was selling Jeeps to the Saudis. In fact, as Murray Brewster reported for the CBC, the deal included heavy assault vehicles, as well as a deeply embedded maintenance and training deal between the two countries that would place Canadian technicians on the ground in Riyadh.

Had Trudeau exercised more mature judgment coming into office, he would have walked away from Harper’s poisoned chalice — the same way he should have walked away from the disastrous Trans Mountain pipeline fiasco.

But having raised the possibility of cancelling export permits for Canadian armoured vehicles headed for Prince Salman’s bloody dictatorship (absolute monarchy is the euphemism), Trudeau is now complaining how difficult it would be to pull the plug on the sale. He’s even talking about how frustrated he is.

With investigators now focusing their search for Khashoggi’s desecrated remains at the bottom of a well on the grounds of the Saudi consul general’s residence in Istanbul, Trudeau is toting up how much it will cost us to stop enabling a murderous dictator. A billion dollars, he says.

I have a different question. What about the cost of not shunning this despot tricked out as a Madison Avenue “reformer”? This is a man who has run up a bloody list of accomplishments reminiscent of other butchers in the Middle East — and he’s done it in just three years.

It should be remembered why Khashoggi was banned from writing and appearing on Saudi media after a 30-year career in journalism. He committed the high crime of criticizing Donald Trump. For that, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman silenced him — at least until Khashoggi fled the Kingdom for America and went to work for the Post.

The Saudis have always been repressive at home and belligerent in their sphere of influence. Under former King Abdullah, they invaded neighbouring Bahrain in 2011. The King deployed a thousand troops to put down an anti-government protest at the time of the Arab Spring.

He couldn’t very well have democracy springing up on the Kingdom’s doorstep.

The Crown Prince seems bound on extending the belligerent authoritarianism of the Kingdom.

For starters, he has seized all political power in Saudi Arabia. He has taken personal control of defence, the national guard, the interior ministry and all Saudi intelligence agencies.

But he has also grabbed Saudi Aramco, the largest and, according to Bloomberg News, the most profitable corporation in the world. He has also seized control of all broadcasting in the Kingdom. Don’t tell me this is a guy who doesn’t know when 15 government officials shuffle off to Istanbul for a hit and come back to Riyadh on chartered planes the same day.

Consider what the Crown Prince has done since he upset the succession process in Saudi Arabia, and made his power grab back in 2015 — with the King’s blessing.

This is the man who kettled fellow royals and wealthy businessmen in the Ritz Carlton Riyadh. He kept them there for weeks until they had signed over significant portions of their fortunes to him. Eleven princes and 362 businessmen were victims of this mass arrest.

This is the man who kidnapped the leader of Lebanon and held him against his will for nine days in Saudi Arabia.

During that time, prime minister Saad Hariri suddenly resigned, prompting Lebanon’s president to accuse Saudi Arabia of “coercing” Hariri into quitting. Hariri fully retracted his “resignation” in December 2017.

This is the man who set up an embargo against Qatar, trying to force Doha to become a vassal of Saudi Arabia. He made 13 demands on Qatar, including the closure of Al Jazeera and other media outlets.

After all, you can’t have free speech breaking out on the Kingdom’s front porch.

This is the man who arrested 30 Saudi clerics, writers, and intellectuals in the summer of 2017, jailing them for criticizing royal policies.

Four Saudi women’s rights activists are still in jail for publicly demanding an end to the so-called “female guardianship” system in the Kingdom.

Under that system, a woman needs a male guardian’s permission to do the most basic things in life, from enrolling in school, to working for pay outside the home.

True, the Crown Prince granted driver’s licences to women, but he also ordered female activists, under pain of arrest, not to take credit for the reform. It was a gift of the Royals, you see, not a victory for social activism or free speech.

And this is the Crown Prince who launched the bloody war against Yemen just weeks after he became defence minister.

That war has been three years of high-tech hell for the Houthis: 16,000 dead and wounded, and 12 million others in Yemen facing famine as a result of the Saudi blockade of the port of Hodeidah.

So far, the best the West has been able to do is supply the Crown Prince with sophisticated weaponry and help him target his hapless victims. Canada should shrink in horror from that despicable role.

When Trudeau came into office, hopes were high — and not on marijuana — that things would be different. This country would stand for certain standards and principles again.

As he said himself, Canada was back.

There was the expectation that Harper’s northern Republican view of the world would be replaced by something closer to — dare I say it — Canadian values.

To date, the Trudeau has let down his own supporters in key areas.

On the environment, he offered real change in Paris, and delivered real disappointment in Canada. On electoral reform, Trudeau waxed eloquent and then blamed other parties for his embrace of the status quo. On open government, he promised access to ministers’ offices under freedom of information, then slammed the informational door.

I know — they all do it.

And yes, these perceived shortcomings may not be as cut and dry as they seem. It could be argued, for example, that Trudeau is not Capt. Carbon (pipelines and all), just a politician trying to make a profound transition fraught with obstacles.

It could be argued that he will get around to electoral reform, just not on the schedule that was promised.

But human rights is one of those non-negotiable items. It is not primarily a political matter. It is a matter of values. No matter what words a politician uses to pass as a human rights advocate, there is only one test: what they do when faced with difficult choices. So far, Trudeau has been underwhelming.

TV host Don Martin once wrote about Trudeau’s “tepid” response to the slaughter of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. He chose the right word.

While the country’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, looked the other way, her military killed at least 10,000 Rohingya and forced another 700,000 to flee for their lives. Despite this cold complicity, Trudeau dragged his feet on stripping Suu Kyi of her honorary Canadian citizenship. Parliament and the Senate finally did the job for him earlier this month.

Which is just to say, there is no room for the prime minister to be “tepid” on Khashoggi. The Crown Prince should be an international pariah. Saudi Arabia needs a new prince, if not a regime change. Being rich and powerful shouldn’t mean getting away with murder most foul.

Trudeau should realize that the alternative to rejecting the Crown Prince in plain language is to get used to shaking hands with the devil.

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