Arctic Sovereignty

FOR centuries after the European discovery of the Americas, explorers continued trying to find a passage through the continent to Asia. Known as the Northwest Passage, some of the world’s most famous adventurers, from Henry Hudson to Roald Amundsen, risked their lives for this path to China.

The Northwest Passage as it is today crosses the top of Canada, comprising the Arctic islands and the waters in between. The islands have been formally recognized as Canadian since the early part of the 20th century; the waters, however, have always been under dispute.

Frozen and unnavigable for much of the year, nobody (least of all Canada) has paid much attention to the strait until recently. Apart from two occasions where the US sent the oil tankers Manhattan (1969) and the Polar Sea (1985) in without permission, Canada has largely ignored the North. But the times are changing.

First of all, the earth is heating up. With the ice at the two poles gradually melting, the Northwest Passage is becoming increasingly accessible, and in ten years’ time could be ice-free in the summer months. This would prove an irresistible route for European and Asian countries wanting to cut their trade route by 7,000 kilometres, as well as ships too big to navigate the Panama Canal.

Secondly, the demand for energy is soaring. With the potential for oil and gas exploration (there are already tensions between the US and Canada on where the boundary between the Yukon and Alaska falls, with the oil-rich Beaufort Sea right in the middle), the Arctic is going to find itself getting increasingly popular. And that’s before you include the area’s diamonds, precious metals and fish.

Canada claims the Northwest Passage, including the waters between the islands, as its own. The US and others (such as Denmark) say the waters are international.

Canada has a tough case on its hands. According to the UN’s Convention on the Law of the Sea, countries can claim sovereignty over a belt of shoreline around their coasts up to 22.2 kilometres wide - many stretches of water in the Arctic are over 96 kilometres wide. But Norway has been allowed to draw a line around its many coastal islands and claim the waters as its own – and Canada says its case is similar.

Even if Canada does prove the waters of the Northwest Passage are internal, it also has to prove they don’t constitute an international strait, according to Donald McRae, a law professor at the University of Ottawa. Up to now, this has been easy – only 11 foreign ships traveled the waters between 1904 and 1984. But Canada’s case could get a lot weaker once the ice melts and ships start using the short cut.

If they do, how can Canada stop them? It can’t, nor does it intend to. A 1988 pact states that the US will always consult Ottawa before sending ships through the passage, and Ottawa will always give consent. All Canada is asking for is to be consulted – but even this could be hard to enforce.

Late in 2005, Canada discovered that US nuclear submarines were navigating the Arctic under the ice. British and Russian vessels have been doing the same for years. This prompted Stephen Harper to state, in his 2006 election campaign, that “(To) defend national sovereignty… you need forces on the ground, ships in the sea, and proper surveillance.”

The Conservatives’ plan to defend the Arctic, said Harper, will include three armed ice breakers, a deep water docking facility, and underwater listening posts to detect trespassing submarines and ships.

This would tell Canada when its borders were being breached without consent – but then what would it do? The row over softwood lumber tariffs shows that verbal warnings and international rulings mean little to the US – and Canada would not necessarily have the international community on its side. Other sovereign waters, for example the Sunda Strait in Indonesia, are treated as international with no permission needed to travel through. Why should Canada be any different?

A compromise would be the best possible solution. Canada should allow free international access through its waters, but insist that no oil or other underground exploration takes place without its consent. This would preserve the country’s sovereignty over the Arctic, without leading to a diplomatic dispute every time a submarine sails through – making life a lot easier for Canada in the long run.

Photos courtesy of colourlab.com, arctic-photo.com and pbase.com