My friend,
If you actually read some of the posts in this thread, you'd realize that is about a much larger picture than Air Canada.
"proper competition" is the key phrase. How exactly do you propose a country with laws, taxes, living wages, a legal system, a participatory democracy (I could go on and on) compete with a despotic dictatorship that has no labour protections, no reasonable (ie balanced) justice system, and an endless supply of cheap slave labour?
Don't let your petty dislike of Air Canada blind you to the real issues. If Emirates wants to fly in Canada let them open a base in Toronto and hire pilots to fly out of it. Let them see how they can compete when they are operating under the same rules as Air Canada, in Canada. Why not, if that's where they want to fly? Step up or shut up.
Emirates is just one more example of "flags of convenience", just like the supertankers based in Liberia or the Nike shoes made in China.
As one of the pilots who might be referred to as "forced" to work for Emirates, no, there was no gun held to my head. But after multiple layoffs and no hiring at the time in Canada, there wasn't a lot of choice. But it's far worse for the mass of labourers in Dubai, so the poster who asked "who's forcing Canadians or anyone else to work there" just has no effing clue about the desperation of most subcontinent/asian workers. THEY absolutely are forced by circumstance.
and wxgeek,
I can assure you that the videos are actually only the tip of the iceberg. They are viciously hilarious because they are so spot-on.