Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon, perhaps the most-mentioned person on this blog, is heading north to his country’s Arctic. He will spend one day and Resolute Bay and another day at Borden Ice Camp to support Canadian scientific efforts to demonstrate the validity of their government’s sovereignty claims over parts of the resource-rich Arctic Ocean. Resolute Bay is near the mouth of the Northwest Passage, which Canada claims to be internal waters. The U.S. disputes this claim. Canada must submit its claims to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf by 2013, ten years after ratifying UNCLOS. According to Yahoo! Canada, Cannon stated:
“At some point, there will be another line on the map of Canada showing the outer limits of the extended continental shelf…The staff of the Borden Island camp are among those who will have helped to put that new line on the map…Canada is an Arctic power, and we will continue to exercise our sovereignty.”
News links
“Lawrence Cannon heads north,” The Globe and Mail
“Cannon launches PR tour to highlight Canada’s Arctic claims,” MSN Canada
“‘Canada is an Arctic power,’ Cannon says,” Yahoo! Canada
