At Odds Over Northwest Passage

Three years ago a University of Toronto professor observed that if Canada really was serious about asserting sovereignty over its Arctic north, and specifically the Northwest Passage, the country needed to “put up or shut up.” Canada now is putting up--with vigor. Most recently Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s government announced a $150-billion (U.S.) defense buildup that will focus on the Arctic region, including the construction of Canada’s first nuclear submarines designed to patrol the icebound Far North.

That may blunt critics’ complaints that Canada has not contributed its share to allied defenses, with a defense budget that represents only about 2.2% of its gross domestic product. But it also escalates the quandary of the United States, which consistently has challenged Canadian sovereignty over the Northwest Passage and refuses to tell Canadian defense authorities whether or when U.S. submarines are operating in the region. To what extent do Americans want to antagonize their closest neighbors and trading partners in a legal dispute of great sensitivity to Canadians?

As a practical matter the Northwest Passage, first explored by Martin Frobisher in 1576, is of little use. Well north of the Arctic Circle, most of it is icebound the year round and conditions are too harsh for the maintenance of regular commercial shipping. The waterway winds from Baffin Bay on the east through a maze of large and small islands, most of them uninhabited, to the Beaufort Sea shared by Canada and northern Alaska. But it is of great potential strategic significance, and there are periodic reports of Soviet submarines operating in the region. Under the U.S. claim of international waters, the Soviets or anyone else could sail at will through the passage.

The United States insists on asserting its right of passage periodically, triggering an exchange of generally friendly formal protests and legal posturing but escalating Canadian resentment toward Americans.

Canada and the United States could battle this issue out in the International Court of Justice for years, or they could settle it quickly and amicably as friends and neighbors. A quick look at a map discloses that the Northwest Passage is bounded by Canadian territory from one end to the other. Canada has moved vigorously to assert authority over the region in recent years. The United States should abandon its tenuous legal argument and recognize Canadian sovereignty.