BORDEN ICE CAMP, N.W.T. — Canada’s foreign minister blasted a Russian plan to drop paratroopers on the North Pole later this week, calling it a propaganda stunt.
“It’s another stunt like the flag planting some years ago. It doesn’t affect Canada’s sovereignty,” Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Tuesday, referring to the planting of a flag on the North Pole seabed by a Russian submarine in 2007.
Cannon, who is on a sovereignty tour of some of Canada’s most remote high Arctic research outposts, had been hopeful of securing Russian co-operation on mapping projects in the Far North on a visit to Moscow in two weeks.
Now, he will have to address what Canada sees as the latest incident of Russian provocation in the Arctic — a plan to drop a team of airborne parachute commandos on the North Pole this coming Saturday.
“Obviously, I’ll talk about it and I’ll brush it off. People have been going to Mount Everest and planting flags on Mount Everest since Jesus wore short pants,” Cannon said from the remote Canadian research station about 1,100 kilometres from the North Pole.
“Nobody owns the North Pole, but at the end of the day I think what’s important is we’ve witnessed here what Canada is doing...the best of Canadians. So there’s no showmanship. We’re not showing off,” Cannon added.
“The Russians’ stunts and Russian propaganda or public relations...it doesn’t impress me. What impresses me is the work that’s being done here.”
Cannon was closer to Russia than his own capital as he toured the Borden Ice Camp to see first hand Canada’s work to map the Arctic Ocean seabed that extends out for hundreds of kilometres.
Cannon inspected the imminent deployment of Canada’s first undersea drone — an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) that will be used to gather data about the make-up of the seabed with unprecedented efficiency.
The scientists here are conducting research to support Canada’s submission to the United Nation’s Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.
Much is at stake because one-quarter of the Earth’s untapped oil and gas reserves are believed to be beneath the Arctic Ocean seabed.
Though the UN panel will ultimately decide where those potentially lucrative new lines on the northern map will be drawn, disagreements persist among Arctic nations.
The minister arrived by Twin Otter aircraft to a stunning white and blue Arctic vista dotted with the tiny L-shaped camp of 17 red and white domed tents that house 40 people.
The ice camp sits on a seven-metre thick ice sheet, five kilometres from the island’s southern tip. Beneath it are the 120-metre deep frigid waters of an unnamed channel between Borden and another island.
At this base, several Canadian departments are involved in measuring how far the Continental Shelf extends out to sea. The extension of that shelf will determine exactly how far Canada can exercise its sovereign rights.
The AUV — a seven-metre long unmanned underwater drone — is seen as crucial to Canadian research efforts.
“This is literally the last frontier to be mapped out. Antarctica is all done. Everywhere else on the planet is done. We are witnessing the last frontier here,” said Cannon.
The sub’s first full three-day mission is scheduled for Friday. It is to be launched from an ice camp another 350 kilometres further north, out on the Arctic Ocean, and will spend three days collecting data from the ocean floor.
“What we hope to do is have the AUV go down and collect a nice continuous line of data somewhere in the 350 km range, which will give us a nice long data set,” said Erin MacNeil, the project manager of Defence Research Development Canada, one of 23 people from several departments working on the AUV.
“Once the AUV is launched it can continue for its full mission, a bit independent of the weather.”
Canada expects the sub-based mapping to be done by next year giving it two full years to analyse data and prepare its UN submission.
Cannon said that level of painstaking scientific research is “night and day” compared with the Russian decision to send a high-profile parachute mission to the top of the world.
“I will be looking at ways of co-operating with the Russians in terms of data collection,” the minister said, though he chided Moscow’s jump.
“We know Canadian Rangers will be up here,” he said. “So if the Russians have any difficulties, obviously Canada will come to their rescue. We’ll be available to help them.”