 Baird was working as a consultant and has business interests in Saudi Arabia at the time he made the comments, but in January 2015 while Foreign Affairs Minister, he had also protested Raif Badawi's case to the Saudis, specifically with Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, a prominent member of the Saud family.NDP MP Charlie Angus called the appearance "stunning" and suggested that the Ethics Commissioner should investigate the incident.There was some question as to how the Saudi sell-off would affect Canada's economy; year to date, Canada had exported C$1.4 billion in goods to Saudi Arabia, according to Statistics Canada.