Strangers in the attic

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail:

Graham visit to Arctic island causes icy spat with Denmark
By BRIAN LAGHI

Ottawa — Nobody lives there. It's tiny and frigid, and experts can't even agree on how it got its name.

But Hans Island, a barren knoll in the high Arctic, is now the centre of a full-fledged diplomatic tiff after Defence Minister Bill Graham quietly set foot there last week to the chagrin of the government of Denmark.

Danish officials in Copenhagen issued an official note of protest to Canada's ambassador yesterday after learning of Mr. Graham's decision to plunk down on the island and harden Canada's claim over it.

"We maintain the position that according to the normal principles of international law, that this is Danish territory," said Poal Erik Dam Kristensen about the island, located in the high north between Ellesmere Island and Greenland, which is part of Denmark.

"We would like to maintain what was the modus vivendi, that if one of the parties visited the island, the party notifies the other party beforehand."

Mr. Graham took a helicopter onto the island last Wednesday, a week or so after members of Canada's military planted a Canadian flag there and erected an Inuit-style stone marker known as an inukshuk. Danish officials have also in the past landed on the island, erecting their own stone cairns.

The offshore boundary between the two nations was drawn in 1973, but excluded the island, which lies in the middle of a channel about five kilometres wide.

Mr. Graham's visit was an effort to assert claims of ownership over the island in the wake of a new policy designed to increase Canadian activity in the Arctic to protect sovereignty.

I have just one thing to say about that: It's about damn time.

Canada was basically getting its claims in the Arctic stomped on for a long time, and nobody even seemed to know, nevermind care. Did YOU know that there were Danish soldiers, uninvited, on what Canada claims as its own land? I do believe that could be called called an invasion. Sure, they aren't hurting anyone and nobody wants to live there anyway. But if you had someone move into the corner of your garage and set up shop, you wouldn't be very happy either. This is especially true if it was your ally and supposed friend (Denmark is a member of NATO), and carried guns.

Now, Denmark figures it is theirs just as much as Canada figures it's ours. But that doesn't mean you give it away, or stand idly by while they slowly increase their military presence.

So I say, good job Canada. I am proud that we have made our stand. I am sure there will be more to come on this.

For a far more informative and detailed discussion on this topic, read here.

So much for not making this a place for political discussion.