Canadian military reinforces Arctic claim

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TORONTO - Battling high winds, 25-foot ice walls, mechanical breakdowns and whiteout conditions, a Canadian military team, including Eskimo reservists, last week completed a 17-day trek designed to sustain Canada's claim to sovereignty over the high Arctic.

"One night was so bad our escort planes couldn't land, and we were out of fuel and kerosene," said Maj. Chris Bergeron, 48, who led the expedition. "But they flew over the storm until there was an opening for our resupply."

Conditions at times were so poor that it took hours simply to pitch a tent, Maj. Bergeron added. "The last day, it was like someone was trying to stop us from achieving our goal."

Canada has always fiercely guarded its sovereignty over its Arctic archipelago the triangle of more than 36,500 islands that reaches from its Arctic coast almost to the North Pole. Some of the islands are no larger than a man could stand on, while others, like Baffin Island, are nearly the size of France.

But as higher global temperatures peel back the ice casing from the land and ice-choked waterways give way to lapping waves, what was once seen as a wasteland now offers a potential mineral bonanza including gold, diamonds, oil, emeralds and a long-sought northern sea route from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

In the 1970s, President Nixon wanted to show Canada he didn't need Ottawa's permission to send ships through the northern waters and promptly got stuck in the ice. Canadian icebreakers rescued the stranded American ship.

In the 1980s, with Canada's northern forces in disarray, President Reagan backed a similar effort to transit the northern passages as international open waterways.

That time, the U.S. Coast Guard vessel Polar Sea had no problem with the ice, but Canadian public outrage and Mr. Reagan's personal friendship with Canada's then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney prompted the U.S. to back off.

Canada's current prime minister, Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper, promised during his election campaign to spend more than $4 billion to beef up Canada's Arctic presence with new, military-class icebreakers and underwater detectors.

Just after the election, U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins said Canada shouldn't send military icebreakers into its North because "we don't recognize Canada's claims to those waters" and "most other countries do not recognize their claim."