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Camp Mirage Superthread

PuckChaser said:

Well :

a) Its a politicaly unstable shithole ; and
b) The already tried the "pay us $xxxxx or we'll kick you out" on other allies (the US) and succeeeded.
 
Retired FDO said:
I wonder what this little spat between the UAE and Canada will do for those other Canadians working in the UAE. There are 27,000 Canadians and about 200 Canadian companies. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks.
Indeed. Lots of civilians over there teaching English. I wonder how all this will trickle down for them.
 
CDN Aviator said:
Well :

a) Its a politicaly unstable ******* ; and
b) The already tried the "pay us $xxxxx or we'll kick you out" on other allies (the US) and succeeeded.

Makes sense, we'd be no better off than with UAE.
 
Even though the United Arab Emirates evicted Canada from an airbase used to supply troops in Afghanistan, there will be a Camp Mirage closing ceremony to thank the U.A.E., Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday.

He told a House of Commons committee the U.A.E. had let Canada use the airbase for transporting troops, equipment and supplies for free for nearly a decade and "always treated Canadians with utmost respect and dignity."

Canada's military still has a "bit of a cushion" to clear out as ordered by the U.A.E. because of a trade dispute over airline landing rights, and will meet the Nov. 5 eviction deadline, Gen. Walt Natynczyk signalled. The Canadian military has stopped flying troops to and through its base in Dubai ....
More from Postmedia News here.
 
Slap a Canadian and he'll apologise for it:

We are now going to "Thank" the UAE for kicking us out. Great... wonderful. Canada's International rep wasn't bad enough... Maybe I am naive, but this smacks of grovelling to me.
:mad:
http://www.infomedia.gc.ca/international/articles/unrestricted/2010/10/int2010101312885529_9.htm


 
Recenty, on return from HLTA, we were met at the airport and advised we would not be admitted to CM.  So instead we spent the night at the airport (earlier flights got hotels).

As far as Emirates versus Air Canada....

I've always avoided Air Canada as the general concensus was that they are undesirable.  Much of my HLTA flying (I had over 10 flights) was done through them and I was impressed with the level of service and comfort.

Having flown back on an Emirates A380, the only thing that impressed me was the plane it's self.  Boarding seemed very laboured and the service was not as professional as I would have expected.  The flight attendants seemed inexperienced and hurried quite often.  The economy seats and entertainment were however top notch as was the food.
 
DirtyDog said:
I've always avoided Air Canada as the general concensus was that they are undesirable.  Much of my HLTA flying (I had over 10 flights) was done through them and I was impressed with the level of service and comfort.

I always found Air Canada's international service to be very different than its domestic service. While i avoid AC at all costs here at home, for international travel, i dont mind them at all.
 
Canada relocating Camp Mirage operations to Cyprus
The Canadian Press
Date: Friday Nov. 5, 2010 1:57 PM ET
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20101105/camp-miraeg-closes-101105/

STELLARTON, N.S. — Defence Minister Peter MacKay says the Canadian military will use facilities in Cyprus in addition to a base in Germany as a supply route for its mission in Afghanistan after the closing of Camp Mirage.

MacKay said Friday that Cyprus has already been used by the Canadian military.

"We've been currently using Cyprus for what is sometimes described as decompression. That is when soldiers are coming out of theatre, so Cyprus will be another hub as far as transportation in and out of theatre now," he said after an event in Stellarton, N.S.

Operations at Camp Mirage in the United Arab Emirates were officially brought to a close at a ceremony on Wednesday.

Canada was asked to leave the Dubai base last month following a dispute between Ottawa and the U.A.E. over airline landing rights at Canadian airports.

Much of Canada's logistical capacity has been transferred to an American base in Spangdahlem, Germany, which the Canadian military had already been using for its C-17 aircraft.

"Many Canadian air force pilots will remember landing in Spangdahlem when we had larger bases of operation inside Germany," said MacKay.

Military planners were given one month to vacate the base in Dubai, which was not only an operational hub but one they had been counting on for Canada's withdrawal from Afghanistan next year.

There has also been speculation that Canada will continue sending non-sensitive material through the Pakistani port of Karachi as it begins scaling down its mission in July.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon has insisted the closure of Camp Mirage had not hurt military operations in Afghanistan.

The existence of the Canadian base in Dubai had long been a guarded secret. Until recently, reporters were forbidden from mentioning its name or location.

It was a way station for soldiers and valuable equipment either coming from or going to Afghanistan. The bodies of fallen soldiers were honoured there as they made their way back to Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Ontario.

According to military figures only now being made public, transit through Camp Mirage increased steadily from 2001 right up to Wednesday. An average of 3.6 million kilograms of cargo were being moved by air each year, and as many as 32,500 Canadian personnel passed through its gates annually.
 
Qatar, Canada do airline deal
  Article Link
3 passenger, 3 cargo weekly. Quiet, quick agreement in sharp contrast to dispute with United Arab Emirates

By MATTHEW FISHER, Postmedia News November 12, 2010

Canada and Qatar have quietly signed an aviation agreement that will allow Qatar Airways to fly three passenger flights and three cargo flights a week to and from the Gulf sheikdom.

Talks were successfully concluded on Oct. 25 after only three days of negotiation, according to Qatari news media.

The quick agreement with Qatar was in sharp contrast to a dispute between Ottawa and the United Arab Emirates over flights to and from Canada. It caused the UAE to kick the Canadian military out of Camp Mirage, a key logistical base in Dubai that had been used for nine years to support the war in Afghanistan.

Before talks broke down last month, Canada and the U.A.E. had haggled for five years over greater access to Canadian airports for Emirate Airlines and Etihad Airways -an expansion that was strongly opposed by Air Canada and Transport Canada.

Air carriers in Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands also have strongly objected to the rapid expansion of flights to Europe by Gulf carriers.

Canada had not publicized the new agreement with Qatar, perhaps fearing potential further fallout from its escalating dispute with the U.A.E. Newspapers in the U.A.E. have not published details of the air agreement between Canada and Qatar although media there usually cover the aviation industry very closely.

The U.A.E. placed a visa requirement on Canadian visitors earlier this week. When the edict comes into effect in the coming weeks -on Jan. 2 -Canada will be the only western country whose citizens face such a restriction.

Qatar does not require that Canadian citizens have a visa before travelling there. In a sign of warming relations, Canada is to open an embassy in Qatar early next year.

Canada could retaliate against the U.A.E. by cancelling the six flights a week that Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways currently fly to Toronto or by banning U.A.E. aircraft from Canadian airspace as the U.A.E. did when they refused access last month to a flight carrying Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Canada's top soldier, Gen. Walt Natynczyk. Such a move could cost the U.A.E.'s two national carriers hundreds of millions of dollars a year in additional fuel costs because it would add several hours' flying time and an additional stop to about a dozen passenger flights every day to the western United States and an hour per day of additional flying time to about half a dozen flights to the U.S. East Coast.

Qatar is a peninsula connected to Saudi Arabia which juts into the Persian Gulf only a few kilometres from the UAE's territorial waters. The country is the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas reserves.

Qatar is home to Al-Jazeera, the Arab-and English-language all-news network, which is hugely popular across the Middle East.

Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and in South Asia, has its forward headquarters in Qatar and the U.S. air force has a major airbase there.

The military was mum yesterday about whether Canada will try to negotiate access to that airbase for its military transports. Since being forced out of Camp Mirage on Nov. 3, passenger flights from Canada to Kandahar have been routed via Cyprus.
end
 
Gee, you think this might be intended as a mild slap to the UAE?
 
Especially if they get landing rights for Afghanistan flights....camp mirage II
 
dapaterson said:
Gee, you think this might be intended as a mild slap to the UAE?

Nope; the UAE already has landing rights such as this in Canada - what they wanted was unlimited daily flight landing rights.
 
Apparently the increase in UAE landing rights was a move that would have hurt AC Asian flights.....right now they have to go the long way around, whereas they wanted to pick up a chunk of North American traffic to asia via Canada...
 
MacKay, Baird divided over U.A.E. decision
Video:    MacKay's feelings on the UAE
Defence Minister Peter MacKay is overheard telling a Tory senator that relations with the United Arab Emirates have been set back a decade. Global National's Carolyn Jarvis talks to Calgary Herald columnist Don Martin for analysis.
              ____________________________________________________________

OTTAWA — An internal rift in the Conservative government's cabinet was laid bare Thursday, as House leader John Baird said the Tories did the right thing by refusing to strike a deal with the Middle East country that once provided a military airbase for Canadian troops — while Defence Minister Peter MacKay said the failed negotiations have set back relations with the U.A.E.

Canada lost the military base in the U.A.E. this fall because it would not grant aircraft landing rights in Canada as requested by the Gulf sheikdom.

Baird and MacKay were reportedly at odds at the cabinet table over whether Canada should adopt a hard line, and Baird ended up convincing Prime Minister Stephen Harper to stand fast.

In the House of Commons on Thursday, opposition critics accused the government of dropping the ball and leaving troops without a reliable airbase to use while in transit to Afghanistan.

article continues

here

                        (Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act)

 

Chretien criticizes Harper's handling of UAE relations


OTTAWA — Former prime minister Jean Chretien is taking shots at the Harper government for its handling of relations with the United Arab Emirates.

"I think this problem has not been well managed," he is quoted as saying on the website of Arabian Business, from the sidelines of a conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In recent months, the UAE has evicted Canada from the military base Camp Mirage, which was used to support war efforts in Afghanistan. As well, Canadians have recently been required to pay for visas to visit the UAE that continue to be offered free to citizens of other western countries.

Such moves are seen as retaliation for Canada's refusal to grant additional landing rights to airlines from the UAE.

"I hope (the Canadian government) will resolve the difficulty because we need good relations with this part of the world," Chretien told Arabian Business.

Chretien, who led a Liberal government from 1993 to 2003, added: "I never had any problems when I was prime minister with the countries here. I never had, in the 10 years I was there, had that type of problem without finding a solution."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in Switzerland Tuesday for meetings on women's and children's health. Officials from the Prime Minister's Office were not immediately available for comment.

In previous comments to media, Harper has expressed disappointment in the UAE as an ally for linking to business disagreements the use of its territory for help in global security.

Dimitri Soudas, Harper's director of communications, recently told Postmedia News that what the UAE has been asking for is "not in the best interest of Canadian workers."

He criticized the Liberals on this issue for not defending "the interests of Canadian workers and the Canadian economy at a time when we need it most."

                        (Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act)
 
57Chevy said:

Chretien criticizes Harper's handling of UAE relations


OTTAWA — Former prime minister Jean Chretien is taking shots at the Harper government for its handling of relations with the United Arab Emirates.

"I think this problem has not been well managed ... I hope (the Canadian government) will resolve the difficulty because we need good relations with this part of the world," Chretien told Arabian Business.

Chretien, who led a Liberal government from 1993 to 2003, added: "I never had any problems when I was prime minister with the countries here. I never had, in the 10 years I was there, had that type of problem without finding a solution ..."


It is always nice to have "good relations" everywhere, but that "part of the world" is not, really, all that important.

Regions that really matter to Canada:

USA;

East Asia - especially, but not only, China, South Korea, Hong Kong (with which we need to have separate "good relations" from China) and Japan, in that order;

South Asia - especially, but not only, India;

South East Asia - especially, but not only, Singapore and Malaysia;

South Pacific - especially, but not only, Australia and New Zealand; and

North West Europe - especially, but not only, Norway, Denmark and the United Kingdom.

Regions that matter quite a bit:

Caribbean;

Europe;

The Pacific Rim - including South American Pacific countries; and

Israel and, by extension, its immediate neighbours.

Regions that hardly matter at all, except as already mentioned:

Africa;

Middle East;

Central and West Asia;

Latin America; and

Everything else.

Let Portugal care; they got elected to the UNSC.

 
But it's probably very important to Power Corporation though, hence the Chretien connection. On the face of it, IMHO, it has nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with making money for his cronies and himself.......again.
 
A counter blow by Ezra Levant to Chretien's huffing and puffing.

http://ezralevant.com/2011/01/emirates-airlines-owned-by-dic.html

Can Emirates Airlines even really be called a company, if it's 100% owned by a foreign dictatorship, doesn't pay taxes, gets a free, state of the art airport built by near-slave labour, etc., etc.? And today the great moral exemplar, Jean Chretien, took its side against Canada. From pepper-spraying Canadians protesting against Suharto at the APEC conference, to shilling for China, to this, is there a world dictator Chretien won't support?

I'm all for competition amongst companies. But I think there's a difference when a foreign dictatorship dresses up as a company, and pretends to compete as a company, but is actually a tool of foreign policy. Maybe someone ought to write a book called "Ethical Airlines".  Here's a documentary about the treatment of workers in Dubai.  I know it's not as much fun to talk about as all that great shopping. You'd think the parties of the left would give a damn about the treatment of workers. But there's all that great shopping! And the stewardesses on Emirates are so pretty.

More on Link
 
I'm quite insulted by the UAE's apparent notion that we have ANY obligation to let their subsidized bling-bling airline cut grass on our lawn. So to speak....
 
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