U.S. envoy warms to Canadian rule in Arctic waters

[Minstrel Boy]

U.S. envoy warms to Canadian rule in Arctic waters
Toronto Star

IQALUIT, Nunavut — The U.S. ambassador to Canada suggested today that the United States might be safer from terrorists if it left the Northwest Passage in the Arctic under Canadian control.

Paul Cellucci made the comments after completing his first official visit to Iqaluit. Territorial politicians expressed concern about how an American push to internationalize some Canadian waterways could put the environment at risk.

...

Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic has become a growing focal point for the federal government, especially since the current U.S. administration claims that the Northwest Passage should be recognized as international waters.

Many U.S. businesses have lobbied for an unregulated trade route through the Canadian Arctic archipelago. They say it would cut shipping routes down considerably.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1097185810635&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467


Scrambling for the pole position
Ottawa Sun, Oct 8

With the accelerated disappearance of arctic ice and improvements in ice-strengthened bulk carriers, the Northwest Passage could become one of the richest maritime trade routes on the planet. (Some scientists are predicting an ice-free Arctic in 50 years.) That's why the Americans challenged our sovereignty over these waters in 1969 with the voyage of the Manhattan. They wanted to show that an ice-strengthened tanker could ship petroleum products from Alaska to the eastern United States using a safe and secure new route. For those of you who like numbers, the Northwest Passage also cuts off 7,000 km from the current Europe-Asia route through the Panama Canal.

Although the Americans and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are supportive of Canada's land claims in the High North, (in 1933 the ICJ ruled that a country did not have to occupy all the territory to claim sovereignty), Canada's unilateral claim that the Northwest Passage is an "internal Canadian waterway" has never been accepted by either the United States or the European Union. They see this 16,000-km route through the Arctic as an "international strait," which is why several countries haven't bothered to seek our permission before navigating the passage. The issue has never been adjudicated by an international court.

Canada answered the voyage of the Manhattan by passing the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act in 1970, creating a 100-mile environmental protection zone in the Arctic. In 1977, Ottawa also unilaterally extended the country's economic zone to 200 nautical miles out to sea. The Americans rejected Canada's environmental legislation, and refused to ratify the 1982 Law of the Sea convention passed by the UN which gave Canada the right to regulate arctic waters. In other words, Canada doesn't so much have sovereignty over the Arctic Archipelago as it has a sovereignty claim.

So how do we enforce it? The tried and true method is usually occupying the land (and sea) you are claiming. But although the archipelago, at 3.5 million square kilometers, represents 40% of current Canadian territory, only 100,000 people live there. There is quite a bit of elbow room for others to make the case that no one owns it.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Ottawa/Michael_Harris/2004/10/07/660117.html

From this week's Throne Speech:

"And let there be no doubt: we will protect our sovereignty in the Arctic."
http://www.news.gc.ca/cfmx/CCP/view/en/index.cfm?articleid=101689

[TrogL]

1. Sounds like a job for our submarines

if we ever get them working. Park them and a coupla frigates at each entrance. Didn't we take a coupla potshots at a Spanish trawler poaching on the Grand Banks?