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JILL MAHONEY
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011 6:00AM EST
Last updated Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011 6:14AM EST
When a few dozen Danish tourists erected a cairn with their native flags on hotly contested Hans Island last summer, Prime Minister Stephen Harper sounded a diplomatic note: “Hans Island is a one-kilometre square rock in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, so I’m not sure it would have made for much of a tour.”
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| Hans Island - from the net |
Despite Ottawa’s conciliatory approach toward the mineral and fuel-rich Arctic region, however, Canadians have adopted a confrontational stance.
A new opinion poll finds that Canadians are generally far less receptive to negotiation and compromises on disputes than their American neighbours. More than 40 per cent of Canadians said the country should pursue a firm line in defending its sections of the North, compared to just 10 per cent of Americans.
The international survey – conducted by EKOS Research for the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto and the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation – found that a majority of Canadians see Arctic sovereignty as the country’s top foreign-policy priority; they also believe military resources should be shifted to the North, even if it means taking them away from global conflicts. The findings are based on a poll of more than 9,000 people in the eight northern countries. Most of those respondents took a more conciliatory approach than Canadians, and favoured Scandinavian nations as negotiation partners over Canada.
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| Prime Minister Stephen Harper - From the net |
“It is something that allows him to play the nationalism card, particularly since it resonates with the population,” said Brian MacDonald, a senior defence analyst with the Conference of Defence Associations. “There’s been a long-term national romance with the Arctic.”
In addition to Hans Island, which Canada and Denmark both claim, Canada has a border dispute with the United States in the Beaufort Sea, which is believed to hold a trove of natural resources.
Canada also claims the Northwest Passage as Canadian territory, in contrast to the United States and most other countries who argue that their ships are entitled to “innocent passage” through the Arctic archipelago.
Last fall, Canada announced it had amassed sufficient scientific evidence to back a claim for the coveted Lomonosov Ridge, of which Russia also asserts ownership. The Russians believe the underwater mountain range contains billions of tonnes of fuel deposits.
With a melting ice cap, tensions over shipping and exploration rights have escalated over the past decade. “That reality is leading to and will lead to much more activity in Canada’s North and indeed the Arctic everywhere,” said Michael Byers, a University of British Columbia professor and author of Who Owns the Arctic?
Drawing lines in the Arctic ice
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010 9:00PM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011 7:03AM EST
The federal government is striking the right pragmatic note in expressing its resolve to settle international disputes in the Arctic and to make the eight-nation Arctic Council more effective.
The Department of Foreign Affairs’ new policy paper presents “exercising our sovereignty” as the first of four pillars of Canada’s northern strategy. The actual exercise of that sovereignty will be more likely if Canada shows some degree of flexibility and willingness to co-operate, rather than posture.
•In the Arctic, Canada willing to fight to keep the true north free
The dispute with Denmark about Hans Island and a section of the Lincoln Sea to the north of it, has little practical significance; a compromise should not be hard to achieve. The area is neither rich in resources nor a feasible sea route to anywhere.
There is much more at stake in how to draw a line from the northern end of the land border between Yukon and Alaska through the Beaufort Sea. This raises questions of both navigation and resource extraction. It is, however, in the mutual interest of Canada and the United States to establish the boundary so that both countries can put their minds to future development, proceeding with caution; the new policy paper rightly adverts to BP’s disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and says that there will be no oil drilling in the Beaufort Sea before 2014, to allow time to plan prudently.
By contrast, the government sounds absolute on Canada’s right to its continent shelf, an appropriately strong opening position, considering Russia’s extravagant claims and the United States’ persistent non-ratification of the Convention on the Law of the Sea.
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On the Northwest Passage, the Canadian International Council’s recent report Open Canada: A Global Positioning Strategy for a Networked Age is able to be more frank than the federal government, saying that, apart from whether these waters are simply Canadian property, Canada is the right country to regulate their use – which need not entail the power to exclude the vessels of other nations.
Among the benefits of a clarified framework for the Arctic would be an increase in opportunities for the Inuit and other indigenous peoples of the North.
Though the CIC report goes further than the government in advocating a full-time staff and budget for the octopartite Arctic Council, but it follows logically from Foreign Affairs’ strategy. Canada was active in the council’s creation, but has sometimes neglected it.
The government’s new policy statement is a salutary mixture of pragmatism and principle, which offers real hope of a more vigorous Canadian presence in the Arctic.
Canadians rank Arctic sovereignty as top foreign-policy priority
JILL MAHONEY
Globe and Mail Update
Published Monday, Jan. 24, 2011 4:52PM EST
Last updated Monday, Jan. 24, 2011 5:37PM EST
A majority of Canadians see Arctic sovereignty as the country’s top foreign-policy priority and believe military resources should be shifted to the North from global conflicts, according to a new opinion poll.
The survey also found that Canadians are generally far less receptive to negotiation and compromises on Arctic disputes than Americans.---
Arctic treaty to push Canada to upgrade search and rescue: experts
BOB WEBER
The Canadian Press
Published Tuesday, Jan. 04, 2011 8:26PM EST
Last updated Monday, Jan. 24, 2011 5:33PM EST
The federal government is poised to sign an international treaty that will make Canada legally responsible for search and rescue in its part of the Arctic.
Northern experts say the deal, expected to be signed in May, could force Canada to upgrade its capabilities in the region. And, they add, it shows new resolve by the eight nations in the Arctic Council to show the rest of the world that they intend to set the rules for the upper-most reaches of the planet.---
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