[ql06] Re: PROPERTY: "Possession" and Canada's North
- From: "Dawn Livicker" <dlivicker@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ql06@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2003 12:45:49 -0400
Think about the ramifications of the boundaries drawn after the Alaskan
purchase... the US would control one of the egress points from any
eventuallyappearing waterway and one would think it would also be at their
discretion to levy taxes/tolls ... it would also be one more feather in the
cap of the American school of thought that says Canada is a security risk
that can't/won't protect its own borders. The logistical task of patrolling
that huge expanse is overwhelming and I could see the Gov't asking
for/accepting US help in patrolling (like they did post 9/11 at some border
crossings)... drop by drop our sovereignty leaks away. Maybe those US
students who identify Canada as a state aren't stupid - just precient.
Dawn
----Original Message Follows---- From: Sheldon Erentzen Reply-To:
ql06@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To: ql06@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [ql06] Re: PROPERTY:
"Possession" and Canada's North Date: Wed, 08 Oct 2003 22:03:46 -0400 This
isan interesting story. It's something I've never considered. I've kept
relatively abreast of the shrinking polar caps but hadn't given any thought
to the question of Canadian ownership of the north and how it might be
threatened. International law allows for control of waters a certain
distancefrom sovereign land. Is it a definite distance? With no land or ice,
does Canada have a legitimate claim to arctic waters? ( I wouldn't think
so.)I like the part in the second article about the Chinese tourists just
showing up and taking pictures. It would've been surreal in such a remote
community to suddenly see Chinese tourists show up. Ken Campbell -- LAW'06
wrote: >We heard lots in Bruce Pardy's class (via the text book, of course)
>about the importance of actual possession. Control. >>Remember the "real
estate" ads for plots on the Moon? >>Welllll... I've been following this
little story for quite a while. The >far, far north of Canada might as well
be the Moon, in some instances. >When you understand that basic principle of
property, the reason the >Canadian fed government is worried about this is
clear. >>Without proper attention to details... You could see a new and
funny>looking shape for Canada on world maps in the future... After all,
does>Canada actually control the far north? When's the last time you visited
>Prince Patrick Island? >>Below are two news stories. >>1. Canadian Arctic
claims melt with the ice cap >Edmonton Journal >October 2 2003 >>2. Snowplow
sinks sovereignty patrol >Toronto Star >Apr 22, 2003 >>They are fascinating
reads from a legal property perspective. And in >terms of "global change."
>>And the second one (the older story) is extremely well written, a wild
>read -- "Panama Canal North" ... shrinking Arctic ice pack... Chinese
>sailors snapping photos in Tuktoyaktuk... human flag poles... forcible
>relocation.... >>Vive le Arctic Libre! >>Ken. >>-- >I do not want you
Anglosto leave Quebec. Please stay. >If you left, there would be no one to
pick on... >except the natives... and they have guns. >-- Separatist Premier
Lucien Bouchard >(impersonator) >Just For Laughs Festival, Montreal >>>>---
cut here --- >>Arctic claims melt with the ice cap >>Edmonton Journal
>Editorial >October 2 2003 >>>News reports of a widening crack in the Ward
Hunt Ice Shelf, off the >coast of Ellesmere Island, offer a dramatic
demonstration of global >warming ?and, less visibly, of the danger that
higher temperatures pose >to Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic. >>Right
now,most of the worry focuses on the new hazards for navigation. >Longer
term, we need to think about a larger issue. The breakup of ice >shelves is
gradually making our Arctic waterways more accessible to >international
shipping and military patrols. >>Canada has long used the ice as a vital,
cost-free asset in controlling >commercial and military use of the far
northern territory it claims, >while protecting the fragile Arctic
environment. >>Freighters travelling from Europe to Asia, which now use the
Panama >Canal, could save as much as 8,000 kilometres and 25 days by using
the >Northwest Passage. Trips from Asia to the U.S. East Coast, or from
>Europe to the U.S. West Coast, would be shortened. >>An ice-free Northwest
Passage may become even more attractive in future. >The Panama Canal may be
too narrow for the next generation of tankers >and container ships, and is
vulnerable to military action or terrorism. >>The High Arctic also is
gainingeconomic importance as a source of >Alaskan natural gas, which could
be moved by tanker. Until recently, the >Northwest Passage has been
navigableonly from August through October, >and little used because of
floating ice. >>But that's changing, warns political scientist Morris Maduro
of the >University of Alberta in a recent paper: ``The Northwest Passage
could >be open for navigable passage, possibly year-round, within 10 to 15
>years.'' >>>From 1978 to 1996, the area of year-round Arctic sea ice has
shrunk by >14 per cent. Meanwhile, freighters and tankers now are being
builtwith >more effective ice-breaking technology. >>As a result, Maduro
believes, the Northwest Passage could soon be deemed >a ``strait''
connectingthe Atlantic and Pacific oceans. >>Under the long-standing
doctrineof freedom of the seas, no country >could deny passage through such
astrait. >>``The United States . . . views the Northwest Passage as an
>international waterway that fits squarely within the customary and legal
>definition of a strait, and therefore freely open to the world's
>vessels,''Maduro has written. >>>Using the passage to move Alaskan oil or
gas would create a potential >hazard to a pristine environment. And use by
military ships from other >nations could diminish Canadian security. >>>Our
ownership of unoccupied islands in the Arctic Archipelago has never >been
seriously challenged. But Maduro believes that, too, could change. >>``In
theface of possible navigation of foreign vessels across a >3,500-mile
ice-laden passage, where ships will ?by convenience or >necessity ?need to
stop, and where infrastructures need to be present, >Canada would need to
ensure it can demonstrate a greater presence and >continuous administration
than those of other countries.'' >>Canada's northern sovereignty could be
strengthened by building, >occupying and using permanent facilities, and
through more frequent >patrols. >>Unfortunately, two submarines that were
bought from the U.K. will not be >re-fitted for that purpose before 2012.
>>Maduro says Canada should appeal to the international community that the
>exceptional length of the Northwest Passage and its extreme >environmental
vulnerability merit some deference to Canadian authority >beyond what
normally would be associated with a strait, or international >waterway.
>>That concession won't easily be won. But it is worth pursuing. >>--- cut
here --- >>>Snowplow sinks sovereignty patrol >Canada's ability to protect
the North is compromised Global warming >melting barrier of Northwest
Passage>>MIRO CERNETIG >QUEBEC BUREAU CHIEF >Toronto Star >Tue Apr 22, 2003
>>>MONTREAL?Charlie Michalski was dispatched to the High Arctic on a vital
>national mission. Take his trusty tool kit to an abandoned weather >station
1,500 kilometres from the North Pole, where he was to start up >an
ice-encrusted snowplow and do his part for Canada's sovereignty. >>Deep
snowdrifts were blocking the runway at Mould Bay on Prince Patrick >Island,
making it impossible to land a Hercules cargo plane laden with >Ski-Doos for
soldiers who were to spend a week skimming across the sea >ice around the
fabled and often deadly Northwest Passage. >>The mechanic toiled for days in
the Arctic twilight on the machine's >frozen innards. Finally, it grumbled
tolife and started to roll toward >the runway. Then, kaboom! >>"(Master Cpl.
Michalski) got the 'dozer started but on the way down to >the runway it blew
a piston rod," said Maj. Stewart Gibson, commander of >Yellowknife's 1st
Canadian Ranger Patrol Group, which oversees Arctic >sovereignty patrols.
"Itdied... I didn't have the funds to bring up >military aircraft to repair
the damage." >>The military was forced to retreat 500 kilometres south, to
the >inhabited and more easily accessible hamlet of Sachs Harbour on Banks
>Island, where a commercial runway was working. From that fallback
>position,a team of about a dozen Canadian Rangers ?the soldiers, Inuit >and
Indians who patrol Canada's north to ensure sovereignty ?Ski-Dooed >the
barren landscape in the first week of April, covering almost 1,000
>kilometres. >>The defeat received scant attention to the south, where the
federal >government was celebrating a win in another sovereignty challenge
?the >Quebec Liberal Party had trounced the separatist Parti Québécois in
last >week's provincial election. But experts warn that broken snowplow in
>Mould Bay raises another, equally serious question about Canadian
>sovereignty in the Arctic, where international pressure may be mounting >to
open the Northwest Passage to commercial shipping. >>"It may seem a bit
comical, not being able to fix a snowplow," said Rob >Huebert, an Arctic and
sovereignty specialist at the University of >Calgary's Centre for Military
and Strategic Studies. "But this is a >serious issue. The fact that
somethingso minor as being unable to >maintain one of our runways stopped a
sovereignty patrol is evidence of >how much we've ignored the North." >>For
centuries, the High Arctic's year-round ice, legendary for tearing >through
ships' hulls, largely protected Canada's north from outsiders >craving a
fuel- and time-saving route across the top of the world. Even >the super
tanker Manhattan, in its 1970 transit of the Northwest >Passage, suffered
holes and the ignominy of needing a push from a >Canadian icebreaker. >>But
in an era of global warming, the ice may no longer be the barrier >Ottawa
hasrelied upon to protect Canada's sovereignty. >>Since 1970, the Arctic ice
pack has shrunk by about 3 per cent every >decade, according to Canadian Ice
Service reports. It is also getting >much thinner ?down to two metres in
thickness from three metres. Last >December, the U.S. Snow and Ice Data
Centre in Boulder, Colo., reported >the amount of ice cover is the lowest
since satellite surveillance began >24 years ago. >>"I'm no scientist, but
everything I'm hearing indicates we are in a >period where the ice is not
holding the Northwest Passage in as tight a >grip as it did in the past,"
said James Delgado, director of Vancouver >Maritime Museum and author of
Across the Top of the World: The Quest for >the Northwest Passage.
>>"There'snow a longer season when it is navigable to shipping." >>That was
evident three years ago, when Mountie Ken Burton piloted the >RCMP's
aluminumcatamaran through the passage in 21 days. It never ran >into a scrap
of ice. >>The remarkable voyage didn't get much attention in Canada, said
Delgado. >But in Europe and Asia, where shipping companies could save
fortunes >using a northern route instead of the Panama Canal or a route
around >South America, "people really paid attention," he notes. >>Many
governments in Europe and Asia share Washington's view that the >Northwest
Passage is an international strait, connecting two oceans and >thus open to
international traffic. >>"I believe that we'll see a challenge to our
sovereignty within 10 >years," said Huebert. >>Challenges may already be
happening. Officials talk about northern >UFOs ?unaccustomed floating
objects?that attest to Ottawa's >historically poor surveillance of the
Arctic. >>Sailboats have been in the passage. A Russian tug used it to take
a>massive dry-dock from Vladivostok to Bermuda. Cruise ships see the trip
>asa potential boon for a troubled industry. >>Three years ago, residents of
Tuktoyaktuk were astounded to find Chinese >sailors in town, snapping
souvenir photographs at the edge of the >Beaufort Sea. >>"The voyage of the
Chinese vessel demonstrated the limited Canadian >surveillance
capabilities,"Huebert said. "Canadian officials did not >learn of the
vessel's entry into Canadian waters until it actually >arrived." >>Increased
shipping in the Arctic also raises the danger of a future >environmental
catastrophe ?particularly if ships of poor quality with >no experience in
theperilous region try to make the passage. >>For most of this century, when
the ice held firm, the Canadian >government has relied on the Inuit as
"humanflagpoles" who can mark the >country's sovereignty over the Arctic. A
half-century ago, many were >forcibly moved to the High Arctic to prove
Canada used the region and >people inhabited the ice pack. >>The Canadian
military still enlists Inuit and other natives for >sovereignty patrols and
search and rescue missions. >>But if the ice continues to melt, and the
Northwest Passage opens up, >Canada will need to add a more high-tech
surveillance component, from >satellites to unmanned drones, if it wants the
world to respect it as an >overseer of the Arctic, says Huebert. >>It won't
come cheap. Huebert thinks it could cost Ottawa $100 million a >year to
prepare for the years ahead, when the Northwest Passage might be
>rechristened Panama Canal North. >>"It's a lot of money," he said. "But if
we do nothing, and spend after >the Japanese or Europeans challenge us, then
you might be talking $2 >billion to deal with the problem." >>>>>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. [1]Get 2 months FREE*.
--- Links ---
1 http://g.msn.com/8HMAENCA/2746??PS=
Other related posts:
