North Pole not ours, despite Harper’s bluster
Denmark has recently taken steps to claim jurisdiction over resources of the seabed in the vicinity of the North Pole.
It’s a move that has rekindled concerns about international contention over coastal state sovereign rights in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. It also shines a renewed light on our prime minister’s ambition to secure the North Pole as a Canadian prize, which he is proposing to grab in a blatant contravention of customary international law.
By demanding a rewrite of Canada’s claim for resources of the seabed in the vicinity of the Pole, the prime minister ignored the equidistant boundary that separates Danish and Canadian zones of maritime jurisdiction north of Greenland.
Studies have delineated this boundary in accordance with accepted international principles, and have confirmed that the North Pole is located squarely on Denmark’s side.
READ MORE: http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/1260127-north-pole-not-ours-despite-harper%E2%80%99s-bluster
It's amusing but sad to contemplate that this particular government could be involved in multinational negotiations to settle new national boundaries where science will play an important role in determining the outcome. Our biggest challenge in the north will come from the USA whose scientific claims we are ill prepared to contest.
ReplyDeleteEB