Let me state my position first..so as not be confused, or played as another straw man.
I am an EK pilot, I have every desire for EK to operate to Canada, but in saying that, I hope its done on the basis of a fair and reasonable position
Now with that out of the way, lets call a spade a spade, both Air Canada, and now the Canadian government are doing their populace an immense disservice by "unreasonably" restricting competition in the air transport market place.
Its as obvious to anyone other than a one eyed fool that immense pressure has been put on policy and decision makers such that Air Canada can continue in its gouging of the Canadian market.
Lets be frank about this, from Air Canada's perspective, its the smart play, its EXACTLY what every other pseudo legacy/national carrier in the western world has done for the last 40 years for goodness sake.
The trouble with this approach is that all it really does is merely postpone the inevitable, that being a correction based around having to restructure a business so that it can become competitive again e.g. Alitalia, Air NZ, Varig (oops) United-Connie etc etc.
All the patriotic jingoistic claptrap that exists on this thread matters not, the essential arithmetic is there for ALL to see.
From the UAE's perspective...they have certainly behaved like a petulant child..but again where is the surprise in that? You should see some of the dumb-ass things the local emerati do on the roads over here..again its horses for courses.
The endgame to all this will be an eventual compromise, Air Canada will eventually either go pop, get another chunk of government capital, or become a market leader once more.
Emirates will eventually find a way to have greater access..by either swallowing Etihad..or using commercial common sense and maybe a more constructive approach.
In any case, a change of government in Canada, along with more revelations regarding price fixing could well be the nail in Air Canada's creaking coffin, I'm not convinced however that the Harper govt has actually thought a lot of this through to its conclusion..and could have by its own bloodymindedness shot itself in the foot....do they speak French in Ottawa as well?