Saudi Arabia rift

Canadian Universities are scrambling to react, after Saudi Arabia suddenly cancelled scholarships and re-called students studying in this country.

McMaster University says it has about 150 Saudi students in the faculty of Health Sciences and another 40 in other programs.

Niagara College was expecting 40 students from Saudi Arabia to arrive for the fall term. Niagara actually has campuses in Saudi Arabia, but says it’s unaware of any impact on those operations.

The tensions seem to have begun with a tweet from Canada’s Foreign Affairs Department, which decried the detention of some female activists in Saudi Arabia.

Since then, the Saudis have reportedly stopped accepting grain that originated in Canada and Saudi air flights have been cancelled to and from Toronto.

Marvin Ryder from Degroote School of Business says this was seen as interference in internal policy.

He says a harder line has been coming from the Kingdom in recent years since the ascension of the new crown Prince but says the sudden and swift action based on a tweet was surprising.

Ryder says Canadian schools were caught off guard by this announcement, which comes just weeks before the fall semester begins.