Emirate-gate Analysis

I read the news today and learned of a story that really irked me not because of the original contents, but because of the way it was spun by the Canadian media.

I'm talking about the Emirate-gate scandal that has the Canadian government up in arms. To sum it all up, the government of the United Arab Emirates is basically telling the Canadian forces to vacate the Camp Mirage facility outside of Dubai where they are stationed. To add insult to injury, The UAE also banished Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay from their airspace.

To me, that would be the last straw. If I were Stephen Harper (the Prime Minister of Canada) I'd send their ambassador packing from Ottawa, recall our ambassador from Abu Dhabi, and banish their two airlines - Emirates and Etihad - from our airspace entirely. I mean seriously, how dare the UAE do this to our government and our military!

However, after reading more into the story, I saw some things that weren't accurately reported by the Canadian media but talked about in publications from the Persian Gulf or international newswires.

The biggest one that I will talk about is during the time Camp Mirage was used, there were also negotiations going on between the Canadian government and the Emirati government regarding extra landing slots and the permission to fly to more airports than Pearson International (YYZ) in Toronto. As it goes right now, Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways can only fly to YYZ three times a week and no more - which is actually quite unfair.

The Canadian government and Air Canada - Canada's flag carrier - stated quite simply that there aren't enough Canadians traveling to the UAE.

In my honest opinion, if Emirates and Etihad want to fly these routes six or seven days a week each, then more power to them since they are taking that risk. But why is the Canadian government and the Canadian flag carrier - two entities that are completely separate from these Emirati airlines - dictating that there won't be enough people using the services of these airlines?

As well, these are the only airlines that will fly non-stop from Toronto to either of the UAE hubs. Air Canada doesn't fly to DXB or AUH, and if I wanted to seriously not fly with either Emirates or Etihad, I could fly out of New York JFK or Atlanta and take United or Delta - but that would mean a very long journey since I fly from Canada to either of these hubs and I might not be flying direct to these airports. There's also flying to Europe, transiting, and then going to the UAE from there but why transit when I could fly direct?

Anyways, I digress. So how does this relate to Emirate-gate? It appears that the lease on this base where the Canadian forces are stationed expired this past June. The government of the UAE, in order to expedite negotiations with the airlines and the Canadian government extended the years-old lease for three more months to expire on October 10. It was "a show of goodwill" from the Emiratis.

This incident with Peter MacKay happened on October 11 - the day after this lease ended. The way it was spun by the Canadian media is like taking a coupon for a free burger to the fast food joint a day after it expires, being told that the coupon won't be honored since it is no longer valid, throwing a fit by saying that the fast-food joint discriminated against you for whatever reason and then reporting the story in favour of the person who was in the wrong to begin with.

The Canadian media made it look like Peter MacKay was on the plane to the UAE when an air traffic controller on the ground told the plane that they don't have the right to land anymore as if it was out of the blue but the Emiratis are saying that this whole issue was known about beforehand.

Overall, the Canadian media failed on this story. Instead of holding the government accountable, they acted like a bunch of yes-men and towed the party line. A little bit of research could have gone a long way...