Toronto Star: “The two Saudi emissaries who visited Omar Abdulaziz wanted him home. It was the spring of 2018 and Abdulaziz, a high-profile Saudi dissident and activist living in exile in Montreal, was developing a huge following on social media. While studying at McGill University, he had started a satirical news show on YouTube that took aim at Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. It was getting millions of views. The two emissaries – one a lawyer, the other a TV host – suggested he could have his own show and become the ‘voice of the youth’ back in Saudi Arabia, he recalls. But the conversation had clear overtones. One of the men told Abdulaziz, who secretly recorded their conversations, there were two options: Either return home or he ‘goes to jail.'”
“Why not at least go to the embassy to get your passport renewed, they implored. He never went. Looking back, he says he’s haunted by the thought of what might have happened next. It was only a few months later that Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist, was killed and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. ‘I don’t know what was the plan – killing me, kidnapping me, taking me away from Canada? I don’t know,’ he told the Star.”