Since Ms. Almoalimi’s appointment, Saudi Arabia has sent female ambassadors to four other destinations.Dave Chan/The Globe and Mail
Amal Yahya Almoalimi says she takes great pride in breaking ground for women in Saudi Arabia.
Ms. Almoalimi, Riyadh’s top diplomat in Canada for the past two years, became the second woman to lead a diplomatic mission for the kingdom.
“It means a lot to me, of course, and it’s a huge responsibility for me to be chosen as the second,” the ambassador said in an interview at the Saudi Arabian embassy in Ottawa.
Ms. Almoalimi followed U.S. ambassador Reema bint Bandar Al Saud into the elite levels of Saudi diplomacy.
Since Ms. Almoalimi’s appointment, Saudi Arabia has sent female ambassadors to four other destinations − Sweden, Finland, the European Union and Spain.
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Ms. Almoalimi, who is 62, has been settling into the country’s capital. Her daughter, one of five children, has been studying business at Carleton University.
“I was happy in Oslo, and now I am very happy in Ottawa,” said Ms. Almoalimi, the former Saudi ambassador to Norway. “Canadians have a very good reputation in the Saudi people’s minds of being so humble, so inclusive society, so polite, safe. A lot of good things.”
Born in Riyadh, Ms. Almoalimi earned an undergraduate degree studying English, a graduate degree in mass communications and media from the University of Denver, and also studied at the University of Oxford. She has worked as a teacher and as a director-general at the Saudi Human Rights Commission.
In 2018, relations between Canada and Saudi Arabia soured when Chrystia Freeland, foreign affairs minister at the time, called for the release of political activists imprisoned in Saudi Arabia.
Ambassadors for both countries were called home. In 2022, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau and Mohammed bin Salman – the Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister – agreed to resume diplomatic relations.
Ms. Almoalimi was sent to Canada the next year.
Elliot Tepper, a Carleton University geopolitics professor, said Ms. Almoalimi’s appointment appears intended to help repair the relationship between Canada and the Middle Eastern country of about 36 million people.
Prof. Tepper said Saudi Arabia may have been trying to demonstrate through the appointment that it has fundamentally changed, and is evolving in a very different direction from its past.
“She is, in a sense, a renewal ambassador in terms of relationships between Canada and Saudi Arabia, and they have chosen to send an obviously charming and confident woman ambassador from a country that was under duress because of its treatment of women, including duress from Canada,” he said.
Saudi Arabia is Canada’s largest two-way trading partner in the Middle East and North Africa, and, according to Global Affairs, a major export market for such Canadian products as aircraft, motors and parts, and pharmaceuticals. Energy makes up 97 per cent of Canadian imports from Saudi Arabia.
Beyond trade, Prof. Tepper noted that Saudi Arabia is a centre of considerable capital, and a powerful player in the region that is likely to become even more influential as Iran grapples with the impacts of its conflict with Israel and the recent U.S. strike on its nuclear program.
Ms. Almoalimi has been engaging with stakeholders across Canada. In the interview, she checked off visits to Saskatchewan, London, Toronto and Montreal and said that she plans to visit Alberta and Vancouver soon.
Saudi Arabia has been criticized for its human-rights record and its harsh treatment of government critics. In 2018, Ottawa imposed sanctions on 17 Saudis for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate.
In the aftermath of the killing, Riyadh has continued to focus on its Vision 2030 program of economic and social reforms, which includes a greater societal role for women.
On human rights, Global Affairs said that Saudi Arabia has participated in the Universal Periodic Review, a process in which UN member states undergo a peer review of their human-rights records every 4½ years. “Canada made constructive recommendations,” said spokesperson Clémence Grevey.
Ms. Grevey said Canada also welcomes progress linked to Vision 2030, “notably the empowerment of women and their increasing participation in society and the economy.”
The ambassador said questions and criticisms of Saudi Arabia have not been an obstacle in her travels.
“I’ve met with people who are happy for the [resumption] of the relationship,” she said. “People are welcoming this very well, and they were happy to see me.”
The ambassador said her calendar has included frequent invitations to conferences, workshops and events across the country. “It showed that great interest of opening the doors back to more co-operation.”
Goldy Hyder, president and chief executive officer of the Business Council of Canada, said his organization has been engaging with the Saudi diplomat.
“In my dealings with the ambassador, we have focused on realizing the full potential of the bilateral relationship,” Mr. Hyder said in a statement.
Mr. Hyder, who is visiting Saudi Arabia later this year, says engaging with Riyadh is vital because Canadian businesses are looking for opportunities to diversify and compete globally.
“Saudi Arabia’s ongoing economic transformation presents a potential opportunity in sectors such as financial services, infrastructure, nuclear energy, agriculture, advanced manufacturing and aerospace,” he said.
The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, whose members include former Supreme Court justice Rosalie Abella and former federal cabinet minister Irwin Cotler, recommended caution in engaging with Saudi Arabia.
“Canada must predicate any engagement with Saudi Arabia upon the protection of basic human rights in Saudi Arabia,” said Gila Cotler, the centre’s chief executive officer, in a statement.
She cites the case of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, who has been forbidden from reuniting with his wife and children, who are citizens in Canada, and banned from using the internet.
“Releasing Saudi blogger Raif Badawi from his prison without walls and allowing him to speak and write freely and to reunite with his wife and children in Canada should be an essential next step in the relationship between our two countries,” Ms. Cotler said.