Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Canada sends navy to Arctic north



And the story "Canada Occupies Denmark" continues:

Canada sends navy to Arctic north

Canada is sending its navy back to the far northern Arctic port of Churchill after a 30-year absence. The visit by two warships to the area is the latest move to challenge rival claims in the Arctic triggered by the threat of melting ice. The move follows a spat between Canada and Denmark, over an uninhabited rock called Hans Island in the eastern Arctic region. A visit there by Canada's defence minister last month angered the Danes. Now two Canadian warships, the Shawinigan and the Glace Bay, are on a mission to display what Canada calls its territorial sovereignty over parts of the Arctic it believes are within its borders. The dispute seems rather odd, when scientists say the region around the island is unlikely to be rich in oil or other natural resources. It is also believed that global warming is causing the rapid melting of the ice across the Arctic, and that could make the legendary North-West Passage linking the Atlantic and the Pacific passable for ships for the first time. The US has already said it regards the passage as an international strait, not Canadian waters. Russia, Norway and Denmark also have competing claims to the continental shelf and the natural resources such as gas and oil that may lie beneath the sea bed.

Canadian satellite to watch over Hans Island


The discord between Denmark and Canada over an Arctic rock island is skyrocketing, after the Canadian federal government announced its plans to invest hundreds of millions in satellite images of its northernmost regions. The private-owned satellite is to be launched next summer, and is expected to send images for the next seven years. ‘Polar Epsilon is a transformational first step for Canada in using space to support the sovereignty and security of the Arctic region, including maritime security and continental defence together with the U.S.A. at the strategic level,’ said ministerial briefing notes obtained by The Canadian Press, a national news agency. According to Danish national broadcaster DR, the Canadian news agency linked the surveillance scheme with Canada's dispute with Denmark over Hans Island, a tiny rock island between western Greenland and Canada’s Ellesmere Island.

5 Comments:

At August 30, 2005 1:39 PM, Blogger erp said...

At last something has caught Canada's attention. Now that they're awake perhaps they can do something about the alarming increase in Islamic infiltration along their southern border.

 
At August 30, 2005 5:32 PM, Blogger Evan said...

Isn't Canada a big fan of sending this kind of stuff to the World Court?

 
At August 30, 2005 8:59 PM, Blogger erp said...

Canada is fan of others going to the world court or having a dialogue. When it affects them, it's full steam ahead.

 
At August 30, 2005 11:01 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Lighten up everybody. The two "warships" are 970 tonne maritime coastal defense vessels armed with peashooters by today's standards.

http://dgs.qc.ca/Tourism/NCSM_E.htm

I really don't think anyone in Canada cares about Hans Island - the big concern is with whom controls the Northwest Passage. Just picture the ecological disaster of a major tanker spill among the ice flows should some third rate shipping company, owned out of Panama, using ships registered in Liberia and being chartered by a shell company out of the Cayman Islands, using underpaid sailors from the Philippines cause a spill. Just guess who will be stuck with a cleanup bill while the local Inuit see their hunting and fishing disappear.

 
At August 31, 2005 4:49 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Sissyblue:

Here are the Rangers - armed with Lee Enfield rifles. I think your mother under-estimated the number of Kayaks.

I read somewhere the Inuit (Eskimos) prefer the Lee Enfield because it's more reliable in very cold (as in friggin cold) weather when they encounter a polar bear.

http://cmhg.gc.ca/cmh/en/image_668.asp?page_id=696

 

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