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Chapter 4: Who Owns the Northwest Passage?

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International Disputes and Cultural Ideas in the Canadian Arctic

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the territorial disputes over the Northwest Passage. The Northwest Passage is one of the most recognizable features of the Canadian Arctic, and the dispute over its legal status has been a reoccurring subject of political and popular debate within government and media discourse in Canada and abroad for almost 50 years. The Northwest Passage dispute best demonstrates the positive correlation between the influences of predominant ideas and the placement of a disputed subject or symbol within a group’s perception of its identity. This chapter suggests that the higher the profile of the dispute, the more intertwined within the cultural-political relationship between the nation-state and the subject, in this case Canada and the Arctic region.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Jervis 2008, pp. 578–9.

  2. 2.

    Government of Canada 2012.

  3. 3.

    Putnam 1988.

  4. 4.

    Munk School 2011, p. viii.

  5. 5.

    MacKinder 1904, p. 422.

  6. 6.

    Government of Canada 2012.

  7. 7.

    Prime Minister, Canada 1917, pp. 15–16.

  8. 8.

    e.g. Alia 2007, p. 123.

  9. 9.

    Caldwell 1990, p. 22.

  10. 10.

    Berkow 2016; Since 2016, the Port of Churchill has been closed. This was a decision made by the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

  11. 11.

    Pharand 1988, pp. 110–12.

  12. 12.

    Elliot-Meisel 1998, p. 90.

  13. 13.

    Byers 2009a, pp. 53–4.

  14. 14.

    Pharand 1988, pp. 106.

  15. 15.

    Pharand 1988, p. 112.

  16. 16.

    Pharand 1988, p. 105.

  17. 17.

    Kindred et al. 2006, p. 942.

  18. 18.

    United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982, Article 7.

  19. 19.

    Charron 2005–2006, p. 43.

  20. 20.

    Byers 2009a, pp. 52–3; Charron 2005–2006, p. 44.

  21. 21.

    Charron 2005–2006, p. 44.

  22. 22.

    Pharand 1988, p. 155.

  23. 23.

    Zehfuss 2006, p. 93.

  24. 24.

    Kirton and Munton 1987, p. 73.

  25. 25.

    Memorandum to the Cabinet from the Under-Secretary of External Affairs 1969, p. Annex B.

  26. 26.

    Head and Trudeau 1995, p. 30.

  27. 27.

    Sharp 1969a, p. 3.

  28. 28.

    Sharp 1969b, p. 42.

  29. 29.

    Cohen 1963, p. 13 as quoted in Shaheen 1985, p. 166.

  30. 30.

    e.g. Time: The Weekly Newsmagazine 1970; The Montreal Star 1970.

  31. 31.

    Kirton and Munton 1987, p. 30.

  32. 32.

    Jackson 1989, p. 3.

  33. 33.

    Head and Trudeau 1995, pp. 38–9.

  34. 34.

    Head and Trudeau 1995, pp. 38–9.

  35. 35.

    Elliot-Meisel 1998, p. 143.

  36. 36.

    Head and Trudeau 1995, p. 38.

  37. 37.

    Dafoe 1969, p. 3.

  38. 38.

    Griffiths 2003, p. 267.

  39. 39.

    Wendt 1999, p. 11.

  40. 40.

    Kirton and Munton 1987, p. 67.

  41. 41.

    Morrison 1989, p. 179 as paraphrased in Elliot-Meisel 1998, p. 142.

  42. 42.

    Elliot-Meisel 2009, p. 211; also see Elliot-Meisel 1998, p. 141.

  43. 43.

    Kirton and Munton 1987, p. 70.

  44. 44.

    Jervis 2008, p. 579.

  45. 45.

    Head and Trudeau 1995, p. 34.

  46. 46.

    Griffiths 1987, p. 17.

  47. 47.

    Kirton and Munton 1987, p. 86.

  48. 48.

    Pharand 1988, pp. 59–60.

  49. 49.

    e.g. For spatial identity see Kaplan 1994; for banal nationalism see Billig 1995.

  50. 50.

    e.g. Head and Trudeau 1995, p. 27.

  51. 51.

    Trudeau as quoted in Elliot-Meisel 1998, p. 143.

  52. 52.

    Head 1970.

  53. 53.

    Gray 1971.

  54. 54.

    Head 1970.

  55. 55.

    Head and Trudeau 1995, p. 20; English 2009, pp. 8, 140, 346–7.

  56. 56.

    Head and Trudeau 1995, p. 20; English 2009, pp. 8, 140, 346–7.

  57. 57.

    Anderson 2006, p. 3.

  58. 58.

    e.g. Webb 2014.

  59. 59.

    Byers 2009a, p. 45; Elliot-Meisel 1998, p. 141.

  60. 60.

    Tomlin et al. 2008, p. 107.

  61. 61.

    Huebert 1995, p. 344.

  62. 62.

    Elliot-Meisel 1998, p. 148.

  63. 63.

    Byers 2009a, p. 51.

  64. 64.

    Tomlin et al. 2008, p. 107.

  65. 65.

    Sharp 1988a, p. 4.

  66. 66.

    Gray 1984.

  67. 67.

    Sharp 1988b.

  68. 68.

    Sharp 1988b.

  69. 69.

    Steed 1988, p. D5.

  70. 70.

    Farnham 2001, p. 229.

  71. 71.

    Farnham 2001, p. 225.

  72. 72.

    Farnham 2001, p. 227.

  73. 73.

    Pharand 2007, p. 4.

  74. 74.

    Elliot-Meisel 1998, p. 148.

  75. 75.

    Elliot-Meisel 1998, p. 144.

  76. 76.

    Elliot-Meisel 1998, p. 148.

  77. 77.

    Griffiths 1987, p. 243.

  78. 78.

    Byers 2009a, p. 51.

  79. 79.

    Elliot-Meisel 1998, p. 148.

  80. 80.

    Tomlin et al. 2008, p. 126.

  81. 81.

    Tomlin et al. 2008, pp. 142, 146.

  82. 82.

    Elliot-Meisel 1998, pp. 153–4.

  83. 83.

    Lajeunesse 2007–2008, p. 74.

  84. 84.

    Tomlin et al. 2008, p. 116.

  85. 85.

    Tomlin et al. 2008, p. 142.

  86. 86.

    Elliot-Meisel 1998, p. 152.

  87. 87.

    Maclaren 1990, p. 11.

  88. 88.

    Tomlin et al. 2008, p. 143; also see Holsti 1989, p. 498.

  89. 89.

    Charron 2005–2006, p. 46.

  90. 90.

    Elliot-Meisel 1998, p. 153.

  91. 91.

    Elliot-Meisel 1998, pp. 153, 167.

  92. 92.

    Kindred et al. 2006, p. 463.

  93. 93.

    Elliot-Meisel 1998, p. 153.

  94. 94.

    Kirton and Munton 1987, p. 70.

  95. 95.

    Griffiths 1987, p. 244.

  96. 96.

    Elliot-Meisel 1998, p. 151.

  97. 97.

    CTV News 2011.

  98. 98.

    Campion-Smith 2009; Department of Defense 2011, p. 17.

  99. 99.

    United States Coast Guard 2015.

  100. 100.

    Department of Defense 2011, p. 17.

  101. 101.

    Pharand 2007, p. 37.

  102. 102.

    e.g. Byers 2010, p. 77.

  103. 103.

    Byers 2009a, pp. 70–1; Canadian Coast Guard 2013b.

  104. 104.

    Canadian Coast Guard 2013b.

  105. 105.

    Canadian Coast Guard 2013a.

  106. 106.

    Justice Laws Website 2015.

  107. 107.

    Justice Laws Website 2015.

  108. 108.

    Griffith 2003, p. 262.

  109. 109.

    Justice Laws Website 2015; The waters that NORDREG covers that are not under the SSCZ are “Ungava Bay, Hudson Bay and Kugmallit Bay that are not in a shipping safety control zone, the waters of James Bay, the waters of the Koksoak River from Ungava Bay to Kuujjuaq, the waters of Feuilles Bay from Ungava Bay to Tasiujaq, the waters of Chesterfield Inlet that are not within a shipping safety control zone, and the waters of Baker Lake, and the waters of the Moose River from James Bay to Moosonee”.

  110. 110.

    Canada 2010, p. 12.

  111. 111.

    Weber 2013.

  112. 112.

    Arctic Council 2009, p. 114.

  113. 113.

    Griffiths 2003.

  114. 114.

    Munk School 2011, p. xxiii.

  115. 115.

    Canada 2010, p. 12.

  116. 116.

    Byers 2009b; also see Canada 2008 and CBC News 2009.

  117. 117.

    Bennett 2009.

  118. 118.

    The Strategic Council 2012, p. 302.

  119. 119.

    Byers 2009b.

  120. 120.

    Canada 2013, pp. 18–19.

  121. 121.

    Canada 2013, p. 19.

  122. 122.

    e.g. Taber 2011.

  123. 123.

    McCombs and Shaw 1972, p. 184.

  124. 124.

    Becker 1993.

  125. 125.

    Shapiro and Page 1988.

  126. 126.

    e.g. CBC News 2013; CTV News 2013.

  127. 127.

    Sjolander 2014, p. 162.

  128. 128.

    Cudmore 2014.

  129. 129.

    Cudmore 2014.

  130. 130.

    Gosselin 2009, p. 12.

  131. 131.

    Department of Defence 2010; GlobalSecurity.org 2012.

  132. 132.

    Tutton 2016; also see Royal Canadian Navy 2016.

  133. 133.

    Canada 2010, p. 15.

  134. 134.

    Canada 2010, p. 11.

  135. 135.

    e.g. Brewster 2013.

  136. 136.

    National Defence 2008, p. 8.

  137. 137.

    National Defence 2008, p. 16; Chase 2013; CBC News 2007.

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Burke, D.C. (2018). Chapter 4: Who Owns the Northwest Passage?. In: International Disputes and Cultural Ideas in the Canadian Arctic. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61917-0_5

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