EuroWire January 2007

Transat lant ic Cable

Moreover, a Canadian international law expert told the Post that, if foreign ships begin using the route, Canada will lose its claim of oversight. The Canadian position has a champion in Paul Cellucci, the former US ambassador to Canada who, in late October, was quoted in Canadian newspapers as saying that it is “in the security interests of the US that [the passage] be under the control of Canada.” Cellucci’s comments prompted the current US ambassador to Canada, David Wilkins, to re-state US insistence that the Northwest Passage is an international strait, open to all. The clash of US ambassadors over the terms of use of the Northwest Passage may portend another airing of the law of unintended consequences: the exposure to public scrutiny of an arrangement that was functioning fairly well under the radar. The Washington Post noted that the US and Canada have usually managed to finesse their occasional differences over the use of the route. Canadians were incensed when Americans drove the reinforced oil tanker Manhattan through the Northwest Passage in 1969, and the icebreaker Polar Sea in 1985 – without asking for Canadian permission either time. An agreement emerged that icebreakers do not need permission to pass. Now that icebreaking has receded in significance, will the regular traffic of undersea nuclear submarines through the passage become an issue? ❈

The Northwest Passage

A storied polar sea route roils Canadian-American relations

The very term Northwest Passage recalls gripping history-book accounts of dozens of perilous expeditions – beginning in the mid-16 th Century – to find a commercial sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Eventually successful, the quest for a route through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada motivated much of the European exploration of both coasts of North America. Fortunately for international relations since 1851, the Arctic ice pack has prevented regular shipping through the passage, and forestalled pitched battle over its use. Now, however, global warming is melting the ice pack. The Northwest Passage is becoming more navigable, for longer periods, and raising the prospect of a legal wrangle between Canada – undisputed owner of the passage – and the US that could complicate shipping by way of the route. The subtitle of an article by Doug Struck, of the Washington Post Foreign Service, neatly summarises the issue: “US Asserts Free Use by All Ships; Canada Claims Jurisdiction.” The US contends that, like other such routes around the world, the Northwest Passage is an international strait with free passage for all. Claiming to be following a long-standing law of the sea that favours keeping straits free to all navigation, American officials want unimpeded movement of US ships. Struck writes: “Canada counters that it has sole jurisdiction over the Northwest Passage and wants to enforce its own laws on ships in the Arctic waters. Canadian officials argue that their authority over the myriad channels and straits that make up the legendary route from the Atlantic to the Pacific is the best way to minimise unsafe ships and accidental spills in the pristine North. (“Dispute Over Northwest Passage Revived,” 6 th November)

Dorothy Fabian USA Editor

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EuroWire – January 2007