Defending Canadian Arctic Sovereignty

[Arctic Acorn]

If you go to http://www.combatcamera.dnd.ca/ , go to photo search, and do a keyword search for "Narwhal" you should be able to find some pictures of the ongoing exercise.   Right at the bottom is poor Roman, stuck outside in Iqaluit, (im)patiently waiting to go off shift as he downloads a huge set of files I sent over.   I'm told he's now considering putting out a contract on me.    ;D

Putting in long hours, but it'll be interesting to see how this all meshes together now there are troops on the ground.

Thats a great pic. Although if it REALLLY was Roman he'd have a smoke behind his ear.  ;D

BTW...I put the contract out on you.

 

[Kirkhill]

http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2004/08/29/f224.raw.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/international/americas/29canada.html?ex=1094863275&ei=1&en=8ecb092bb8b4bc3d

Here are two articles for consideration.

The first talks about how Parks Canada superceded DND on deciding the size and nature of the SovPat from Resolute to Alert.  DND complained and is complaining.  They wanted a Platoon sized patrol of 20 to 50 snowmobiles.  Parks Canada allowed 7.  Next year they may allow 12. 

As a result of Parks Canada's decision, when two Patrol members were injured and had to be invalided out only 5 bodies were left to complete the 1754 km journey. 

As I understand it both the Air Support and Snow Machines were civilian supply.

The second is the New York Times reporting on Op Narwhal and other Arctic Exercises and our capabilties in the North.  It  is a lengthy article and points out that the US and the EU, as well as Denmark in particular, do not recognize all our claims.  Hans Island is about Fish and Oil now and whatever in the future.

First article goes to the question of "How serious are we about sovereignty?"

The second article points out that the Americans know, notice and care what we do up there.  And they have friends.  And none of these people have Canada's interests as a first priority.

By the way although the Times article talks about the US, our traditional bogeyman, and the EU and Denmark, whom our Government have long considered "Sympatico" it doesn't mention Russia, who would also benefit from Northwest Passage for Trade or Norway (Non-EU) that builds ships, fishes and has oil wells.  And Roald Amundsen, that brought us the Sverdrup Islands, Axel Heiberg Island, Ellef Ringnes Island, Amund Ringnes Island, Norwegian Bay, Amundsen Gulf and Gjoahavn (sorry I mean Gjoa Harbour) as well as the Prince Adolf Sea in 1905, was a Norwegian.  IIRC we were still negotiating the Norwegian claims on these areas in the 1950s when the area in question was designated Queen Elizabeth Islands.  I don't know if the Norwegians ever completely accepted our claims.

By the way the Norwegians are miles ahead of the Danes globally when it comes to international fishing.  They capitalized, built and operated the majority of the modern deepwater fleets in the Bering Sea, the North Pacific, the waters off New Zealand and the Falklands as well as the Sea of Okhotsk and the Barents Sea off the East and North Coasts of Russia.

But these folks are all our good buddies.  They'll look out for us.

Cheers

 

[Kirkhill]

NEWSFLASH:

Canadian Radarsat Discovers Chinese Uranium Mine Operating On Meigher Island

Meigher Island off   Axel Heiberg Island in the Arctic Archipelago was charted in 1905 by a Norwegian expedition.   Norway was subsequently convinced not to contest Canadian sovereignty.   International legal opinion on sovereignty divided.

The mine was apparently set up by transporting personnel and materiel using a Chinese version of the Russian built Ekranoplan WIG (Wing In Ground Effect) "Aircraft".   These "Aircraft" carry loads equivalent to small ships at speeds of 300 mph   just meters off the surface.   They are apparently undetectable by conventional radar designed to track high-flying conventional Aircraft.

PM Martin is considering his options.............

EDIT - Duff Duff Duff This is only an exercise Duff Duff Duff.

 

[48Highlander]

Kirkhill, is that real?  got a reference?

 

[Kirkhill]

Sorry 48th - my enthusiasm got the better of me - no it is not real

It is however a not impossible scenario. 

Our northern archipelago was charted by Norwegian Roald Amundsen in 1905, much to the embarassment of the Canadian Government of the day.  That part is real - can't find the reference just now.

As to international opinion - I made that up - but it seems that international opinion is always being made up anyway so what the heck

On the Ekranoplan WIGs - check out these sites.

http://www.chinabestproducts.com/
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/aerodynamics/q0130.shtml

 

[Zipper]

LOL, I like the china green card for sale...

It is closer to truth then you think. China is buying up Canadian resource companies at such a pace and shipping the stuff home, that we'll be lucky if they don't strip the place from under us.

I liked you camparisons there Kirk. However, are the numbers right? I don't remember there being that many people in the CAF except on paper? Not to mention the numbers of fighters, ships, etc are to high as most of them are in for repairs in one way or another.

 

[Cloud Cover]

I notice Dianne DeMille has a running piece underway over at CASR on Danish intentions on the West side of Greenland.
http://www.sfu.ca/casr/id-arcticviking1.htm

Quote:
"Denmark foresees a growing accessibility to  profitable resources on these islands, and on the sea floor that surrounds them.  It is pressing its claims before the global community.  But it is not depending solely on  geological  surveys and maps of the ocean floor.  Denmark  has the  military  capabilities to back up its  territorial claims and to  challenge  Canada's  sovereignty in the  High Arctic.  Will  we back  down?"

I note she points out that a Canadian based transnational company [Encana] is involved in acquiring some drilling rights and permits.  If the field goes into production and starts draining the Canadian side of the pool, would this be an incursion into Canadian territority sufficient to trigger a military response if a request to cease activity is refused by Encana and Denmark, or should we simply attempt to enter a revenue sharing agreement and thus pretend to preserve our sovereignty whilst doing nothing to assert it?

 

[TCBF]

Could get interesting.  Slant drilling by the Kuwatis into Iraq was what got the Iraqis driving south in 1990.  Be interesting to see how we get out of this.  Maybe if the crude is transported on Paul Martin's ships? ;D

Tom

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Quote,
Maybe if the crude is transported on Paul Martin's ships?

...well at least that would make jobs for Canadi.....oops :-[

 

[vangemeren]

As the icecap melts and the arctic become better for shipping, Canada's claim to sovereignty of the arctic will be challenged more often and more blatantly. It has happen before, but it was news only for a couple of days.

 

[Cloud Cover]

Could get interesting.  Slant drilling by the Kuwatis into Iraq was what got the Iraqis driving south in 1990.  Be interesting to see how we get out of this.  Maybe if the crude is transported on Paul Martin's ships? ;D

Tom

Horizontal boring is certainly one issue that could be discussed. Talking to an engineer at Schlumberger, he told me the other day that they are now regularly drilling horizontally over 800m. Using GPS, a rig could hypothetically set up close to the international border and drill down, then over if the seismic shows a chance for a pool, but chances aree the pool will straddle the international border. If it is the case that the field and pools fall of both sides of the border, and the Danes produce the field and we do not, they are still technically depleting a Canadian mineral resource. Is this enough to have a flap with an "ally" over? Some might argue the federral government owes a duty to the Inuit population in that locale to protect the resource from foreigners and to produce it as well in order to facilitate a royalty based income benefit for the local population.

Is the Quebec government showing interest in the potential for fossils on the east side of the Ungava Peninsula? 

 

[TCBF]

"Is the Quebec government showing interest in the potential for fossils on the east side of the Ungava Peninsula?"

You mean in Labrador, right?  Well, why not.  I mean Nfld gave them such a good deal on the Hydro from Churchill Falls...

Tom

 

[bossi]

While we're at it ... presuming they're "cheaper by the dozen" ...
The other/non-Northern Area-supported Canadian Ranger Patrol Groups (CRPG) would benefit from some "dedicated" air support.
Add a few more aircraft to this purchase (i.e. one per CRPG).

Some excerpts from a National Post article by Chris Wattie:

Competition heats up for Forces planes: Search-and-rescue craft: Manufacturer says military could double coverage

A European aircraft manufacturer says it can offer Canada blanket coverage for air rescue and sovereignty patrol flights over the vast northern half of the country if its plane is chosen as the military's new search-and-rescue aircraft. ...

... The project is to buy an anticipated 15 aircraft, but Mr. Sefzig said the C-295's lower purchase price and servicing costs would allow the air force to buy more aircraft and base them in more locations, boosting its rescue coverage across the country and especially in the Arctic.

By basing the smaller C-295 in such places as Yellowknife, St. John's and Iqaluit, the Spanish-built aircraft -- whose engines and on-board electronics are built in Montreal -- would be able to cover vast areas of the North that now take up to 10 hours for southern-based rescue aircraft to reach, he said.

"Where you want to go is in the North; that's where you have the increased amount of accidents based on the tourism and aircraft traffic," Mr. Sefzig said. "You could place aircraft in the North, in existing bases, [and] you could also use those aircraft ... for sovereignty patrols." ...

The Spanish plane's chances may have gotten a boost from February's federal budget, which included a promise to replace the air force's four Twin Otter utility aircraft now based in Yellowknife.

Canadian Forces' Northern Area command now uses those aircraft for supply and training flights, and the C-295 would be a natural replacement. ...

The search-and-rescue aircraft program is currently stuck in the defence procurement process despite a pledge two years ago to fast-track the program. ...

http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/c295/

http://www.codeonemagazine.com/archives/2004/articles/apr_04/c27j/

 

[tomahawk6]

The Canadian Rangers should be expanded and supported to insure Canadian sovereignty over the north. They are a force multiplier
and cheap to boot. In winter they can cover large areas on snow machines. In summer they cover large areas by boat. Give them satellite phones so they can make reports of suspicious activity and video cameras so they can record things of interest.

 

[aesop081]

The Canadian Rangers should be expanded and supported to insure Canadian sovereignty over the north. They are a force multiplier
and cheap to boot. In winter they can cover large areas on snow machines. In summer they cover large areas by boat. Give them satellite phones so they can make reports of suspicious activity and video cameras so they can record things of interest.

That sounds like a good idea.  I had a great experience with those guys back in 94 and have alot of respect for their skills.  Given our usual budget situations, i see them as a cost-effective solution to northern security.  Although i am weary of the C-295's sales pitch, i would like to see an increase in the overall support provided to the rangers by the airforce.  The argument for the use of The C-295 for sovereignty patrols, however is ill-founded, the plane may be able to spot suspicious activity but couldn't do much about it. For that, i think more resources for the Maritime patrol comunity is required, but thats another subject.

 

[Arctic Acorn]

The Canadian Rangers should be expanded and supported to insure Canadian sovereignty over the north. They are a force multiplier
and cheap to boot. In winter they can cover large areas on snow machines. In summer they cover large areas by boat. Give them satellite phones so they can make reports of suspicious activity and video cameras so they can record things of interest.

They do all of the above already...but who would turn down more money?

Every Ranger Instructor (one per patrol, all are combat arms senior NCO's) carries a sat phone on them standard issue. As for video cameras, they are available is they are required, and most people have digital cameras on them...I know a lot of ranger instructors carry one.

It would be great to see a revitalised SAR capability in the north. 440 Squadron used to be a 'transport and rescue' squadron, but lately they focus on the 'transport' aspect. They do have what they call a "Field Deployment Flight" that does SAR work, but its a secondary tasking for most, and none of them (though the senior guys there are certainly well trained in forst aid and survival) not SAR Techs. Interesting point: There was some debate about whether or not SAR Techs are really needed in CFNA. We were told that statistically most SAR incidents happen South of 60, and it's actually faster to fly a couple of SAR Techs up North from Trenton in a herc than it is to fly them from the Yellowknife hangar in a twin otter. They're a workhorse aircraft, but they'r godawful slow pigs, they are...

:dontpanic:

 

[Edward Campbell]

Many of you will know that I like the Governor General; I think she is a decent and accomplished person and performs her duties better than anyone since Georges Vanier.  I think she has lousy taste in men as evidenced by her dimwit husband.  I applaud this from today's Globe and Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20050618.MACGREGOR18/TPStory

Clarkson makes a 'statement' in Arctic
Echoing Vincent Massey, Governor-General to travel 10,000 kilometres on symbolic trip in the north, ROY MacGREGOR writes

BY ROY MACGREGOR

SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 2005 UPDATED AT 1:29 PM EDT
PANGNIRTUNG, NUNAVUT -- Even on a perfectly calm day, with the sun dancing blue and green in the ice floes and the open water still and shiny as mercury, it is easy to see why it took Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson three tries to get here.

In the best of weather, it still required coming in low by turbo-prop up the fjord, banking sharply directly in front of the sheer cliffs that guard the opening to Auyuittuq National Park, then coming in fast over the graveyard and onto a gravel airstrip that seems built on the shoulders of this tiny Inuit community.

The first two attempts, during previous trips to the Far North, fog had turned Clarkson back, even though each time the village Rangers -- all 35 of them carrying war-era .303 rifles -- had dressed in their red sweatshirts and red baseball caps to stand as honour guard. They were there again this time, and most of the villagers had come out to greet an office so distant from them, the mayor wasn't precisely sure which one disembarking was the Governor-General.

Soon enough, however, all was in order. The beaming Rangers presented arms and stomped their boots onto the gravel, the schoolchildren sang a song of greeting, and what is expected to be the Governor-General's final trip into the Canadian North -- constitutional crises in Ottawa notwithstanding -- was officially under way.

Over eight days, Clarkson and her husband, author John Ralston Saul, will cover some 10,000 kilometres through the Eastern Arctic, including a visit to Canadian Forces Base Alert, the most northerly settlement in the world.

At some point along this final trek, Clarkson plans a symbolic act intended to tie her final journey north to the first ever taken by a Canadian head of state, Vincent Massey's symbolic trip to the North Pole in 1956.

It will soon be half a century since the first Canadian-born governor-general looked down on the polar ice cap and pulled a special cord that sent a message tumbling down in a small metal canister that also held the official flag of the Office of the Governor-General.

"This container," Massey wrote in his 1963 memoirs, What's Past is Prologue, "had the essential facts inscribed on it in several languages and was dropped over the Pole. Attached to it was a little parachute to ease its way down and prevent its being broken on the ice."

The message was clear to whomever might one day come across it -- This is ours -- and Massey wondered if perhaps some day someone in Greenland or somewhere even more distant might find the container floating, open it and get the message.

A half century on, many think that message requires repeating, once again.

That polar ice cap is melting and, if Massey's canister is still intact, it could even be drifting -- much as the north magnetic pole recently slipped out of Canadian territory and into international waters.

Just as, some worry, Canada's presumed say over the legendary Northwest Passage is somewhat adrift.

Clarkson's intention, by visiting these isolated communities and even camping out one night on Ellesmere Island -- deliberately, perhaps, to foil those who love to criticize her extravagance -- is to underline what 32-year-old Roger Alivaktuk, one of the proud Rangers presenting arms this bright afternoon, says is his purpose in uniform:

"It's a presence. That's our role here -- to be a presence."

"There's a statement to be made," says Clarkson. "And I feel it's very important."

So, too, do the villagers of Pangnirtung, a thriving whaling centre in the 1800s, once known for its seal furs before the fur backlash, now struggling to find its place in the world with a smaller seal hunt, Inuit art and hopes for tourism.

In the evening that never darkens, they held a feast that included a freshly shot young ring seal being laid out in the centre of the school basketball court and set upon by Rangers, villagers and even the odd visitor armed only with bare hands and hunting knives.

"This," says Nedd Kenney, the Prince Edward Island native who is the territorial government's manager of tourism and trade, "is the last place you can shake a blood-stained sealer's hands."

Kenney's dreams include a vast ecotourism industry that will bring adventurers up to the mountains and hiking trails of the new national parks.

His hopes also connect with those of Franklin and Amundsen and other Arctic dreamers who sought the Northwest Passage, a route through the northern waters that Kenney imagines becoming "the Arctic Panama" as further warming opens up better access and the Chinese economy moves to the forefront of world trade.

"Are we preparing for it?" Kenney asks as he cleans his own hands and knife of seal blood.

"Are we going to let China and the United States and Russia hold that this is international waters -- or are we going to declare our sovereignty?

"This is the largest coastline in the world -- and it's defended by Rangers that are younger than their guns."

For people like Kenney, any symbolism that stresses Canadian sovereignty is worth attempting.

"By protecting those waters," he says, "you're protecting what Canada is."

© Copyright 2005 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.​

 

[x-grunt]

Decent long-ish article about the Canadian Rangers in today's Toronto Star. I've never seen anything in mainstream media about them before. Seems pretty accurate, judging from the CanRangers I've known.

[ Article ]

Audio Slideshow here: (link didn't work out, edited to remove. Find it beside the article in the Star website.)

Northern patrol
The native reservists in the Canadian Rangers use their army training to help others in the impoverished native communities of Northern Ontario, Joseph Hall reports

Briefly splitting the Albany River on its northeast rush to James Bay, 160 kilometres downstream, this eye-shaped island was once witness to a massacre. Its name means ghost in Cree. And the bones of the southern Mohawk invaders who were ambushed here by northland Cree warriors some three centuries ago lay for months along the island's sandy shore and along the banks of the Cheepay River, which empties into the Albany nearby. Their spirits are said to haunt the place still.

"This is the story that was brought down to us," says Joseph Sutherland, an elder from the Cree community of Fort Albany, near the river's brackish mouth.

For the Cree, Ojibwa and Oji-Cree peoples of Ontario's far north, the ghosts of the past are the least of their worries. Today, Indians who inhabit more than 50 isolated communities in Ontario's north are being haunted by modern demons. There's alcoholism, poverty, gasoline-sniffing and child abandonment. There's ignorance, violence, rape, murder and epidemic diabetes. And yet there's a set of modern warriors, almost unknown in the big cities to the south, who are helping bring hope to the people north of the 50th parallel. Armed with World War II vintage, bolt-action rifles and uniformed in dirty, red sweatshirts, caps and toques, it's a ragtag band of soldiers to be sure. But the 3rd Canadian Ranger Patrol Group â ” a band of some 400 First Nations reservists who represent Canada's armed forces in Ontario's far north â ” has become a scarlet glimmer of hope in an often-blighted human landscape. And over a recent four-day period, some 57 of them gathered on Cheepay Island in the largest exercise ever of this military outfit â ” surely the most unusual in the Canadian Armed Forces. Under a lowering sky that promises snow but delivers nagging drizzles of rain for much of their frigid stay, the Rangers, both men and women, will take part in a series of competitive drills that, for all their meticulous planning, have a madcap air.

From the 13 community-based Ranger patrols represented on Cheepay, the soldiers will be split into five teams that will adopt names like Shania (for the songstress Twain), River Rats and Wolverines. They'll compete in target-shooting, using their standard-issue No. 4 Lee Enfield .303s. There'll be skeet-shooting, first-aid, map-reading, compass navigation and the art of knots and pulleys. But the bulk of the drills focus on the hunting, fishing and survival skills that the Indians themselves bring to the Rangers table.

They will build goose blinds â ” and fashion instant flocks of wooden geese decoys to go with them. They'll compete in geese-calling contests, with some gratuitous moose calls thrown in. They'll fish â ” how they'll fish! â ” build lean-tos and conjure roaring fires in seconds. They'll prepare bannock - a bread-like concoction introduced by Scottish trappers during the Hudson's Bay Company days - over open flames.

And they'll try - in what is likely one of the most important forums left for preserving the culture of Northern Ontario's Indians - to stem the steady erosion of these traditional skills.

Major Keith Lawrence is the Toronto-raised commanding officer of the 3rd Canadian Ranger Patrol Group.

The Cheepay exercise cost $150,000 to stage and took a full year to plan, says Lawrence, 40, who is white and whose past postings have included stays in Cyprus, Syria, Jordan, Congo, Uganda and Israel.

Outside of its small and largely white regular army leadership, which is stationed at Canadian Forces Base Borden near Barrie, the 3rd Ranger Patrol Group is almost 98 per cent Indian.

Located in 15 different northern communities - two of which could not make the Cheepay gathering - each patrol consists of between 17 and 36 Rangers who receive 10 days of basic army training each.

This instruction, most of it provided in their own communities, includes rifle training, general military knowledge, map, compass and GPS navigation, first aid, search and rescue and communications. The reservists may also have training in flood and fire-evacuation planning, major air disaster assistance and rifle firing exercises.

Rangers are paid between $78 and $136 a day for performing official duties, which do not include policing. They receive compensation for the use of personal snowmobiles and other equipment.

Each community patrol has a cargo bin containing first-aid supplies, a short-wave radio and GPS locator. The patrol must meet at least six times a year. Beyond that, training or operations are more or less ad hoc and largely voluntary.

Despite any training and gear they might receive, however, the Rangers bring a cultural perspective to the organization that stubbornly defies traditional military discipline.

From the window of the 1964 de Havilland Beaver float plane, Cheepay Island seems to appear out of nowhere.

An hour's flight north of Hearst - some 1,135 kilometres north of Toronto - the island sits just above a vast stretch of muskeg; swampland that will unleash billions of mosquitoes into the air in the coming weeks.

Huge chunks of ice from the Albany's spring breakup still line the island's shores during the Ranger's mid-May stay, and temperatures, which mostly hovered around zero, would sometimes drop to minus-10C.

The river runs up against a wide, weedy, rock-strewn beach, where the Rangers parked the 25 motorized freighter canoes that brought them here from staging areas at Constance Lake to the south and Fort Albany to the northeast.

Up a set of dirt stairs, carved into a steep hill at the beach's edge, amid tall cedars and bare poplars, the Rangers have pitched their camp.

About a dozen large, white canvas tents have been slung over long, softwood poles, which were carved out of the forest that covers most of the kilometre-long island.

The tents housing the 11 regular army headquarters staff who lead the Rangers are supplied with canvas cots and military-issue, cold-weather sleeping bags.

But lodgings for the 57 native Rangers (and two Junior Canadian Rangers attending Cheepay) are furnished with the blankets, tarps, foam mats and improvised wood stoves that they'd use during their regular trips into the bush.

Large tarpaulins, strung from trees and poles, protect the half-dozen fire pits that will burn throughout the Rangers' stay. And the sound of wood-chopping will provide a persistent background tempo to the proceedings.

Food on the island consists mostly of the Army's vacuum-sealed individual meal packs of gourmet delights such as chicken teriyaki, cheese tortellini and ham omelette.

But moose, caribou, goose, bannock and, of course, fresh fish are on many menus around the Ranger campsite. Cigarettes dangle from the vast majority of mouths.

In an outfit where fishing can fulfill military commitment and where sergeants are elected by their men and women, you'd hardly expect to see precision drilling.

And on Cheepay there's none. There's also little saluting - except in jest. There's no marching, no shiny brass fastenings or, very often, any buttons at all.

The bugle-boy sense of urgency is definitely absent, as are rules regarding hair length, grooming, cleanliness and "snap-to-it," command-chain respect. Even a straight muster line seems beyond the care or capacity of some Cheepay participants.

Present in abundance among the Rangers, however, are the traditional skills bred by centuries in a grudging, harsh and killing land.

And these skills, except for the Ranger intervention, might well be on the way to extinction in the troubled Indian communities of the north.

They're troubles that Robert Gillies knows well.

Gillies, 37, tells bad jokes - constantly. They're groaners and they'll typically cast hapless Mohawks as the dupes.

But his humour is partly a defence mechanism, jokes and one-liners to hold back recollections from 10 years of policing.

As a former sergeant in the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service, which patrols most native communities up here, the Cree Ranger from Fort Albany has seen the worst of native desperation up close.

"It's a (way of) coping. I put that (bad) stuff away in my mind where I can't retrieve it," says Gillies, 37, who quit the force in 2003.

"If I kept those things in a (conscious) part of my brain, I don't think I'd be able to function."

Over his policing career, during which he rose to criminal investigator in the service's Cochrane divisional headquarters, he saw the worst of the northern aboriginal calamity: suicide, rape, child abuse, even murder.

In one unwanted memory of his policing days, he recalls a tiny pair of siblings cast off by their parents for the bottle.

"It involved two boys, one of them was basically an infant and the older brother was 3 or 4 years old," Gillies says.

"We, as police, brought the two kids to the hospital ... and you could tell the small child was already looking after the infant. The 3-year-old was looking after the infant."

After 10 years as a cop, he says, "I basically had enough."

Gillies joined the Rangers a decade ago and sees the outfit as a major force for good. Indeed, he says, Rangers can often take over community responsibilities in the absence of official band alternatives.

"For example, every year there's usually a flood co-ordinator in the community for (ice) breakup. Every year it's exciting," Gillies says.

"And one time, the flood control committee broke down ... I think the co-ordinator had been drinking. And the Canadian Rangers took over."

The Rangers are lightly trained and are not required to serve overseas in times of war. But they represent a legitimate branch of the armed forces.

Founded in 1947, they were established as a Cold War means to patrol remote northern locales, largely for signs of Soviet intrusions. The force has grown to about 4,500 reservists and is expected to increase to 4,800 by 2008.

They are divided into five different patrol groups across the country, in every province and territory except New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.

Their primary mission remains the patrol and security of the country's northern and coastal regions.

In this time of global warming, with ice-free Arctic waters opening up the possibility of year-round shipping and mineral and oil extraction in the far north, sovereignty over lands now claimed by Canada may come into dispute.

What the Rangers can represent in the Arctic is federally funded feet on potentially contentious ground, Lawrence says.

"You have to show your neighbours and show the world that, yes, you want it and you're actually doing something," says Lawrence, whose Ontario group is the newest and smallest of Canada's five Ranger contingents.

Of course, questions of sovereignty are unlikely to arise in Ontario.

But Rangers here can still have a role in the issue, says Lawrence, who took command of the province's group last year.

"While we don't have a pure sovereignty task here, what we do have is the ability to train soldiers to go north," he says.

"It's very expensive to send soldiers into the Arctic. And you can get very similar weather conditions here. All the same (training) principles apply, whether it's navigation or how to survive on the land."

Perhaps more than any other branch of the Canadian armed services, however, Rangers bring their military status and training directly to bear on their own communities.

By dint of their army instruction and, in many instances, an elevated sense of social responsibility, Rangers often become leaders in their communities, Lawrence says.

They commonly provide organized help when flooding or forest fires threaten northern communities, he says. Many volunteer to serve on local fire departments and join in band councils. And most have steady jobs in communities where full-time employment is by no means the norm.

"They're the doers in their communities," Lawrence says.

As such, the Rangers have become something of a social program, Lawrence says - a federal means to send expertise, leadership and extra cash into impoverished and often chaotic communities.

There's also a Junior Rangers element to the outfit, a type of cadet service that, among other things, helps steer native kids away from the delinquent activities that are commonplace in northern communities.

Another role the Rangers perform in Northern Ontario - one that they're enormously adept at - is search and rescue operations.

Rangers-led rescue missions into the bush or out onto the rivers, often conducted in the most brutal weather conditions imaginable, may number in the hundreds each year.

But with most Rangers loath to fill out paperwork describing their actions, or reluctant to embarrass those who got lost, most of their rescue stories remain untold, Lawrence says.

Last year, Rangers also played the key role in an evacuation of Attawapiskat near James Bay, where the threat of flooding forced 1,154 people from their homes.

An eight-year Ranger veteran, Vicky Edwards is a native from the community of Fort Albany. But her eyes belong to the Scottish highlands.

Edwards' great-grandfather was a Scottish fur trader whose genes have come back with a vengeance in the 27-year-old Cree. Her light hair, freckles and hazel eyes all speak more of thistles than muskeg.

But when Edwards fishes, she's all Indian.

Like most of her Ranger colleagues, Edwards will fish at the drop of a hat. And like many of the Cheepay cohort, she does it like a machine.

Having travelled about 10 kilometres up the Albany for an evening of angling, Edwards and two Ranger colleagues turn their 22-foot freighter canoe into a tributary stream and ease it in by a beaver lodge close to shore.

Then, the frenzied casting begins.

With lines whizzing across each other, the Rangers plunk their lures again and again, with amazing precision, into the reedy waters surrounding the beaver house.

"Fish on!" Edwards yells at least 10 times during a half-hour of fishing.

In that time, she lands five good-sized pickerels and one large pike, which will flop around on the floor of the boat all the way back to camp.

As darkness descends, the Rangers turn for home, a 30-horsepower outboard powering their trip.

Told in no uncertain terms to be back by 9 p.m., they're already running late.

But when they spot an American eagle circling a stretch of shoreline, they pull the boat up and break out the poles again.

"That means there's probably fish here," Edwards says.

And if it's a contest between fishing and following orders, the fishing will easily prevail.

 

[McG]

Defence minister takes symbolic stroll on disputed island
Canada, Denmark at odds over Hans Island
Alexander Panetta
The Canadian Press
Saturday, July 23, 2005

OTTAWA -- Canada's defence minister pulled on a pair of hiking boots and trudged on to a tiny northern island on a one-man mission to counter Denmark's claim to the barren, frozen rock.

The sovereignty exercise on Hans Island happened this week during Bill Graham's trip to Canada's Arctic.

A helicopter set him down on the round, windswept island about the size of a football field, located between Greenland and Ellesmere Island.

"I wasn't there to make some big dramatic statement," Graham said. "My act of going there was totally consistent with the fact that Canada has always regarded this island as a part of Canada. . .

"I was just visiting Hans Island the way I visited other facilities of Canada's."

Of course no other Canadian "facilities" are claimed by Denmark, which sent navy ships to the island in 2002 and 2003 and hoisted a Danish flag.

In turn, Canadian soldiers placed a traditional Inuit stone statue (Inukshuk) with a plaque and a Maple Leaf flag on the island last week before Graham's visit.

Ottawa did inform the Danes of the trip -- two days after Graham left. The Danes would have received an advance courtesy call had Hans Island been considered foreign soil.

The visit could be used to assert Canada's sovereignty over the land, Graham agreed. But he said aboriginals, military and Rangers' stops on the island also bolster the Canadian argument.

Denmark's ambassador to Ottawa, Poul Erik Dam Kristensen, refused to comment on the visit.

Graham wore civilian gear during his one-hour visit Wednesday -- a ski jacket, corduroy pants and hiking boots.

Canada has become increasingly vigilant about asserting its sovereign claim to the Arctic because of global warming, and its potential impact on mining and shipping.

The two countries were aware of the potential for discord in 1973 when they drew a border halfway between Canada's Ellesmere Island and the Danish island of Greenland. They agreed at the time that sovereignty over islands in the region would be determined later.

Denmark's claim is based on their argument that the island is closer to Greenland than to Ellesmere.

 

[McG]

Denmark to protest Canadian claim of small Arctic island
Globe & Mail
Monday, July 25, 2005 Updated at 6:55 AM EDT
Associated Press

Copenhagen â ” Denmark says it will send a protest letter to Canada over a cabinet minister's visit to an Arctic island off northwestern Greenland, which is claimed by both countries.

Canadian Defence Minister Bill Graham set foot on the 1.3-square-kilometre Hans Island last week, saying Canada has always regarded it as Canadian territory.

Denmark also claims the island, which is roughly 1,100 kilometres south of the North Pole.

In 1973, Canada and Denmark drew a border down the inhospitable Nares Strait, halfway between Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory, and Canada's Ellesmere Island.

But the countries decided that sovereignty over Hans Island and others in the Arctic region would be determined later.

Denmark and Canada maintain good relations despite periodical spats over the island, which can only be reached by boat during mild summers when the ice around it melts.

Officials at the Canadian Embassy in Copenhagen declined to comment.

In 1984, Tom Hoeyem, who was Denmark's minister for Greenland affairs, caused a stir when he raised a Danish flag on the island, buried a bottle of brandy at the base of the flag pole and left a note saying â Å“Welcome to the Danish island.â ?

Danish navy ships visited in the island in 2002 and 2003.

Canadian soldiers came to Hans Island Maple before Mr. Graham's visit and raised a Canadian flag.