Who Owns the Arctic?: Understanding Sovereignty Disputes in the North

148 Pages·2010·1.05 MB·English

by  Michael Byers

Who Owns the Arctic?
WHO
OWNS
THE
ARCTIC?
UNDERSTANDING
SOVEREIGNTY DISPUTES
in THE NORTH
MICHAEL BYERS
Douglas & McIntyre
D&M PUBLISHERS INC.
Vancouver / Toronto / Berkeley
Copyright © 2009 by Michael Byers
First U.S. edition 2010
09 10 11 12 13 5 4 3 2 1
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Byers, Michael, 1966–
Who owns the Arctic? : understanding sovereignty disputes in the north / Michael Byers.
ISBN 978-1-55365-499-5
1. Arctic regions—International status. 2. Arctic regions — International cooperation. 3. Canada —
Boundaries— Arctic regions. 4. Arctic regions—Boundaries —Canada. 5. Jurisdiction, Territorial— Arctic
regions. 6. Environmental protection —Arctic regions. I. Title.
FC191.b93 2009 341.4’209719 C2009-904549-4
Editing by Barbara Pulling
Cover and text design by Ingrid Paulson
Cover photographs by iStock and Janis Christie/Getty Images
Maps are from “Canada’s Unresolved Maritime Boundaries”
by David H. Gray, IBRU Boundary and Security Bulletin, Autumn 1997. Used with permission.
Maps by Paul Edmunds.
Printed and bound in Canada by Friesens
Printed on acid-free paper that is forest friendly ( 100 % post-consumer
recycled paper ) and has been processed chlorine free
Distributed in the U.S. by Publishers Group West
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia
Arts Council, the Province of British Columbia through the Book Publishing Tax Credit and the
Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program ( BPIDP ) for our
publishing activities.

Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Introduction ARE THE RUSSIANS COMING?
One WHY SOVEREIGNTY MATTERS
Two WHO OWNS HANS ISLAND?
Three AN ICE-FRFE NORTHWEST PASSAGE
Four THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE IN CONTEMPORARY POLICY
Five NEGOTIATING OVER THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE
Six WHO OWNS THE SEABED?
Seven SOVEREIGNTY AND THE INUIT
Conclusion AN ARCTIC FOR EVERYONE
Appendix I A NORTHWEST PASSAGE SCENARIO
Appendix II MODEL NEGOTIATION ON NORTHERN WATERS
NOTES
RECOMMENDED WEBSITES
RECOMMENDED READINGS
Acknowledgements
MY FIRST CHILDHOOD memory is of my father, a federal government
scientist, returning from an expedition to Polar Bear Pass on Bathurst Island with
a new, very bushy beard. That memory is partly responsible for my passion for
the North. I thank Bob Byers for that, and for having read and commented on
every page in this book.
I am also grateful to Suzanne Lalonde of the Université de Montréal. We have
sailed the Northwest Passage, debated all the legal technicalities of that
waterway, and co-authored several articles. In one sense, she is the co-author of
this book, too, for she has profoundly influenced my thinking.
A number of other friends and colleagues have provided much valued input on
different sections of the manuscript: David Gray, formerly of the Canadian
Hydrographic Service; Rob Huebert of the University of Calgary; Ron Macnab,
formerly of the Canadian Geological Survey and Canadian Polar Commission;
James Manicom of the University of Toronto; Ted McDorman of the University
of Victoria; Don McRae of the University of Ottawa; and Justin Nankivell of the
Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu.
Tony Penikett, the former premier of the Yukon Territory and chief devolution
negotiator for the Government of Nunavut, has been generous with his time. So
too has Thomas Berger, retired judge, commissioner in the Mackenzie Valley
Pipeline Inquiry and conciliator in the ongoing dispute over the implementation
of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act.
Travelling in the Arctic is expensive and logistically challenging. I am grateful
to Bill Rompkey and his colleagues on the Standing Senate Committee on
Fisheries and Oceans for taking me on their tour of Nunavut in 2008. I am also
grateful to Jack Layton, the leader of the federal New Democratic Party, who
took me on his northern tour the previous year.
My research has been greatly facilitated by two grants from ArcticNet, a
federally funded consortium of scientists from twenty-seven Canadian
universities and five federal departments. Thanks to ArcticNet, I was able to
spend eleven days on the Canadian Coast Guard research icebreaker Amundsen
during its historic late-season voyage through the Northwest Passage in October
2006. Louis Fortier and Martin Fortier, the research and executive directors of