U.S. sub may have toured Canadian Arctic zone

'We don't have any idea what's going on up there': expert

 

Chris Wattie, National Post

Published: Monday, December 19, 2005

 

A U.S. nuclear submarine cruised through the Arctic Ocean last month -- probably passing through Canadian territorial waters -- but the federal government is refusing to say whether it gave permission for the voyage.

 

However, experts say it is highly unlikely Canada was even notified of the USS Charlotte's northern tour, which included a Nov. 10 stop at the North Pole, because it has no way of tracking what goes on beneath the Arctic ice.

 

And that could threaten Canada's claim to hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of the North, including the Northwest Passage route across the Arctic, said Michael Byers, who holds the Canada research chair in global politics and international law at the University of British Columbia.

 

"This is very important -- it's crucial," he said. "Any unauthorized passage could have a serious effect on our claim."

 

Prof. Byers said potentially lucrative oil and gas resources off the Queen Elizabeth Islands could slip out of Canadian control if foreign navies are operating in the Arctic without our permission. "The fact of the matter is that we've spent nothing on Arctic sovereignty over the past 20 years."

 

Pierre Leblanc, a retired colonel and former commander of the Canadian Forces' northern command, said foreign submarines have been travelling through the Canadian Arctic for decades, but the federal government usually finds out about it only by accident.

 

He said the nations controlling the submarines -- the Americans, British and French -- usually do not tell Canada when their vessels enter the Arctic. "We're relying on their goodwill to know if they're in our waters or not."

 

The latest underwater trip through the Arctic came just before the federal election call last month. USS Charlotte, a Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine, left its home base in Pearl Harbor, sailed through the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia and cruised under the Arctic ice pack to the pole.

 

The nuclear-powered sub spent more than 24 hours at the top of the world, giving its 154 crew members the chance to walk on the windswept ice and even play a quick football game in the -45C temperatures.

 

The Charlotte then submerged and headed to Halifax for a port visit, en route to a refit at the naval base at Norfolk, Va.

 

U.S. Navy spokesmen would not give details about the Charlotte's route, but the shortest southerly course would have taken it past Ellesmere Island, through the Nares Strait and into Canadian waters.

 

Col. Leblanc doubts the Americans informed the Canadian government of the trip, let alone sought permission for it. "I don't think they told us a thing: I don't think they told anyone," he said.

 

"In the submarine world, they don't tell anyone anything about where they go or when they go there unless they have to."

 

If the Charlotte did sail through Canadian territory en route to Halifax, the U.S. submariners likely believed they were fully entitled to do so.

 

Canada and the United States have disagreed for decades about the extent of Canada's territorial waters in the Arctic.

 

Canada claims water 12 nautical miles out from the Queen Elizabeth Islands, and all the straits and inlets as its internal waters. The Americans say those are international waterways that are free for anyone to cross, including the Northwest Passage.

 

Lieutenant-Commander John Coppard, a spokesman for the Canadian navy, would not say whether the U.S. sub strayed into Canadian territory, nor would he confirm whether the Americans sought our permission if so, or even notified Ottawa if the sub was to sail through the Canadian part of the Arctic.

 

"We do not discuss the movements of allied [nations'] submarines," he said, adding: "One would expect that a naval vessel transiting Canadian waters would seek the appropriate diplomatic clearances."

 

However, Rodney Moore, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs, said any notification would have come through military channels. "It probably wouldn't come to us and we wouldn't comment on it even if it did," he said. "If anyone had it, it would be DND [the Department of National Defence]."

 

Bill Graham, the Defence Minister, did not return telephone calls seeking comment on the issue.

 

David Rudd, the president of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, said successive federal governments have for decades pursued a policy he describes as "out of sight, out of mind."

 

"It's an unspoken policy of willful ignorance," he said. "If the public doesn't know about it, they're not going to agitate for more spending to monitor the North and protect our sovereignty. And serious surveillance of the North is a very expensive proposition."

 

Prof. Byers said Canada has only five small and ageing icebreakers, none of which is capable of operating year-round. "We have the longest coastline in the world, much of which is under ice for most of the year, and we don't even have an all-weather icebreaker," he said.

 

"We don't even have a federal government helicopter north of 60 -- not a single one."

 

He warned that if Canada cannot keep watch on its vast northern territory, we could lose control over the Northwest Passage, a 5,000-kilometre sea route through the Canadian Arctic that climatologists say could be open to commercial vessels within the next 10 years as a result of global warming and the retreating northern ice pack.

 

"Our enforcement capability is embarrassing," he said. "[And] that sends a message to other countries that we aren't really serious about our sovereignty or about enforcing our laws in our own territory."

 

Col. Leblanc said Canada is not even spending the bare minimum on northern sovereignty. While he was military commander in the North, he said even the handful of flights over the vast Arctic territory claimed by Canada were cut sharply.

 

"The number of planned observation flights in 2000 was zero. In '99, there were two," he said. "And this is for an area the size of Europe."

 

"We don't have any idea what's going on up there."

Canada will take 'necessary measures' to stop U.S. subs in Arctic: Martin

CNews

 

By ALEXANDER PANETTA

 

CAMBRIDGE, Ont. (CP) - Prime Minister Paul Martin says the federal government will take the "necessary measures" to stop American submarines from passing through Canada's Arctic waters.

 

He offered no specifics but cast a wary glance at reports that at least one U.S. military submarine had recently patrolled the Arctic and likely passed through Canadian waters.

 

The prime minister has repeatedly drawn attention to his differences with the United States as part of a re-election strategy designed to benefit his Liberal party. But he chose his words carefully when asked whether Canada would accept U.S. subs under its coastal waters.

 

"No," Martin replied.

 

"Arctic waters are Canadian waters, and Canadian waters are sovereign waters. Canada will defend its sovereignty."

 

He used stronger language - but offered no additional details - when asked in French how Canada would stop such incursions: "We will take the necessary measures," he replied.

 

The comments came after news an American nuclear submarine, the USS Charlotte, visited the North Pole last month, and likely passed through Canadian waters in the process.

 

U.S.-Canada relations have become an issue in the election campaign, as Martin has lobbed verbal grenades across the border over issues such as U.S. duties on softwood lumber and American reluctance to sign on to the Kyoto protocol on climate change.

 

Last week, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, David Wilkins, struck back, warning that U.S.-bashing is a "slippery slope" that Canadian politicians should not embark upon.

 

The Conservative defence critic, retired general Gordon O'Connor, said the apparent breach of Canadian sovereignty by a U.S. submarine betrays the phoniness of Martin's war of words with the United States.

 

"The Liberals have failed to enforce our sovereignty and increase security in the North," said O'Connor.

 

"The Liberal government has been undermining Canada's sovereignty over our northern territory and its vast natural resources by failing to properly defend the far North."

 

He demanded to know what, exactly, the Liberal government is doing about the issue and asked how many other unauthorized voyages by foreign naval vessels have occurred in Canadian territorial waters without Ottawa's permission or knowledge.

 

"It has been common knowledge for more than a decade that nuclear submarines from the United States, Russia, China, France, and Great Britain pass through our territory without necessarily seeking permission from the government of Canada," he said. "In international law, sovereignty must be enforced to be recognized. A Conservative government will enforce our sovereignty in the North.

 

"Paul Martin's record of failure in standing up for Canada's Arctic sovereignty is proof that his war of words with the United States is just more phoney election rhetoric."

 

Arctic sovereignty is becoming more coveted as global warming melts the ice and opens new areas for oil and mineral exploration.

 

The issue sparked controversy in 1985 when the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Sea traversed the Northwest Passage without Ottawa's permission. Washington eventually signed an agreement with Ottawa stating it would seek permission before navigating the passage again.

 

But the issue has never been resolved with a formal acknowledgement that the waters belong to Canada, which has only a handful of small icebreakers and whose own submarines cannot operate under the pack ice.

 

Canada has also been engaged in a dispute with Denmark over remote Hans Island, a 1.3-kilometre windswept rock in the Kennedy Channel between Greenland and Ellesmere Island.

 

The rock was discovered by the British, ceded to Canada at Confederation, and was briefly home to a Canadian scientific station in the 1940s. It is listed as part of Nunavut in the National Geographic Atlas.

 

Danish ships or military officers have visited Hans Island five times in the last 17 years. Canadian geological researchers landed once and, before Defence Minister Bill Graham visited it earlier this year, Canadian soldiers hoisted the Maple Leaf and built an Inukshuk, or traditional Inuit stone marker, on the island.