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Thursday, November 11, 2010

Haroon Siddiqui in the Toronto Star: Canadian-Arab relations sink to an all-time low

Amr Moussa (secretary-general of the Arab League, which represents 22 nations with 280 million people), quoted by Haroon Siddiqui: "You cannot just take a biased position and then ask the Arabs and Muslims to forget it and ignore it and support you."

Haroon Siddiqui: "After Canada refused more landing rights for Emirates and Etihad airlines, the UAE [United Arab Emirates] cancelled Canada’s free use of an airbase and a port for transiting our troops and equipment to and from Afghanistan.

...

"The UAE is Canada’s largest Arab trading partner — at $1.5 billion a year, most of it in our favour. About 125 Canadian companies are active in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and 27,000 Canadians work and live there.

"The UAE is one of the oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council states that are projected to spend $10 trillion in the next 10 years on infrastructure — projects that Canada is very suited to have a crack at, and invest $3.5 trillion abroad in the years ahead, with Canada as an attractive destination.

"Harper’s mishandling [of relations with the UAE] can only be explained by his anti-consumer, anti-free trade protectionism of Air Canada, or ideological anti-Arabism, or just plain incompetence."

Full article: Siddiqui: Canadian-Arab relations sink to an all-time low

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