Who Owns the Arctic?

Asian juggernaut eyes our ‘golden’ waterways

Michael Byers, Globe and Mail, 29 August 2011

“We are men of action. We get things done.” With those words, Ahmed Ali Al-Subaey, the Saudi-born CEO of South Korea’s largest oil company, set the tone for a conference on Arctic shipping held, significantly, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Most of the world’s cargo ships traverse the Pacific as they service the economic powerhouses of Asia. Fully 77 per cent of China’s oil imports pass through the Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia. In Beijing, this strategic weakness is referred to as the “Malacca dilemma.”

Some of the larger vessels can’t fit into the Panama Canal and must loop around the bottom of South America. Still more loop around Africa to avoid the pirate-infested approaches to the Suez Canal. The added distances impose unwelcome costs – in fuel, salaries and foregone business.

Now, all eyes are turning toward another entrance to the Pacific: the relatively deep, wide, pirate-free Bering Strait. To the east, the Northwest Passage offers a 7,000-kilometre shortcut between Northeast Asia and the Atlantic seaboard of the United States. To the west, the Northern Sea Route offers a 10,000-kilometre shortcut to Europe.

Arctic treaty will push Canada to upgrade rescue capabilities, experts say

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A view of the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent as it makes its way through the ice in Baffin Bay. An international agreement that divides the North into search-and-rescue regions comes as air and shipping traffic continues to grow in the Arctic. JONATHAN HAYWARD/THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press (Toronto Star, January 5, 2010)

The federal government is poised to sign an international treaty that will make Canada legally responsible for search and rescue in its part of the Arctic.

Northern experts say the deal, expected to be signed in May, could pressure Canada into upgrading its capabilities in the region. And, they add, it shows new resolve by the eight nations in the Arctic Council to show the rest of the world that they intend to set the rules for the uppermost reaches of the planet.

“By ratcheting up the capabilities of the Arctic Council, countries like the United States, Russia and Canada are essentially saying, ‘No, we have matters under control. We are making laws for this area. You can relax,’ ” said Michael Byers, an international law professor at the University of British Columbia who has written extensively on the Arctic.

Canada’s North at risk for terrorism, human trafficking

Nathan Vanderklippe, Globe and Mail, November 15, 2010

CALGARY - Canada must not ignore the struggles of its isolated northern communities as it works to solidify the country’s Arctic security, a new report urges.

The country needs a “comprehensive threat and vulnerability assessment” that not only examines northern vulnerability to threats like terrorism and illegal shipping, but also investigates how economic development can influence security, the Conference Board of Canada suggests in Security in Canada’s North: Looking Beyond Arctic Sovereignty.

Canada's Arctic rescuers not based in North

The Centre for the North's map, published Monday, shows how many search and rescue technicians are stationed at various military bases, and what search and rescue regions (SRRs) those bases cover. The red line indicates the north-south boundary. (Conference Board of Canada)

CBC News, November 1, 2010

Search and rescue crews that conduct Arctic rescue missions are based nowhere near the Arctic, according to the Conference Board of Canada.

Because the technicians are based so far from the remote areas they are supposed to serve, it can take hours or longer for help to come to remote parts of Nunavut, the Northwest Territories or Yukon, according to the Centre for the North, the conference board's northern policy think-tank.

New jets could trigger 'Arctic arms race'

Expert concerned over F-35 purchase

JULIET O'NEILL, POSTMEDIA NEWS, OCTOBER 29, 2010

A government purchase of F-35 fighter jets could cause "angst in Russia" and trigger an Arctic arms race, Arctic sovereignty expert Michael Byers said Thursday.

"I don't want my country to be the country that starts an Arctic arms race," Byers said as debate over the government's plan to spend $16 billion on 65 of the F-35s raged on several fronts on Parliament Hill.

Every Arctic voyage is a potential disaster

Michael Byers, Ottawa Citizen, September 3, 2010

An uncharted rock could have killed 200 people last week, had the weather in the Northwest Passage been poor.

Instead, passengers on the MV Clipper Adventurer, an ice-strengthened cruise ship travelling from Greenland to western Nunavut, were able to enjoy the sunshine on deck while waiting two days for rescuers to arrive. Just a few days earlier, an Arctic storm had grounded Prime Minister Stephen Harper's plane, with winds approaching hurricane strength.

Winds like that -- and the resulting ocean swells -- can tear a grounded ship apart. Just imagine scores of ill-equipped passengers, many of them elderly, being forced to abandon ship in stormy conditions. How long would they last in lifeboats being tossed around in near-freezing water?

And imagine the crew of a Canadian Forces Cormorant search and rescue helicopter at Comox, on Vancouver Island, 2,500 kilometres away. For it is they who would receive the call, being the closest ones with the equipment and training to conduct a maritime rescue in the middle of an Arctic storm.

Danes join Canadians in Arctic mission

Unique sovereignty exercise aims to showcase co-operation, practise rescue and advance science

Patrick White, Globe and Mail, March 4, 2010 (with a report from The Canadian Press)

Two teams of Danish army pooches will mush alongside a large Canadian military operation in the Arctic next month, marking a thaw in relations between two countries often seen as rivals in the rush for Arctic spoils.

About 180 Canadian Forces members will participate in Operation Nunalivut, the latest exercise in a continuing campaign to assert the country's political and military presence in the High Arctic - an effort that falls short of what's needed to ward off territorial claims from other countries, some Arctic experts say.

Arctic diplomacy requires building a bigger igloo

Michael Byers, Ottawa Citizen, February 8, 2010

Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon has taken a bold step into the sometimes frosty domain of polar politics, inviting the foreign ministers of the United States, Russia, Denmark and Norway to a meeting in Chelsea, Quebec on March 29. The mini-summit will take place immediately before a gathering of G8 foreign ministers in Gatineau that same evening and the following day.

An icy SOS, our tepid response

Search and rescue capability must be a manifestation of Canada's Arctic sovereignty

Michael Byers, Globe and Mail, January 27, 2010

The rescue of an Inuit hunter near Resolute, Nunavut, has once again exposed limitations in Canada's search and rescue capabilities.

David Idlout easily survived three days at -30 Celsius after the ice floe he was travelling on broke away from shore. Equipped with a rifle, warm clothes and thousands of years of traditional knowledge, he was as comfortable as a city dweller on a broken-down bus.

But with the ice drifting south into the Northwest Passage, nobody could blame Mr. Idlout for using his satellite phone.

Russia and Canada: Partners in the North?

Recognizing each other's sovereignty claims brings mutual benefits

MOSCOW -- Michael Byers, Globe and Mail, December 21, 2009

Amap produced by Natural Resources Canada has pride of place in Arctic ambassador Anton Vasiliev's office, in the Stalinist-era skyscraper housing the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Centred on the geographic North Pole, the map shows how Russia and Canada dominate the Arctic region. Between them, the two largest countries on Earth account for three-quarters of the Arctic Ocean's coastline.