Dangerous Passage: Sovereignty in the Arctic

224 Pages·2006·10.68 MB·English

by  Gerard Kenney

Dangerous Passage
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Dangerous Passage
ISSUES IN THE ARCTIC
Gerard Kenney
NATURAL HERITAGE BOOKS
TORONTO
Copyright © 2006 Gerard Kenney
All rights reserved. No portion of this book, with the exception of brief
extracts for the purpose of literary or scholarly review, may be reproduced in
any form without the permission of the publisher.
Published by Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc.
P.O. Box 95, Station O, Toronto, Ontario M4A 2M8
www.naturalheritagebooks.com
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Kenney, Gerard I., 1931-
Dangerous passage : issues in the Arctic / Gerard Kenney.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-897045-13-1
I. Northwest Passage. 2. Northwest Passage—Discovery and explo-
ration. 3. Territory, National—Canada, Northern. 4. Environmental
policy—Northwest Passage. I. Title.
FC3963.K448 2006 909'.096327 C2oo6-9oII76-I
Front cover: Gj0a Sailing the Northwest Passage, Lauritz Haaland, artist, 1906.
Courtesy of the Fram Museum, Oslo, Norway.
Back cover: The Louis St. Laurent, Canada's largest icebreaker. Courtesy of the
Canadian Coast Guard.
Cover and text design by Sari Naworynski
Edited by Jane Gibson
Printed and bound in Canada by Hignell Book Printing of Winnipeg
Canada
Canada Council Conseil des Arts
for the Arts du Canada
ONTARIO ARTS COUNCIL
CONSEIL DES ARTS DE L'ONTARIO
Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc. acknowledges the financial support
of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our pub-
lishing program. We acknowledge the support of the Government of Ontario
through the Ontario Media Development Corporation's Ontario Book
Initiative. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of
Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program
(BPIDP) and the Association for the Export of Canadian Books.
For Amanda, Jessica and young Cara - my three darling girls
OTHER BOOKS BY GERARD KENNEY
Arctic Smoke <? Mirrors (Prescott, ON: Voyageur Publishing, 1994)
Ships of Wood and Men of Iron (Toronto: Natural Heritage Books, 2005)
C O N T E N TS
List of Maps ix
Foreword by Gordon Robertson 1
Acknowledgements 2
Introduction 3
PART I Roald Amundsen and the Gj0a, 1903-06 7
1. The Silk Road and the Strait of Anian 9
2. Preparing for the Great Adventure 14
3. Underway at Last! 25
4. History of the North Magnetic Pole 45
5. The Gj0a's First Winter, 1903-04 47
6. The Gj0a's Second Winter, 1904-05 73
7. The Gj0a's Third Winter, 1905-06 89
8. Amundsen, The Sequel 99
9. Nechilli Inuit, The Sequel 102
PART II Henry Asbjorn Larsen and the St. Roch, 1928-48 105
10. The Early Years 107
11. The St. Roch 114
12. The Great Assignment, 1940-42:
From West to East 126
13. Back Home Through the Northwest Passage,
East to West, 1944 152
14. Henry Larsen, The Sequel 159
PART III Canadian Sovereignty and the Environment in the
Northwest Passage Are at Risk 163
15. Canadian Sovereignty and the Environment
in the Northwest Passage Are at Risk 165
16. United Nations Convention on the Law of
the Sea (UNCLOS) 168
17. Sovereignty Is What Sovereignty Does 173
18. Attacking the Issues 186
APPENDIX I Statement in the House of Commons by the
Secretary of State for External Affairs, the Right
Honourable Joe Clark, on Canadian Sovereignty
(September 10,1985) 188
APPENDIX II Suggested Non-Inclusive List of Issues to Be
Addressed in a Master Fundamental Plan 194
Notes 196
Bibliography 200
Index 203
About the Author 211
L I ST OF M A PS
MapI Routes takrn by Roald Amundsen
and Henry Larsen in the Northwest Passage x
Map 2 Detailed map of the area surrounding Gjoa Haven xii
Map 3 Canadian Arctic Marine Jurisdictions 169