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1. It's our Island and always have and always will be.
2. If we cede it to denmark, our international prestige(what little there is) will worsen and our ability to defend our national territory will ultimatly go down the drain.
3. The U.S claims it as "International" waters...why? Because the U.S doesn't give a crap what anybody else thinks.....solution? Put military outposts everywhere in the arctic(particularly the passages) and claim it.
4. Giving in to a lowly country like Denmark will disgrace us more unless we assert ourselves on the Island. Like it or leave it, it will be of benefit in the long run with the oil and other natural resources later.

   

I agree 100%... the problem may also be a long term one, if the ice recedes enough to allow for a profitable route to the pacific, it would be well worth Canada's while to protect the rights of the north, to ensure huge economic growth and stability for canada, and more importantly, to protect the north from being simply exploited by American or European presence...

   

I think that with today's heightened environmental awareness, it would behoove Canadians to launch an inspection program of those vessels transitting the Northwest Passage and surrounding areas. After all, we wouldn't want any poorly maintained equipment or poorly trained seamen to dump hazardous material all along our coastline, would we?
So maybe we should put remotely controlled monitoring units in various locations to provide a starting point while establishing a more permanent set of installations. Hmmm...where could we start? Wait! I know!...

...I vote for Hans Island!

Anyone else in favour say Aye!

   

Aye.

   

Aye

   

Aye

   

aye

I say canada simply launches an "exploratory expedition in order to better ascertain denmark's claims to sovereingty over the hans island" and once they're their, load it down with military equipment and an artillery/missile battery all with "circa 1955" stamped into them thus proving that it has been used by canada for at least 50 years.

   

Aye!

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If we've reached the point where we can't even deal firmly with Denmark then Canada has sunk to an all-time low. I can't see any advantage to pre-emptively surrendering the island.

We face a real challenge to our sovereignty in the North. Unfortunately, that challenge will also come from countries that are much more powerful than Denmark...

   

Well lets face it, US submarines have been using it like international waters for as long as they had submarines that could travel there... I don't think thats about to change, or that Canada has a sufficient navy to stop US submarines from doing so.

Logically it might make sense to come to some form of agreement which the US and Canada deem acceptable, and then both parties have a stronger hand when dealing with the rest of the world.

   

I say we build a hockey rink there and offer to let them play us for it.

LOL, seriously though, we have to stand firm and negotiate this properly rather than just give it up. If we just give up, we could set a precedent for the rest of the archipelago and the Northwest passage.


Here's a couple of interesting sites on the topic;

http://www.rickbroadhead.com/hans.htm

http://www.hansislandliberationfront.com/

   

No cooperation whatsoever between Canada and the US regarding Northwest Passage until the US respects Canadian sovereignty.

   

Is this in reference to the extradition treaty (which, btw only applies when the law is in both countries, if you had legalized pot, the guy wouldn't have been extradited) or the fact that the US routinely operated submarines underneath the ice caps during the cold war?

   

The latter. And it wouldn't come as a shock if the US was still operating subs in Canadian waters, long after the end of the Cold War. I don't see how Canada and the US can cooperate "when dealing with the rest of the world" when the issue hasn't even been settled between Canada and the US!

Furthermore, cooperation of this sort would be yet another step towards the creation of "Fortress North America". Canada has no need to join the US in its isolation from the rest of the world!

   

Russian and US submarines routinely infiltrated each others waters and that was when both had massive military expenditures and quite the range of technology... Simply put unless canada starts spending money on their military they won't be able to catch them, when they do, they'll be able to catch them some of the time.

As for america being isolationist... how many troops do we have overseas? How many military operations has the US been involved in since the end of WWII? In fact, has there even been a year in which the US has not had some form of military engagement in the past 50 years? I'm not proud of this by any means, but this is hardly the actions you can expect from an isolationist country.

   

We can come to an arrangment with the Americans. ie they support or claims to the Northwest we pretend like we don't see there subs.

   

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