Misunderstandings - Government-to-Government

Perhaps not quite 'misunderstanding', given the circumstances. Better to name the situation for what it is, a failed attempt at blackmail that brought huge umbrage to relations between Canada and the United Arab Emirates. Impacting Canada's leased base in Dubai. Camp Mirage, that information-elusive base that Canada has used to transfer supplies to its forces in Afghanistan, effectively is no more.

Simple enough: the UAE was dissatisfied with its three-times-weekly permission to land at Canadian airports, and had a fine plan to lobby the Government of Canada through Transport Canada, to permit it daily landing rights. Dubai's Emirates Airlines and Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airlines offer extremely competitive travel rates.

Extending their landing rights would be an added boon to their very profitable air transit business, but a decided disadvantage to Canadian carriers. Call it protectionism, but after all, any country has an obligation to its own corporations, to ensure they can carry on operations to advantage, create jobs and offer needed domestic and international flight services.

"The rights under the current Canada-UAE air transport agreement meet the market demands of travellers whose origin or final destination is either Canada or the UAE", explained Transport Canada, reasonably enough.

Not only must Canada now pull its personnel and equipment/materiel out tout de suite, the situation of resentment is so dire in an infantile way that Canada now, is not permitted to fly over UAE's airspace. Canada's Minister of Defence, Peter MacKay, along with General Walter Natynzyk and Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn on a C-17 jumbo transport were refused entry to UAE airspace and forced to a 6-hour detour to Rome.

As diplomatic altercations go, this one represents a particularly ill-mannered snub, country-to-country and Dubai doesn't look too well-balanced in its outrage manifested by its hostile action toward Canada as a result of Canadian lack of accommodation to its proposed expansion of services, to increase its bottom line.

This escalation of what amounts to an access disagreement where one sovereign country refuses entitlements to another, in the interests of protecting home-grown profits, represents a situation where a country behaving like the proverbial spoiled child has thrown a monumental tantrum. Pity that, but that's the way things go, when interests diverge and one entity refuses accommodation to the other out of self-interest. Why, after all, should Canada shoot itself in the pocketbook?