August 19, 2005

Canada and Hans Island: Is it worth fighting for?

Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian

For the past several months, a dispute between Canada and Denmark over Hans Island, a tiny 1.3 square kilometre scrap of barren rock in the Arctic situated between Greenland, a Danish possession, and Ellesmere Island, now part of Nunavut, has been heating up.

Canadian claims are based on the discovery of Hans Island and the rest of the Arctic Archipelago by British explorers between the 16th and 19th centuries and their subsequent status as part of British North America. In 1880 the British government transferred its claim to the Arctic Archipelago to Canada.

In addition, Canada claims the water between the Arctic Islands as internal waters, a claim that is not recognized by the United States, and which has caused some conflict with respect to the enforcement of environmental laws. Should oil and gas be discovered beneath the waters, this could become even more significant.

So the quarrel over Hans Island may be part of a larger issue: who really owns the vast areas of land and water in the North American Arctic? It may turn into a test case on sovereignty claims along the Northwest Passage.

The current wrangle over Hans Island itself started in 1973 when Denmark and Canada drew a border down the Nares Strait, between Ellesmere Island and Greenland, but left the island’s status undecided.

Denmark claims that geological evidence points to Hans Island being an extension of Greenland, and therefore belongs to Denmark. The island is closer to Greenland than to Ellesmere.

Last month, in order to confirm Canadian sovereignty over the island, Bill Graham, our defence minister, paid a visit to Hans Island. “My act of going there was totally consistent with the fact that Canada has always regarded this island as a part of Canada,” he told the press. “I was just visiting Hans Island the way I visited other facilities of Canada’s.”

In turn, the Danish foreign minister, Per Stig Moeller, reiterated his country’s claim. He declared that standing firm was “crucial to being an independent state.” Denmark had already sent its own navy ships to the island in 2002 and 2003 and hoisted a Danish flag.

The ongoing fight brings to mind another story with a Danish connection. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Act IV, Scene iv), Hamlet is puzzled to hear that the Norwegian prince Fortinbras has asked for permission to march across Denmark. He asks a soldier for the reason and receives this reply:

Hamlet: Good sir, whose powers are these?

Captain: They are of Norway, sir.

Hamlet: How purpos’d, sir, I pray you?

Captain: Against some part of Poland.

Hamlet: Who commands them, sir?

Captain: The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.

Hamlet: Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, Or for some frontier?

Captain: Truly to speak, and with no addition,
We go to gain a little patch of ground
That hath in it no profit but the name.
To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole
A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.

Hamlet: Why, then the Polack [sic] never will defend it.

Captain: Yes, it is already garrison’d.

Shakespeare is clearly making the point that countries will often instigate conflicts for no apparent gain other than national prestige and honour.

It seems that Canada and Denmark will heed the advice of the Bard. Moeller announced that he and Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew intend to discuss Hans Island next month during a foreign ministers gathering at the United Nations.

It’s true that the larger question of sovereignty in the Arctic is no laughing matter. But this particular squabble, with its opera bouffe quality, needs to be resolved.