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Defending Canadian Arctic Sovereignty

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Hans Island rock concert floated
Greenland official pitches musical solution to territorial battle

Armando D'Andrea
National Post; with files from The Canadian Press; CanWest News Service
July 27, 2005


TORONTO - Greenland's vice-premier is hoping a concert on Hans Island's barren turf can defuse the "primitive" political muscle-flexing between Canada and Denmark.

Josef Motzfeldt said he believes the disagreement over who owns the tiny rock between Greenland and Ellesmere Island can be resolved by inviting Canadian and Greenlandic musicians and officials to the island for a concert next summer.

He said this would be a more civilized way to address the conflict after last week's visit to the island by Canadian Defence Minister Bill Graham and military personnel, which Motzfeldt called "an occupation" and out of place in the 21st century.

"It's too primitive to come to an island with the military," he said. "I say we try to (resolve) it in a more civilized way. Some representatives from Canada, some Canadian authorities to join us if we can make a concert on the island. Why try to destroy the good neighbour (relations) that have taken place over history?"

Sovereignty of the three-kilometre island has been declared by both Canada and Denmark for years, with each taking turns planting flags on the island to confirm their claim.

The issue came to the fore again after last week's unannounced visit by Graham and his entourage, followed by Denmark's reply with an official letter of protest to the Canadian embassy in Copenhagen.

In Edmonton on Tuesday, Graham was making no apologies for the diplomatic tiff.

"We'll talk to the Danish people about their position, but our position has always been clear: It's Canada, and I went there just as I would have gone anywhere else in the Arctic."

Motzfeldt said any questions over sovereignty could also be resolved by a geological study to determine under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea whether the island was part of Ellesmere Island or Greenland.

Greenland has been a self-ruling territory since 1979, but Denmark continues to oversee many of its administrative and government functions.

Foreign Affairs Canada spokesman Reynald Doiron said Motzfeldt's idea of resolving the matter with a concert was "an interesting one." But he said Canada has never acted in a primitive fashion on this matter.

"It's been treated in an almost gentleman-like manner by both countries, by both governments," he said. "(The disagreement is) there, but it's no matter to go on the warpath."

He disagreed that Graham's visit was tantamount to an occupation.

"Occupation of what, I don't know," said Doiron. "We have said over and over again for the last several years that Hans Island is part of our territory ... Any Canadian federal official going there is going to our own piece of land. Therefore it's not an occupation."

Doiron also expressed reservations about Motzfeldt's idea of geologically settling the problem, saying in his view the only way the matter could be resolved is through direct negotiations or arbitration.
I'd rather see a hockey rink placed in the middle of the island.  We could have an annual tournament, and the winner would fly thier flag for the year.  ;D

Thoughts from the ambassador of Denmark to Canada:
Nobody wants Hans Island to sour our warm relationship
Canada and Denmark work closely together in many areas

Poul E. D. Kristensen
The Ottawa Citizen
Thursday, July 28, 2005


Canada and Denmark are neighbours in the North, allies in NATO and in the United Nations working closely together for peace and democracy in challenging spots such as Afghanistan, the Middle East and Sudan. Indeed we are close friends in relations across the board. Canadians of Danish origin are numerous. Cultural and commercial exchanges flourish between us.

In the North the Inuit populations of Greenland and Canada have communicated for centuries. Their oral languages are nearly identical. Denmark is in the final phase of opening an honorary consulate in Iqaluit, making it the first country to be represented on the spot in Nunavut.

As in every real, substantive friendship there are also tiny irritants like the territorial ownership of Hans Island. Such issues need to be dealt with deftly to strengthen the friendship.

The government of Denmark considers Hans Island to be a part of Danish territory. This should be of no surprise to anyone following developments from time to time in this case of disputed sovereignty. It is generally accepted that Hans Island was discovered in 1853 by an expedition carried out in agreement with Danish authorities, and with the participation of the famous Greenlander Hans Hendrik of Fiskensset. His place in the expedition earned Hans Hendrik a place in the history of exploration and the island was named after him -- "Hans /" (Hans Island).

Since then it has been our view that the island, by virtue of its belonging to Greenland, is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Relevant evidence in connection with defining the area of Greenland, such as geological and geomorphological studies, clearly supports this point of view.

In 1933, when the Permanent Court of International Justice declared the legal status of Greenland in Denmark's favour, the court did inter alia refer to the note from the British government, acting on behalf of Canada, which in 1920 assured the Danish government that it recognized Danish sovereignty over Greenland.

Therefore, when Canada in 1971, during negotiations with Denmark on the maritime boundary between Greenland and Canada, laid claim to the territory of Hans Island it was the first time the government of Denmark was officially informed about this. We did not reach an agreement at the time and since then our two governments have agreed to disagree.

In order to settle the dispute in a mutually acceptable way, the Danish government has repeatedly declared its willingness to resume consultations with the government of Canada at an appropriate time. This invitation is still very much open. In the view of the Danish government, Canada and Denmark have every reason to pursue an already fruitful co-operation on Arctic matters and we should not let the issue of Hans Island become a stumbling stone in this process.

Let me give you a recent example of co-operation in the North. A unique project between Canada and Denmark was launched as late as June this year. In Ottawa a memorandum was signed between Canada and Denmark to work together on collecting data needed for the redrawing of the continental shelf line in the Arctic Ocean north of Ellesmere Island and Greenland.

Both Denmark and Canada have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and that gives us the right to make claims beyond 200 nautical miles of new land and underwater resources in that area.

Now we could have decided that due to the sensitivities involved we would do this work individually. Instead we have adopted a much more constructive approach -- joint operation. We will share equipment, manpower, and knowledge and save time and money. And when the time comes to file our individual claims, I hope we will be much better equipped to divide the land and sea according to each country's wishes.

Denmark appreciates that the larger issue of sovereignty in the North is of real concern to Canada. Greenland, and thus Denmark, is also a part of the North. Denmark is not intruding in the area. We are only trying to protect what we believe to be part of our kingdom. We recognize that Hans Island is claimed by Canada as well; that there is a genuine dispute.

Nobody has an interest in letting such an issue sour our warm relations. That is why we suggest, as we have done in the past, that we turn to dialogue and the rule of law, as we generally do. We look forward to working with Canada on this issue.

Poul E. D. Kristensen is the ambassador of Denmark to Canada.


War of words over Graham's rock role
Hot Danish say minister broke own agreement with quiet visit to island

Tim Naumetz
For CanWest News Service; with files from The Canadian Press
July 28, 2005


OTTAWA - A disagreement between Canada and Denmark over a tiny Arctic island continued to simmer Wednesday as a Canadian official confirmed Defence Minister Bill Graham, who sparked the controversy last week by landing on Hans Island to demonstrate sovereignty, had agreed last year as foreign affairs minister that both sides would notify the other before visiting the disputed rock.

But Foreign Affairs Department spokesman Reynald Doiron, while insisting he did want to get into a debate with Denmark's ambassador to Canada over claims Graham broke the agreement, said the accord only covered visits by military vessels, and Graham approached the island by helicopter.

At the same time, Denmark served notice it will ask Canada to return to negotiations over ownership of the island, a bare outcrop less than 1,000 metres wide midway between Greenland and Canada's Ellesmere Island, because of the disturbance created by Graham's visit.

"We are very much suggesting now, since it can develop into an issue like this in the media, we had better sit down and resume the consultation and try to find a solution," said Danish Ambassador Poul Erik Dam Kristensen.

"That's very much our position and we hope the Canadian side agrees with us."

The countries agreed in 1973 to draw a border halfway between Greenland -- a semi-autonomous Danish territory -- and Canada's Ellesmere Island.

They could not agree on who should claim Hans Island and decided to resolve the issue at some later date.

Graham's helicopter visit prompted a heated response from Denmark, where the government delivered a letter of protest to Canadian diplomats. A week earlier, Canadian soldiers hoisted a Canadian flag and erected an Inuit stone marker on the island.

A senior Danish government official subsequently called Graham's touch-down on the uninhabited island an "occupation," but Graham reiterated his right to visit the site because of the longstanding Canadian sovereignty claim.

Kristensen said in an interview a "very high level representative" from Canada last year agreed with Danish officials that both sides would give advance notice before visiting the island, following a dispute the previous year over a visit by Danish soldiers.

The ambassador, saying his government advised Canada last week that Graham's visit breached the terms of the accord, declined to identify the Canadian official, other than describing him as "ministerial."

Doiron, deputy director of communications for the Foreign Affairs Department, confirmed it was Graham, who was foreign affairs minister at the time and last year faced opposition questions over the earlier visit by the Danes.

"Yes, of course," Doiron replied when asked if it was Graham who agreed on Canada's behalf.

He insisted, however, the agreement covered only military ships.

"It boils down to strictly military vessels, but we don't have to sail through any part whatsoever of Danish territorial waters because we don't send military vessels," he said.

When it was explained that Denmark believes the agreement covered visits by any government official, Doiron replied: "It does not match our recollection of our files on this, I don't want to contradict or enter into any pissing match whatsoever with the ambassador, but that's not the information I've been given by my legal colleagues."

Graham defended his visit by saying "our view is that it's part of Canada and we continue to be there and to go there."

Danish officials, however, believe the attempt to demonstrate Arctic sovereignty was directly related to disputes between Canada and the U.S. over sovereignty in the Northwest Passage and a boundary disagreement between the two countries over jurisdiction of part of the resource-rich Beaufort Sea.
 
It seems the Danish Navy won't be landing on Hans Island after all.  They will just sail by it.
Danish navy vessel backs away from Hans Island
Vito Pilieci
CanWest News Service
Monday, August 15, 2005


OTTAWA -- In order to cool tensions with Canada over Hans Island, the crew of a Danish protection vessel will not visit the disputed territory this year, according to Denmark's foreign minister.

A Danish naval cutter, the Tulugaq, was dispatched to the barren rock outcrop in the high Arctic last week to raise the flag of Denmark and bolster the country's claim to the island.

According to Danish officials, the vessel visits the island and sailors land there every year.

However, in a letter published in news publications in Denmark and Canada today, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller said he is not interested in fanning the flames over the Hans Island dispute with Canada. The vessel will pass by the island, but no sailors will go ashore.

"When it comes to handling conflict, Denmark and Canada are leading countries on the international stage," writes Moller.

"We do not wish Denmark to preclude negotiations with Canada this summer by being dragged into a war of flags on Hans Island."

Moller said he has no doubt Hans Island, about 1,000 metres wide situated midway between Greenland and Canada's Ellesmere Island, is in Danish-Greenland territory and belongs to his country.

But he said allowing the ship to land at Hans Island before the ongoing custody debate is settled would demean the "dignity" of both Canada and Denmark.

"Hans Island is part of Denmark and Greenland; it is part of our territory. To stand firm over one's territory ... is altogether crucial to being an independent state," he writes.

"Either we wish to negotiate or to retaliate. If we go down the path of retaliation, the negotiations will prove unsuccessful and the disputes will continue and escalate. Very seldom does that produce a satisfactory outcome. And it is below the dignity of lead countries like Denmark and Canada."

. . . and it seems the Canadian Navy also has plans to sail around in the area of the island, but they will also be enforcing fishing laws in Canadian waters:
Military hopes to end illegal fishing near Arctic island at centre of dispute
a journalist
Ottawa Citizen; CanWest News Service
August 17, 2005


The Canadian government is upping the ante in its push to assert sovereignty in the Arctic by sending a frigate to clamp down on illegal fishing by ships from a Danish protectorate, the Ottawa Citizen has learned.

Military officials have confirmed that HMCS Fredericton will leave Halifax on Thursday for a northern fisheries patrol that will last until the second week of September. The frigate, carrying officers from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, will operate mainly in the Davis Strait area with visits to Pond Inlet and Iqaluit, said navy spokesman Lt.-Cmdr. Ken MacKillop.

He did not have a list of countries suspected of illegal fishing in the area, but, MacKillop added, "I do know they need to go up there and see who's operating in the waters, take some surveillance and possibly intercept or board some vessels."

Arctic specialist Rob Huebert, who was invited along on the patrol, said there have been ongoing problems with illegal fishing by ships from the Faroe Islands, a protectorate of Denmark.

"We've also had some problem with the Greenland fishers coming over on our side," said Huebert, a University of Calgary defence analyst. "That's what the Fredericton is all about, to check that out."

Canada is embroiled in a dispute with Denmark over Hans Island, midway between Greenland and Canada's Ellesmere Island. That dispute flared last month after federal Defence Minister Bill Graham visited the tiny barren island, prompting one Danish official to call the trip an "occupation."

A Danish patrol ship is now on its way to the region but the Danish government has since decided to try to defuse the situation through diplomatic channels. The ship's crew will not land on Hans Island to assert Denmark's sovereignty but will instead pass nearby, Danish officials have said.

MacKillop said HMCS Fredericton will not be in the vicinity of Hans Island. But he noted the frigate's fisheries patrol is important. "We haven't done one of those with a frigate for some time, so it's of some significance."

The mission coincides with other naval patrols in the north. HMCS Glace Bay and HMCS Shawinigan, both coastal patrol vessels, will be operating in Hudson Bay and other northern locations. Military aircraft will also be involved in that mission.

Huebert said he applauds the government's increased efforts to assert control over Canada's northern waters and territories.

He said the government's decision to re-emphasize Canadian claims to Hans Island is the right thing to do as it sends a message to the U.S., Russia and Denmark, all of which have disputes with Canada over Arctic territories.

"It simply gives notice we're not going to be pushovers on this," he said.

Huebert said the possibility that global warming could open up the Arctic's vast resources for exploitation by other countries has prompted the Canadian government to realize it needs an increased presence in the region. Some in the Canadian Forces have repeatedly warned Ottawa that the threat to Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic will increase as the world's appetite for fish and other natural resources increases.

Navy frigate to patrol Arctic waters for first time
The Canadian Press
August 18, 2005


HALIFAX - A Canadian frigate will begin patrolling waters in the Arctic for the first time as the federal government attempts to clamp down on illegal fishing and assert its sovereignty in the Far North.

HMCS Fredericton will leave Halifax on Thursday and stay out until the second week of September, Defence officials said Wednesday. The vessel will head to the Davis Strait, Pond Inlet and Iqaluit, said Lt.-Cmdr. Ken MacKillop.

"They'll be heading up there with the intent to verify that our territorial waters are secure and take the opportunity to show our presence and our sovereignty up there in the northern area," he said.

MacKillop had no specifics on countries thought to be fishing illegally in the vast area, but said fisheries officers are prepared to board boats they suspect.

The trip will also give the Department of Fisheries and Oceans a better understanding of who is fishing there, he said.

MacKillop insisted the trip isn't related to an ongoing dispute with Denmark over Hans Island, a three-kilometre-long chunk of land lying between Ellesmere Island and Greenland that both countries have claimed sovereignty over.

"This is not in response to a specific vessel up there from a specific country and nor is it related to the Hans island situation," MacKillop said.

The Canadian government has been under growing pressure to curb overfishing by foreign vessels, especially in areas outside its 200-mile exclusive economic zone off the East Coast.

Critics say DFO and the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization have done little to combat the growing problem of foreign ships taking valuable but dwindling stocks.

The Canadian navy is also sending HMCS Glace Bay and HMCS Shawinigan to the north on exercises and port visits in remote parts of Labrador, Nunavut, Quebec and Manitoba.

The objective is "to increase the navy's presence in the north," the military said in a release.
 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/22/wcan22.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/08/22/ixworld.html

Canadian warships were sailing towards the Arctic yesterday in the latest act of gunboat diplomacy over control of the frozen wastes there.

Ottawa has launched a series of Arctic sovereignty patrols to assert its territorial claims and fend off rivals, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States.



Its scramble for the Arctic is a consequence of global warming and the retreat of the polar ice. This has raised the prospect of once-inaccessible areas becoming available for oil and mineral extraction. It has also revived the dream of a "North-West Passage" for shipping, linking the Atlantic and Pacific.

Amid diplomatic arguments over territorial rights, Canada's defence minister recently clambered on to a frozen rock, tiny Hans Island, triggering protests from Denmark.

The Canadian programme hit high gear yesterday as the frigate Fredricton sailed towards the contested Davis Strait separating Greenland and north-east Canada. Two coastal defence vessels, meanwhile, have visited the port of Churchill for the first time in 30 years and have set sail for the upper Hudson Bay.

"This is a demonstration of Canada's will to exercise sovereignty over our own back yard," said Cdre Bob Blakely, of the Royal Canadian Navy.

"The sea is a highway that's open to everyone. We will allow everybody passage as long as they ask for our consent and comply with our rules: 'use our resources wisely and don't pollute the fragile northern ecosystem'. "

The renewed Canadian military presence has made other Arctic claimants sit up.

Canada and the US are at odds over control of the North-West Passage and the resource-rich Beaufort Sea, while Canada and Russia both claim overlapping parts of the Arctic continental shelf.

Denmark, which rules Greenland, was angered by the unheralded arrival of Canada's defence minister, Bill Graham, on disputed Hans Island last month.

He stayed for a short while, examining a new Maple Leaf flag planted by Canadian servicemen there, and an old flag left by a Danish naval party three years earlier.

Denmark dispatched the naval cutter Tulugaq and threatened to land more men. However, as tensions rose, the two Nato allies had second thoughts, and the rival claimants agreed to discuss the dispute at the United Nations next month.

Critics of the Canadian policy argue that if the government is serious about pursuing a robust "northern strategy" it will have to start investing.

A C$700 million ( £322 million) road to Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic Sea has been proposed, but the money has not yet been pledged.

The military, meanwhile, is not ideally equipped for the brutal conditions of the far north. Although it is expanding its Arctic command base at Yellowknife, the navy lacks sufficient capacity to plough through the pack ice.

Critics say that this explains why the Canadian authorities have chosen the summer months to undertake their sovereignty patrols.

A military exercise in the Arctic last year was termed an "embarrassing debacle" by the Toronto Star newspaper because of harsh weather and poor equipment.
 
From TV2.DK
http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/article.php?id=2707213
In Danish
De to canadiske kystbevogtnings ­skibe "HMCS Glace Bay" og "Shawini ­gan" er pÃ¥ vej pÃ¥ til Canadas nordlige farvande for at besøge havne i Labra ­dor, Nunavut, Quebec og Manitoba.
Flåden benytter dog ikke togtet til at lægge søvejen forbi den omstridte Hans Ø
In English
The two Canadian ships "HMCS Glace Bay" and "Shawini ­gan" is on their way to Canada's northern sea to visit harbours in Labra ­dor, Nunavut, Quebec and Manitoba.
The fleet does not intend to drop by Hans Island on their way

In Danish
Samtidig er Søværnets inspektionskut ­ter "Tulugaq" pÃ¥ vej til Hans Ø for at hÃ¥ndhæve dansk suverænitet
In English
At the same time The Royal Navy's Arctic Patrol Cutter "Tulugaq" is on route to Hans Island to surstain Danish sovereignty
 
Can anyone confirm the historical precedent for Hans Island?

My understanding is that although Hans Island is closer to Greenland (Denmark), it was a British Territorial Holding and as such by International Law would've transferred to Canada at the point of Confederation.

Thanks in advance,



Matthew.  :salute:
 
Considering that Han Island is halfway between Greenland & Nunavut  AND that this is a piece of rock that no one is particularly interested in establishing a permanent settlement; I would propose that it would make sense that both Denark and Canada share in the development of whatever resources are available on the island.

in the late 40s/early 50s Canada uproted Unuits from Quebec's northern coast and dropped em off on this place called "Grise Fiord" as part of a sovereignity campaign . Not a pretty place (been there) and most of the settlers nostalgic of their rocky settlements on Ungava bay / Hudson straights

Don't think we want that all over again.
 
Sounds like a good idea to me - this time I say we uproot Canada's prison population....
 
Someone has already suggested sending Karla Homolka there.........
unfortunately - a bunch of soft hearted bozos have chosen to nix that.

Guess it's only going to be government ministers until such time as commercial interest picks up on that piece of realestate.
 
Canada sends navy to Arctic north?!


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4175446.stm
 
Why don't we just set up joint Danish/Canadian control. Maybe turn it into a giant prison, no need for walls, a few patrol vessels is all you need.
 
LegomyArty said:
Why don't we just set up joint Danish/Canadian control. Maybe turn it into a giant prison, no need for walls, a few patrol vessels is all you need.

Sounds like fun. However, the patrol ships are unnecessary. Given that the waterways are frozen over most of the time, and when they aren't, the water kills in minutes. Why not simply build them some nice huts, and then not supply them with jackets? They won't last that long outside in jumpsuits - and if they try, orange makes an excellent contrast to white.
 
In the news on Wednesday that the issue of Han Island came up back in the 20s
and was resolved in the Danes' favour..... WTF are we messing with this matter once again?
 
geo said:
In the news on Wednesday that the issue of Han Island came up back in the 20s
and was resolved in the Danes' favour..... WTF are we messing with this matter once again?

The Brits tried to sell us out... didn't work. >:D
 
geo said:
In the news on Wednesday that the issue of Han Island came up back in the 20s
and was resolved in the Danes' favour..... WTF are we messing with this matter once again?

I thought that was Sprangle(Wrangle)[something like that] Island off of Siberia that was resolved in the Soviet Unions favour....
 
I like the idea of an International prison... Ship all major offenders there.  Let them live off of whale blubber.

Fruit punch will be served on holidays, if they have been behaving...

Orange jump suits are a definite must, but pink would stand out just as good and annoy them a bit more I think!

>:D
 
I know this will probably pull from a thread about maintaining sovereignty to something else because of this but...

If Canada was serious about this we would have not forgot about the North over the last 10-15 yrs. One of the most effective ways for army to defend the north is with a light/airborne/airmobile force. To show that they are serious the Gov't should push for that rapid light force, for the defence of Canada. Then excersice that force in the artic in both summer and winter. Anyone who opposes that concept could be though of as against defending our sovereignty...

How unpatriotic of them.

Air and naval assets can monitor sovereignty, but it takes the army to enforce it...

What that saying...If a country doesn't have its own army....
 
Armymedic said:
I know this will probably pull from a thread about maintaining sovereignty to something else because of this but...

If Canada was serious about this we would have not forgot about the North over the last 10-15 yrs. One of the most effective ways for army to defend the north is with a light/airborne/airmobile force. To show that they are serious the Gov't should push for that rapid light force, for the defence of Canada. Then excersice that force in the artic in both summer and winter. Anyone who opposes that concept could be though of as against defending our sovereignty...

How unpatriotic of them.

Air and naval assets can monitor sovereignty, but it takes the army to enforce it...

What that saying...If a country doesn't have its own army....
obviously you're missing all of the excellent points brought up in other threads how we don't need Airborne forces.
 
Rock paper cuts water from Hans Island fight
Tim Naumetz
For CanWest News Service
Friday, August 12, 2005


OTTAWA - The dispute between Canada and Denmark over Hans Island is "only about the island, not about the surrounding waters," the Foreign Affairs Department says in a newly released statement on the standoff.

In an outline of Canada's position before negotiations begin next month at the United Nations, the department says the two countries signed an agreement more than 30 years ago to set the boundary for territorial waters and the continental shelf between Canada's Ellesmere Island and Greenland.

The boundary line reached to a point immediately south of the tiny island and continued from a point immediately north of the island, said the statement.

"For this reason, Hans Island does not have a territorial sea or an exclusive economic zone," the statement says.

In the controversy that erupted over the kilometre-long rock outcrop in the Kennedy Channel last month, there were suggestions Canada and Denmark were concerned about eventual control over the channel.

SURVEY SAYS IT'S CANADA'S

But the Foreign Affairs statement, posted on the department's website this week, demonstrates Ottawa does not expect to gain new jurisdiction over undersea resources or the waterway if it overcomes Denmark's case.

Canadian claims of sovereignty are founded on international law and include the discovery of Hans Island by British explorers and its devolution to Canada in 1867, the statement says.

"Canada also has a history of occupation and use of Hans Island and has regulated and approved activities on the island throughout the 20th Century, including a temporary scientific station in the 1940s, topographical surveys in the 1950s and 1960s, and the research undertaken by resource companies throughout the 1980s," the department says.

A university expert on the Hans Island question and other sovereignty flashpoints in the Arctic said the statement underscores his belief that both sides have other motives for aggressively backing their claims.

University of Calgary political science professor Rob Huebert says the Canadian position could affect other territorial disputes.

NORTHERN FIGHTS

Other unresolved issues included: A court decision over a territorial dispute with the United States over the international boundary in the resource-rich Beaufort Sea; another fight with the U.S. over sovereignty in the Northwest Passage; a clash with Russia over the continental shelf in the High Arctic and future potential spats with both the U.S. and Denmark over boundary lines on the Arctic continental shelf.

Huebert said Denmark could be demonstrating to the Greenland home-rule government that Denmark is in charge of foreign and defence policy for the Danish territory following its controversial decision to allow the U.S. to establish a missile-defence radar site on Greenland.

"It is technically correct to say it only revolves around the island, but the problem is if either country is seen as being too soft or uncaring in terms of just the land mass, it sets a whole set of precedents," said Huebert.

He said Canada and Denmark have yet to negotiate boundaries for their 200-mile economic-control zones on the continental shelf extending northward from Ellesmere Island and Greenland into the Lincoln Sea.
 
Canada to U.S.: Passage is ours
Heated warning follows spat with Danes

Mike Blanchfield
CanWest News Service
Monday, August 01, 2005


OTTAWA -- After sparking a diplomatic row with Denmark over his impromptu visit to remote Hans Island, Defence Minister Bill Graham bluntly told the United States Sunday to keep its hands off another disputed Arctic territory: the Northwest Passage.

"We actually have a dispute with the United States," Graham told CTV's Question Period on Sunday. "And our view is that's the internal waters of Canada given the layout of the Continental Shelf and our historic exercise of sovereignty over that area."

Graham made that pointed assessment after he visited Hans Island a little more than a week ago on part of a tour of military installations of the Canadian Arctic.

The unannounced visit sparked anger in Denmark, which called Graham's unannounced helicopter touchdown an "occupation."

Danish government officials have suggested that Graham's visit to Hans Island had less to do about concern over that island than it did about ongoing U.S. claims that of sovereignty over the Northwest Passage.

The mainly frozen High Arctic passage connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and is already open to maritime traffic for part of the year.

But global warming is expected open the waters to sea traffic year round.

In acknowledging the dispute with the U.S. over the passage, Graham made clear it would be in the interest of the international community if it remained under Canadian sovereignty.

"Other countries are raising that as an issue. This clearly will be an important passageway once it becomes feasible," Graham said.

"It'll cut a lot of time off the trip from Europe to Japan and Asia. So it is important for Canada to make it clear to people in everybody's interest, that we must exercise our sovereignty."

Graham said it would be Canada's responsibility to make sure the passage is not polluted. He pointed out that former prime minister Pierre Trudeau extended the Pollution Prevention Act to Arctic waters.

"We recognize pollution in that area is going to affect our people, and it's in the interest of the world that Canada be in place to control that so that everybody will be protected."

Graham tried to play down his visit to Hans Island, but also continued to send defiant signals to the Danes that Canada would not tolerate its claims over the island in the future.

The two countries have been embroiled in a border dispute for decades over the island, a barren outcrop of rock less than a kilometre wide between Greenland and Canada's Ellesmere Island.

A 1973 treaty drew a border in the region, but Hans Island has remained in dispute.

Both countries periodically send military hardware over to the island to demonstrate their sovereignty. Just a week before Graham's visit, Canadian soldiers visited the island, raised a Maple Leaf, and left behind an Inuit stone marker.

Graham said he raised the possibility of a trip to the island with Prime Minister Paul Martin and the Foreign Affairs Department, when he was in Alert, Canada's northernmost military outpost in the high Arctic.

"I was doing a trip to find out what DND, my department, can do to enhance the government's presence and to help the people in that important region of the North, given the fact there are tremendous changes there in terms of climate and more industrial and mineral and other activity," Graham said.

"It was part and parcel of my general tour of the Arctic and in that sense it wasn't a premeditated sovereignty decision, if you wish," he added.

"As it happens, that's a way of saying Canada considers this to be part of our sovereign territory. We've always made that clear to the Danes and we will continue to make it clear through other means as well."

Graham did not elaborate on what he meant by "other means." He said Canada does have the ability to patrol its Arctic waters, brushing back suggestions the government has no idea whether North Korean submarines or other navies sail into those waters unnoticed.

Graham said new technology, such as "new satellites," unmanned aerial vehicles, and the extension further northward of current radar on both coasts would be able to give the government a clear picture of what was going on in Arctic waters.

The minister said that last year's Exercise Narwhal, which attempted to show the military's ability to exercise sovereignty in the North, was "excellent" and that another similar expedition was planned for next year.

Graham's upbeat assessment seems questionable, though, given the Defence Department's own internal assessment of Narwhal released earlier this year, and which had been confirmed by a documentary film crew that accompanied the navy, and documented difficulties.

A Sea King helicopter repeatedly broke down, severely hampering the military's ability to carry out the mission as planned.

"It would be difficult to brand Exercise Narwhal an overwhelming success," said an internal Defence Department assessment that was declassified earlier this year.
 
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